You remind me of a two-year-old, Dinny—one of those whipcordy chestnuts that kick up their heels in the paddock, get left at the post, and come in first after all.

to pass over an affront

Here we shall follow Conway's exposition rather closely. Let L and R be two sets of numbers. Assume that no member of L is greater than or equal to any member of R. Then L|R is a surreal number. All surreal numbers are constructed in this fashion.

Vitron isn't hiding anything. The oil is there, the books are open, everything tracks.