"Good! good!" cried the children. "Oh, delightful! But where are we
going?"

"To the grove adjacent to the schoolhouse," replied the governess. "We
could not find a lovelier spot, and its proximity to the mansion renders
it most eligible."

"'Proximity, eligible, adjacent;' what do you mean by those words, Miss
Fisk?" asked Gertrude, a little contemptuously.

"I desire you to consult one of our standard lexicographers. You will then
be far more likely to retain the definitions in your memory," returned the
governess, ignoring the tone of her pupil.

Gertrude shrugged her shoulders, with impatience, muttering audibly, "I
wish you'd talk like other people, and not like a dictionary."

"You quarrel with my phraseology, because you do not understand it,"
observed Miss Fisk, nonchalantly, "which is very irrational, since were I
never to employ, in conversing with you, words beyond your comprehension,
you would lose the advantage of being induced to increase your stock of
information by a search for their meaning."

"If that's what you do it for, you may as well give it up at once,"
returned Gertrude, "for I don't care enough about your meaning to take
half that trouble."

"Miss Gertrude, permit me to remark that you are lacking in respect to
your instructress," returned Miss Fisk, reddening.