To all the grace of manner, and the knowledge of women that seems to run in Gallic blood, he was a man of tolerable education and excellent taste. Besides, Miss Brown was so totally different from French women, that every development of her character afforded him an entirely new sensation, and doubled his devotion.
Toledo stood his ground manfully, though the boys considered it a very bad sign when he stopped drinking, and spent hours in pacing the ground in front of his hut, with his hands behind him, and his eyes fixed on the ground.
Finally, when he was seen one day to throw away his faithful old pipe, heavy betters hastened to “hedge” as well as they might.
Besides, as one of the boys truthfully observed, “He couldn’t begin to wag a jaw along with that Frenchman.”
But, like many other young men, he could talk quite eloquently with his eyes, and as the language of the eyes is always direct, and purely grammatical, Miss Brown understood everything they said, and, to her great horror, once or twice barely escaped talking back.
The poor little teacher was about to make the whole matter a subject of special prayer, when a knock at the door startled her.
She answered it, and beheld the homely features of the judge.
“I just come in to talk a little matter that’s been botherin’ me some time. Ye’ll pardon me ef I talk a little plain?” said he.
“Certainly,” replied the teacher, wondering if he, too, had joined her persecutors.
“Thank ye,” said the judge, looking relieved. “It’s all right. I’ve got darters to hum ez big ez you be, an’ I want to talk to yer ez ef yer was one uv ’em.”