Smyrna times. [volume] (Smyrna, Del.) 1854-1987, 1904-03-02
Ole GRAMMAR
OF LOVE
80. By S. MARIA TALBOT
Copyright, 1908, by T. c. Mcclure


"Oh, Dan!'
Hanged if you wasn't. petv'
Priscilla put her hands over her ears
and repeated the words you WASN'T
with outraged grammatical scorn.
''The deuce! It's that old language
business again, is it, Pris? l can't
break off old habits, not even the eter-
nal one of loving you, wife,
Somewhat Modified by the tender
tone of his words, Priscilla put on her
trim riding habit and was adjusting
her hat before the glass when Dan
called up from the lower hall:
ooh, Priscilla! Were it you who took
my gloves from the hatrack?'
Priscilla's reply, 1T was not" was
of so severe and stately a character
that Dan down below shivered with 81
lent glee, while up above the mirror
reflected to his wife a countenance
over the judicial sternness of which a
smile fiickered like summer lightning.
They were soon cantering down the
beautiful hedge lined country lanes,
Dams dog, Rev, bounding along be-
hind.
will we go by Jacksons lane. Pris,
or across the glen pasture"
will we go?" echoed the girl. Dan,
your grammar will kill me yet"
whats up now, Priscilla2' inquired
Dan blandly.
ut is up to you, Dan, to use your
'shalls' and wills properly"
Great Scott! groaned her husband
"She uses slang"
persisted:
you should say Shall we go down
Jackson's laneP"
II see, Priscilla. You shall go down
Jackson's lane whether you will or
not"
Dan, you are simply absurd" half
laughed, half pouted his mentor, who
was a bride just from Boston and
dotted on Language" such language as
shuddered at the trenching Of final let
tiers upon the initial ones of the word
following and to whom Italian "a" was
fetish and the undefiled use of the fu-
lures a cult.
Dams childish associations had been
more with negro servants than with
grammarians, all owing to the death
of his mother and the indOlent ire
sponsibility of his father. He was I'M
able to change the habits of speech Of
a lifetime and even thought lightly Of
the "scrupulosity" of expression of the
few Yankees he had known.
He fell in love with Priscilla "head
over heels-boots and ALL" as he eX-
pressed it, when she came on a visit
to an aunt of his living near his own
ancestral home. That he had been
able to win the girls heart showed
that love laughs at grammars as well
as at locksmiths.
She thought so trivial a matter as
his verbal inaccuracies could be easily
mended, and he believed that what to
him was her puritanical primness of
language would soon give way before
the breezy ease and untrammeled free
dom of manner and speech of his be-
loved south, disdainful Of cramping
rules and technical formalities. In
short, he was an educated man in
whom carelessness of expression was
yet MuOSG VIAL dllu NlEOl'
GUS ideas were wont to put to rout
his wife's valiant Onslaughts in the
line of rule and model.
His wife would attack him with
Ruskin, to which he would listen with
an impatience only kept within bounds
by his love for her.
Listen, Dan, to what he says: "A
well educated gentleman may no
know many languages-may have read
very few books. But whatever Ian
guage he know he knows precisely
whatever word he pronounces he pro
nounces rightly; above all, he is learn
ed in the peerage of words; knows thu
words Of true descent and ancien
blood at a glance from the words o
modern canaille; remembers all the1
ancestry. their intermarriages, distan
relationship and offices they held il
any time and in any country Now
isn't that fine, DanT pleaded Pris
ella
And while this man of words wa
tracing up their peerage his boson
friend was stealing away the heart o
his wife. and the foundations of hi
home were crumbling beneath his feet
don't know the ancestry of man
words, but there is one that is of M
own descent 1t is the word honor
You will s4ways hear me speak tina
plainly with the true Carroll accent
our home, for myself, for you and 70
the children who may be ours, pleas
God"
"Oh, Danv' whispered his wife sof
ly. And they discussed grammar
more that day.
Nevertheless when they were cante
ing along together Priscilla's ears wel
keen to mark what was said amiss b
her husband, emboldened by his eve
chivalrous patience with her gramma
ical excursions.
81 feel like am the happiest ma
alive today, Priscilla"
incorrect use Of like" broke In b
wife, knowing better, but disregardiI
the finer instinct.
"Ruf pris I don't feel taS fit