At length, Isola, who was tired of lectures, such as she got and forgot every day, felt that it was high time to assert her prerogative, and come to my rescue.
"Come, Pappy, you fancy you know everything, don't you?"
He was just beginning to treat of mosses; and I knew that he was wrong upon several points, but did not dare to say so.
"My dear child, of the million things I never shall discover, one is the way to keep you at all in order."
"I should hope not, indeed. Come now, here is another thing you don't know. How long did it take to boil this delicious ham? Clara knows, and so do I."
"Upon that matter, I confess my total ignorance."
"Hear, hear! Pappy, you can lecture by the hour upon isothermic laws, and fluids, and fibrine, and adipose deposits, and you can't tell how long it took to set this delicate fat. I'll tell you what it is, Pappy, if you ever snub me in lecture again before the junior sophists, as you dared to do yesterday, I'll sing out, 'Ham, Pappy, ham!' and you'll see how the girls will laugh."
"No novelty, my dear, for them to laugh at you. I fear you never will learn anything but impertinence."
His words were light, and he strove to keep his manner the same; but his eyes belied him.
Isola ran round, and administered her never-failing remedy. There was that sweetness about her nobody could resist it. Returning to her seat, she gave me a nod of triumph, and began again.