"It is very obvious that I am both, according to your definition."

"It is very obvious that you are neither, I beg to submit, but a
sensible young girl,--with no great quantity of the manufactured
article, perhaps, but plenty of raw material, capable of being wrought
into fabric of the finest quality."

"Do you really think I can learn?" asked Ivy, with a bright blush of
pleasure.

"Demonstrably certain."

"As much as if I went to school?"

"My dear miss, as the forest oak, 'cabined, cribbed, confined' with
multitudes of its fellows, grows stunted, scrubby, and dwarfed, but,
brought into the open fields alone, stretches out its arms to the blue
heavens and its roots to the kindly earth, so that the birds of the air
lodge in the branches thereof, and men sit under its shadow with great
delight,--so, in a word, shall you, under my fostering care, flourish
like a green bay-tree; that is, if I am to have the honor."

"Yes, Sir, I mean--I meant--I was thinking as if you were teaching me--I
mean were going to teach me."

"Which I also mean, if time and the favoring gods allow, and your
parents continue to wish it."

"Oh, they won't care!"