Mrs. Crull’s studies were thereafter confined to English spelling, grammar, and writing.  She declared that she knew enough of arithmetic to count change correctly, and wanted to know no more; and that geography was of no earthly use to her.  Besides, she never could remember the names of places.

It was in pronunciation that Miss Pillbody’s system achieved the greatest good.  Anxious to strengthen herself on that weak point, Mrs. Crull set a watch on her language, and gave every word a good look before she sent it forth.  The effect of this constant introspection was most happy; but, at times, Mrs. Crull would be thrown off her guard by a rush of ideas, and all the old blunders would come out.  Toward other persons, she became, to some extent, a free teacher, and would, in the most obliging manner, rectify their little errors of pronunciation, when she was sure of them, and sometimes when she was not.

Of course, Mr. Crull was taken in training by her.  That gentleman, having made the discovery, early in life, that the less a man says, the more he is supposed to know, had acquired a habit of taciturnity which had become a second nature to him.  His conversation consisted mainly of grunts and nods; and it was astonishing how much he could express by them.  At any rate, they had “made his fortin’, and he couldn’t ha’ done more’n that if he’d talked like a house a-fire”—­which explanation, often repeated, was about the longest one ever known to be uttered by Mr. Crull.  Therefore Mr. Crull did not offer a large field for the exhibition of his wife’s new acquirements; but, by drawing him into conversation, and then lying in wait for him, she found opportunities to exhibit them for his good.

At first, Mr. Crull only stared and grunted.  Then he laughed (his laugh and Mrs. Crull’s laugh were very similar, and were their strongest bond of union).  Once he said, “Wonder what’s the matter with the ole woman?” And, on a subsequent occasion, when Mrs. Crull had convicted him of three mistakes in five words, he ventured upon this protracted remark:  “Guess the ole gal feels rather big since she got inter wot they call good s’ciety, eh?” This was in allusion to the recent successful speculation in tobacco, which had enabled Mr. Crull to buy the best house in Twenty-third street, and take the second best pew in a fashionable church, thereby placing Mrs. Crull at once within the charmed circle of society.

As for himself, Mr. Crull took very little interest in society, having observed that society had taken very little interest in him until that “lucky turn in terbacker.”  Mrs. Crull would smile, and confess that society had claims upon people, and that, when one is in Rome, one must do as the Romans do.  The moral of which proverb was, that Mr. Crull ought to improve his speech.  Mr. Crull replied, by asking “wot difference ’twould make a hunderd years from now?” Which observation, when Mr. Crull condescended to speak at such length, was a favorite argument with him.  But he little suspected his wife’s secret.