“Yes, I know something of it.”
“Greek?”
“I can read it fairly, but I am not a Greek scholar.”
“Mathematics?”
“No, I gave them up. There is no human nature about mathematics. They work everything to a fixed conclusion that must result. Life is not like that; what ought to be a square comes out a right angle, and x always equals an unknown quantity, which is never ascertained till you are dead.”
“Good gracious!” thought Geoffrey to himself between the strokes of the paddle, “what an extraordinary girl. A flesh-and-blood blue-stocking, and a lovely one into the bargain. At any rate I will bowl her out this time.”
“Perhaps you have read law too?” he said with suppressed sarcasm.
“I have read some,” she answered calmly. “I like law, especially Equity law; it is so subtle, and there is such a mass of it built upon such a small foundation. It is like an overgrown mushroom, and the top will fall off one day, however hard the lawyers try to prop it up. Perhaps you can tell me——”
“No, I’m sure I cannot,” he answered. “I’m not a Chancery man. I am Common law, and I don’t take all knowledge for my province. You positively alarm me, Miss Granger. I wonder that the canoe does not sink beneath so much learning.”
“Do I?” she answered sweetly. “I am glad that I have lived to frighten somebody. I meant that I like Equity to study; but if I were a barrister, I would be Common law, because there is so much more life and struggle about it. Existence is not worth having unless one is struggling with something and trying to overcome it.”