Marjory found the study of the King's English very interesting. As Miss Waspe presented it to her, it was not contained in a lifeless grammar-book, the terror of many schoolgirls' lives, but it was a wonderful living medium of expression—a means by which she could translate her ideas and imaginings into musical phrases, and which enabled her to understand the spoken and written thoughts of others. Miss Waspe had a way of dressing up hard facts and tiresome rules in the most attractive clothing, and like the dog who unconsciously and gratefully swallows a pill in a succulent tit-bit, her pupil assimilated both with excellent results.
Blanche said to Marjory one day, "I can't think how you can like that horrid grammar. If I was a boy, or, according to it, were I a boy, I should call it a beastly grind; but as mother doesn't like me to use boys' words, I have to call it a horrid nuisance or some other tame thing like that. Anyway, I feel it is a b-e-a-s-t-l-y g-r-i-n-d, so there."
"I don't wonder your mother doesn't like you to use boys' words; you're much too pretty," replied Marjory. "They are far more suitable for me, because I am big and rough-looking, like a boy, and you are just like a piece of thin china—like that Dresden shepherdess in the drawing-room. You couldn't imagine her saying anything ugly."
"Why do you always make out that you're not pretty?" asked Blanche indignantly. "I think you're better than pretty, you're grand, with those great big stormy-looking eyes and your lovely wavy hair. I've never seen such long hair."
Marjory laughed. "And what about my wide mouth, and my long nose crooked at the point?"
"Well," admitted Blanche, "your mouth may be large, but it is a nice shape, and your lips are beautifully red, and your nose is really only a very tiny bit crooked; and so, Miss Marjory," triumphantly, "there's no reason at all why you should be allowed to use boys' words if I mustn't."
"I don't really know many; you see, I've hardly spoken to any boys except the Morisons."
"I knew lots in London."
"It does seem queer to think that you have lived in great big London and know all about it, while I have never been farther away than Morristown."
"Perhaps you'll come to London with us some day. Wouldn't it be fun? I wonder how you would feel."