PROFESSOR MARSH'S PRIMEVAL TROUPE.
CUPID AND MINERVA.
(Fragment from an Autobiography that it is hoped will never be written.)
I was most anxious that my past should be concealed from him, as I felt that once revealed, it would come between us as a barrier for ever! So I dissembled. I adapted my conversation to his capabilities. I learned to talk of lawn tennis, cricket, politics, even cookery. Only on one occasion did I betray myself. With self-abasement I was asking for an explanation of the electric telegraph. He gave me a somewhat faulty definition.
"Dear me!" I cried. "How did they ever come to think of such a clever thing?"
"Omne ign[)o]tum pro magnifico," he replied, with condescension.
I could not bear the false quantity even from his lips, and I asked, "Would not ign[=o]tum be better, darling?"
I could have bitten out my tongue for such an indiscretion. He looked at me sharply, with a glance of covert distrust.