‘I must teach myself first, Dora,’ said I.

‘I am as bad as you, love.’

‘Ah! But you can learn,’ she returned; ‘and you are a clever, clever man!’

‘Nonsense, mouse!’ said I.

‘I wish,’ resumed my wife, after a long silence, ‘that I could have gone down into the country for a whole year, and lived with Agnes!’

Her hands were clasped upon my shoulder, and her chin rested on them, and her blue eyes looked quietly into mine.

‘Why so?’ I asked.

‘I think she might have improved me, and I think I might have learned from her,’ said Dora.