drive a brougham.--THACKERAY.

In New York I read a newspaper criticism one day, commenting upon
a letter _of mine_.--_Id._

What would the last two sentences mean if the word _my_ were written
instead of _of mine_, and preceded the nouns?


[Sidenote: _About the case of absolute pronouns._]

88. In their function, or use in a sentence, the absolute possessive
forms of the personal pronouns are very much like adjectives used as
nouns.

In such sentences as, "_The good_ alone are great," "None but _the
brave_ deserves _the fair_," the words italicized have an adjective
force and also a noun force, as shown in Sec. 20.

So in the sentences illustrating absolute pronouns in Sec. 86: _mine_
stands for _my property_, _his_ for _his property_, in the first
sentence; _mine_ stands for _my praise_ in the second. But the first
two have a nominative use, and _mine_ in the second has an objective
use.

They may be spoken of as possessive in form, but nominative or
objective in use, according as the modified word is in the nominative
or the objective.