Part 26 (1/2)

Dr. Bluett's jaw dropped, and his eyes a.s.sumed a hollow aspect. ”You will corrupt their minds, sir,” he said,--”you will corrupt their minds.” Then he added, in a sepulchral tone, which came from the very depths of his inside: ”You will introduce them, sir, to some subtle Jesuit--to some subtle Jesuit, Mr. Reding.”

CHAPTER XI.

Mrs. Reding was by this time settled in the neighbourhood of old friends in Devons.h.i.+re; and there Charles spent the winter and early spring with her and his three sisters, the eldest of whom was two years older than himself.

”Come, shut your dull books, Charles,” said Caroline, the youngest, a girl of fourteen; ”make way for the tea; I am sure you have read enough.

You sometimes don't speak a word for an hour together; at least, you might tell us what you are reading about.”

”My dear Carry, you would not be much the wiser if I did,” answered Charles; ”it is Greek history.”

”Oh,” said Caroline, ”I know more than you think; I have read Goldsmith, and good part of Rollin, besides Pope's Homer.”

”Capital!” said Charles; ”well, I am reading about Pelopidas--who was he?”

”Pelopidas!” answered Caroline, ”I ought to know. Oh, I recollect, he had an ivory shoulder.”

”Well said, Carry; but I have not yet a distinct idea of him either. Was he a statue, or flesh and blood, with this shoulder of his?”

”Oh, he was alive; somebody ate him, I think.”

”Well, was he a G.o.d or a man?” said Charles.

”Oh, it's a mistake of mine,” said Caroline; ”he was a G.o.ddess, the ivory-footed--no, that was Thetis.”

”My dear Caroline,” said her mother, ”do not talk so at random; think before you speak; you know better than this.”

”She has, ma'am,” said Charles, ”what Mr. Jennings would call 'a very inaccurate mind.'”

”I recollect perfectly now,” said Caroline, ”he was a friend of Epaminondas.”

”When did he live?” asked Charles. Caroline was silent.

”Oh, Carry,” said Eliza, ”don't you recollect the _memoria technica_?”

”I never could learn it,” said Caroline; ”I hate it.”

”Nor can I,” said Mary; ”give me good native numbers; they are sweet and kindly, like flowers in a bed; but I don't like your artificial flower-pots.”

”But surely,” said Charles, ”a _memoria technica_ makes you recollect a great many dates which you otherwise could not?”

”The crabbed names are more difficult even to p.r.o.nounce than the numbers to learn,” said Caroline.

”That's because you have very few dates to get up,” said Charles; ”but common writing is a _memoria technica_.”

”That's beyond Caroline,” said Mary.

”What are words but artificial signs for ideas?” said Charles; ”they are more musical, but as arbitrary. There is no more reason why the sound 'hat' should mean the particular thing so called, which we put on our heads, than why 'abul-distof' should stand for 1520.”

”Oh, my dear child,” said Mrs. Reding, ”how you run on! Don't be paradoxical.”