The last line reaffirms the grim yet humorous tone of "Tobermory" by Saki.
"If he was trying German irregular verbs on the poor beast," said Clovis, "he deserved all he got." [http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Tob.shtml]
The theme of this short story revolves around humanity and our relative stupidity to animals. Saki is trying to make the point that we are animals. We are no different than the cats and the elephants we "taunt" into domestication. Just animals who've been conditioned to repeat what we hear, like Tobermory.
Tobermory's advanced intelligence compared to the dinner party humans is social commentary by Saki. Our smalltalk is meaningless, utterly and completely meaningless. Tobermory recognizes this subconsciously in his casual gossip- repetition of what the stupid humans find personal and offensive.
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