"I should like to arrive at your meaning, Marian. Are you not happy about Gerald!"
"I don't know," said Marian; but Edmund, convinced that all was not right, was resolved to penetrate these determined professions of ignorance.
"Is Gerald under Miss Morley?" he asked.
"Yes, during most of the day. They all say he is very good."
"And does not that satisfy you?"
"I don't know."
Edmund perceived that the subject of her brother was too near her heart to be easily approached, and resolved to change his tone.
"How have you been getting on?" he asked. "Does learning flourish under the present dynasty?"
"I don't know," replied Marian for the seventh time, but she did not as usual stop there, and continued, "they think one knows nothing unless one has learnt all manner of dates, and latitudes, and such things. Not one of them knew Orion when they saw him in the sky, and yet even Clara thought me dreadfully stupid because I could not find out on the globe the altitude of Beta in Serpentarius, at New Orleans, at three o'clock in the morning."
Edmund could not help laughing at her half-complaining, half-humorous tone, and this encouraged her to proceed.