"Isn't she cool?" he said, turning to Miriam.
"She improves wonderfully," replied his betrothed.
"Does she not?" exclaimed Cornelius, who took a very innocent vanity in my progress; "I am quite proud of my pupil; and I have a system of my own—did you notice?"
"Oh yes, in the parsing."
"I don't mean that," he answered, reddening a little; "I mean a general system, a method,—the want of all education, you know."
"Yes, very true."
"Well," continued Cornelius, looking at me thoughtfully, and laying his hand on my head as he spoke; "I think that, thanks to this method, I shall, four or five years hence, be able to boast that I have helped to form the mind and character of an intellectual, sensible, and accomplished girl."
"Four or five years hence!" sighed Miriam.
Cornelius perhaps remembered the threat of death suspended over my whole youth, for he observed uneasily—
"Yes—I trust—I hope—Daisy, you must not learn so much!"