The Press., 1904-05-18
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 Gbe GRAMMAR
 OF LOVE ....By s. MARIA TALBOT
Copyright, 1908. by T. c. Mcclure

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 You was the prettiest one at the ball last night, Priscilla"
 "Oh, DanP'
 Hanged if you wasn't. pet!'
 Priscilla put her hands over her ears and repeated the words you wasn't with outraged grammatical scorn.
 1.-The deuceI It's that old language business again, is it, Pris? l can't break of 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:
 .Oh, Priscilla! Were it you who took my gloves from the hatrackp
 PriscilIa's reply, "It was not" was of so severe and stately a character that Dan down below shivered with si- lent glee, while up above the mirror reflected to his wife a countenance over the judicial sternness of which smile fiickered like summer lightning.
 They were soon cantering down the beautiful hedge lined country lanes, Dams dog, Rev, bounding along be- hind.
 "Wm we go by Jackson's lane. Pris, or across the glen pastureP
 "Wn we goY' echoed the girl. "Dan, your grammar will kill me yet"
 whats up now. Priscilla P inquired Dan blandly.
 "It Is up to you, Dan, to use your 'shalls' and wills properly"
 Great Scott" groaned her husband. ''She uses slang"
 Ignoring the interruption, his wife persisted:
 "You should say Shall we go down Jackson's lane?"
 'I 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 at the trenching of final let ters upon the initial ones of the word 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 all owing to the death of his mother and the indolent ire of his father. He was un- able to change the habits of speech of B E-etime 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 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 ingrained, yet whose vital and vigor- ous 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 we'll educated gentleman may not know many languages-may have read very few books. But whatever lan- 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 the words of true descent and ancient blood at a glance from the words of canaille; remembers all their their intermarriages, distant and offices they held in any time and in any country Now, isn't that fine, DanT pleaded Pris- ella.
 And while this man of words was tracing up their peerage his bosom friend was stealing away the heart of his wife, and the foundations of his home were crumbling beneath his feet I don't know the ancestry of many words, but there is one that is of my own descent. 1t is the word 'honor.' You will always hear me speak that plainly with the true Carroll accent in our home, for myself, for you and for the children who may be ours, please God"
 "Oh, DanP' whispered his wife soft ly. And they discussed grammar no mere that day.
 Nevertheless when they were cantef- ing along together Priscilla's ears were keen to mark what was said amiss by her husband, emboldened by his ever chivalrous patience with her grammat- ical excursions.
 "I feel like am the happiest man alive today, Priscilla"
 "Incorrect use of like,'" broke in his wife, knowing better. but disregarding the finer instinct.
 Dul, I HIS, l uOu 1cGl us u-1G G0 like that I feel. And, now that I think of 1t, I don't feel like I was the happiest man alive. Have I corrected <
 Priscilla knew she was venturing too far. But when do we ever follow our strongest leadings?
 "Dan, if you love me as you say you do you would take more pains to speak correctly. Your 'shalls' and wills put fin rIsnI would make me sleep better nights. And your 'shoulds' and 'wouldS' if they would fall into line and keep step my bliss would be complete"
 Tt isn't permitted to mortals to be perfectly happy, Priscilla. You know the ancients used to pray for some moderate reverse when things went too swimmingly. Let me be your mod crate reverse little lady,"
 You are my immoderate perverse, Dan. You always say Hadn't better