Perhaps you're a
mathematician?" This with a smile.
"By no means," was the reply. "In fact," Casti went on, "I'm afraid
you begin to think my interests are very narrow indeed. My
opportunities have been small. I left a very ordinary school at
fourteen, and what knowledge I have since got has come from my own
efforts. I am sure the profit from our intercourse would be entirely
on my side. I have the wish to go in for many things, however,--"
"Oh," broke in the other, "don't suppose that I am a scholar in any
sense of the word, or a man of more than average culture. My own
regular education came to an end pretty much at the same age, and
only a certain stubbornness has forced me into an intellectual life,
if you can call it so. Not much intellect required in my every-day
business, at all events. The school in which I teach is a fair type
of the middle-class commercial 'academy;' the headmaster a
nincompoop and charlatan, my fellow-assistants poor creatures, who
must live, I suppose,--though one doesn't well understand why. I
had always a liking for Greek and Latin and can make shift to read
both in a way satisfactory to myself, though I dare say it wouldn't
go for much with college examiners.
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