Will you sit down? In Mrs. Hornibrook's
absence, I must represent her. They are good enough to let me use
the library; my own is poorly supplied."
Denzil took a chair.
"Are you busy with any particular subject?" he asked.
"The history of woman in Greece."
"Profound! I have as good as forgotten my classics. You read the
originals?"
"After a fashion. I don't know much about the enclitic _de_, and I
couldn't pass an exam. in the hypothetical sentences; but I pick up
the sense as I read on."
Her tone seemed to imply that, after all, she was not ill-versed in
grammatical niceties. She curtailed the word "examination" in an
off-hand way which smacked of an undergraduate, and her attitude on
the chair suggested that she had half a mind to cross her legs and
throw her hands behind her head.
"Then," said Quarrier, "you have a good deal more right to speak of
woman's claims to independence than most female orators."
She looked at him with a good-humoured curl of the lip.
"Excuse me if I mention it--your tone reminds me of that with
which you began last evening. It was rather patronizing."
"Heaven forbid! I am very sorry to have been guilty of such
ill-manners."
"In a measure you atoned for it afterwards. When I got up to offer
you my thanks, I was thinking of the best part of your lecture--
that where you spoke of girls being entrapped into monstrous
marriages.
Pages:
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114