"Well, if you can help me, you may, for I want to get it over," said Henry, with a doubting stress upon the "can." "You can sit down, if you wish to," he patronizingly added.
"Thank you, I don't care about sitting down," replied William, beginning at once upon his task.
The two boys were soon deep in the exercise, William not doing it, but rendering it easy to Henry; in the same manner that Mr. Halliburton, when he was at that stage, used to make it clear to him.
"I say," cried Henry, "who taught you?"
"Papa. He gave a great deal of time to me, and that got me on. I can see a wrong word there," added William, casting his eyes to the top of the page. "It ought to be in the vocative, and you have put it in the dative."
"You are mistaken, then. Papa told me that: and he is not likely to be wrong. Papa is one of the best classical scholars of the day—although he is a manufacturer," added Henry, who, through his relatives, the Dares, had been infected with a contempt for business.
"It should be in the vocative," repeated William.
"I shan't alter it. The idea of your finding fault with Mr. Ashley's Latin! Let us get on. What case is this?"
The last word of the exercise was being written, when Mr. Ashley opened the door and called to William. He gave him a note for Mr. Lynn, and William departed. Mr. Ashley returned to complete the interrupted exercise.
"I say, papa, that fellow knows Latin," began Henry.