“Professor of what?”
“Gymnastics.—I knew you would smile; but you would ask.”
“Oh, I only smiled because I was surprised. I concluded he was a professor of metaphysics, at least; or something prodigiously learned, that I did not understand.”
“Gymnastics are safer than German metaphysics. The one can but break your neck, the other may turn your head.”
“So you will have to look out again.”
“Yes, but at my leisure. I think of taking all the children to the sea-side for the holidays; and as the younger ones are rather beyond the nurse, and require to be kept a little in order, I have been thinking of offering to take Emily Prout with us, if she would undertake their charge.”
“Dear me! what a very nice thing!”
“You do not think she would object to it, then?”
“Oh no! I am persuaded she would like it exceedingly. She is so very anxious not to be burthensome to her mother! And she is much more womanly than she was. Her manners are so quiet and pleasant, that I feel sure you will like her.”