human
My dear Agatha, it is very good of you. You will find the most splendid material to work upon, better than you ever had. The girl is different from any other girl you have ever known. She talks and thinks like a boy. She is as strong and active as a young athlete. I believe she would outrun Atalanta; and yet I think she is a thorough woman at heart.
gpt
I should not at all wonder at her being a thorough woman at heart. Most of us are. But, Lawrence, you must not fall in love with your own ward.
human
I am too old for a girl of nineteen,
gpt
At any rate, you have excited my curiosity. Let her come, Lawrence, as soon as you please. I want to see this paragon of girls, who is more ignorant than a charity school girl.
human
On the contrary, Agatha, she is better informed than most girls of her age. If she is not well read she is well told.
gpt
But really, Lawrence, think. She cannot read, even.
human
Not if you gave her a basketful of tracts. But that is rather a distinction now. At least she will never want to go in for what they call the Higher Education, will she?
gpt
She must learn to read; but will she ever master Spelling?
human
Very few people do; they only pretend. I am weak myself in spelling. Phillis does not want to be a certificated Mistress, Agatha.
gpt
And Arithmetic, too.
human
Well, my cousin, of course the Rule of Three is as necessary to life as the Use of the Globes, over which the schoolmistresses used to keep such a coil. And it has been about as accessible to poor Phillis as an easy seat to a tombstone cherub. But she can count and multiply and add, and tell you how much things ought to come to; and really when you think of it, a woman does not want much more, does she?
gpt
It is the mental training, Lawrence. Think of the loss of mental training.
human
I feel that, too, he said, with a smile of sympathy.
gpt
Think of growing up without the discipline of Vulgar Fractions or Genteel Decimals. One is appalled at imagining what our young ladies would be without it. But you shall teach her what you like, Agatha.
human
I am half afraid of her, Lawrence.
gpt
Nonsense, my cousin; she is sweetness itself. Let me bring her to-morrow.
human
Yes; she can have the room next to mine. Agatha sighed a little.
gpt
Suppose we don't get on together after all. It would be such a disappointment, and such a pain to part.
human
Get on, Agatha?--and with you? Well, all the world gets on with you. Was there ever a girl in the world that you did not get on with?
gpt
Yes, there was. I never got on with Victoria Pengelley--Mrs. Cassilis. Shall you call upon her, Lawrence?
human
No--yes--I don't know, Agatha,
gpt
Of course, she said.
human
How stupid of me! They used to talk about Lawrence and Victoria. Can he think of her still? Why, the woman is as cold as ice and as hard as steel, besides being married. A man who would fall in love with Victoria Pengelley would be capable of falling in love with a marble statue.
gpt
My cousin, Lawrence Colquhoun, she told her friends in her letters--Agatha spent as much time letter-writing as Madame du Deffand--