I wouldn't mind his bad grammar now.
I've learned one or two valuable little things out yonder,
and one is that it doesn't matter if a man's grammar is askew,
so long as he doesn't swear at you. By the way, is Peter
as ungrammatical as ever?"
"I--I don't know," said Louisa helplessly. "I never knew
he WAS ungrammatical."
"Does he still say, 'I seen,' and 'them things'?" demanded Nancy.
"I never noticed," confessed Louisa.
"Enviable Louisa! Would that I had been born with that blessed
faculty of never noticing! It stands a woman in better stead
than beauty or brains. _I_ used to notice Peter's mistakes.
When he said 'I seen,' it jarred on me in my salad days.
I tried, oh, so tactfully, to reform him in that respect.
Peter didn't like being reformed--the Wrights always
had a fairly good opinion of themselves, you know.
It was really over a question of syntax we quarrelled.
Peter told me I'd have to take him as he was, grammar and all,
or go without him. I went without him--and ever since I've
been wondering if I were really sorry, or if it were merely
a pleasantly sentimental regret I was hugging to my heart.
I daresay it's the latter. Now, Louisa, I see the beginning
of the plot far down in those placid eyes of yours.
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