Amanda. Oh, brothers' valentines don't count! Haven't you any other friends? Don't you know any boys?
Laura. I am shocked.
Mary Ann. Whist thin! Mintion no dangerous characters in a young ladies' institootion. Would ye raally, thin, me poor, deluded child, be recavin' thim valentines, which is pizined with Cupid's arrers, from school-boys?
Laura. Girls, it's study hour, and we ought not to talk, except about our lessons.
Georgiana. Thomebody'th coming.
[All bend earnestly over their books.]
Enter Miss Steele. She stands looking suspiciously at the girls.
Miss Steele. I thought I heard voices. Young ladies, were you communicating?
Mary Ann. Yis, mum. I was a-communicatin' av me ixample to paper. It's x equals—
Miss Steele. Miss Murphy, you will be kind enough to drop that outlandish way of speaking when you are addressing me. Were you communicating with each other?