"
"I could never be an angel!" she retorted sullenly. "And what's more,
I don't want--"
"You do," said I, "indeed you do, I'm sure, or why should you so hate
this devil of yours and fear the beyond? And there is an angel inside
you, Diana; I have seen it peep at me through your eyes--"
"Now I think you're talking foolish!" said she petulantly.
"Perhaps so," I nodded, "but 'foolish' is an adjective which in this
instance should be an adverb and which we will proceed to make so by
the suffix 'ly.' Thus instead of saying, I talk 'foolish,' you must
say I talk 'foolishly'--"
"So you do!" quoth she.
"Then I will talk grammar instead, Diana. Pray give me your most
careful attention. Yonder is a tree, which is a noun common; the tree
is shady, which is an adjective qualifying the noun 'tree,' and casts
its shade obliquely, which is an adverb governing the qualifying verb
'casts.'" Thus, as we walked, I proceeded to give her a definition of
the various parts of speech with their relation one to another, and
found her to be, on the whole, very quick and of a retentive memory.
Encouraged thus, I plunged into my subject whole-heartedly and was
discussing the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs
when she checked me in full career by asking:
"Have you a father and mother?"
"Good heaven!" I exclaimed. "What has this to do with grammar?"
"Well, but have you?" she persisted.
"No," answered I; "they died before I can remember.
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