Ill do it, he said, picking up his books and starting away.
He turned back and asked: When youre speakin to a young lady say, for instance, Miss Lizzie Smith do you say Miss Lizzie or Miss Smith?
Say Miss Smith, the librarian stated authoritatively. Say Miss Smith always until you
know her better.
So it was that Martin Eden solved the problem.
Come down any time; Ill be at home all afternoon, was Ruths reply over the telephone to his stammered request as to when he could return the books she had given him.
She met him at the door herself, and her womans eye took in immediately the creased trousers, and the slight, but indefinable, change in him for the better.
Once they were seated in the drawing-room, he began to get on easily. She made it easy for him. They talked first of the borrowed books; she led the conversation on from subject to subject, while she pondered the problem of how she could help him. She had thought of this often since their first meeting. She wanted to help him.
I wonder if I can get some advice from you, he said. You remember the other time I was here I said I couldnt talk about books and things because I didnt know how? Well, Ive ben doin a lot of thinkin ever since.Ive ben to the library a whole lot, but most of the books Ive tackled have ben over my head. Mebbe Id better begin at the beginnin. Ive worked pretty hard ever since I was a kid, an since Ive ben to the library, lookin with new eyes at books an lookin at new books, too Ive concluded that I aint ben reading the right kind. But I aint got to the point yet. Here it is: I want to make my way to the kind of life you have in this house. Now, how am I goin to get it? Where do I begin? Im willin to work. Once I get started, Ill work night an day. Mebbe you think its funny, me askin you about all this. I know youre the last person in the world I ought to ask, but I dont know anybody else I could ask
His voice died away. He feared he had made a fool of himself. Ruth did not speak immediately. Her face was all sympathy when she did speak.
What you need you realize yourself, and it is education. You should go back and finish grammar-school, and then go through the high school and University.
But that takes money, he interrupted.
Oh! she cried, I had not thought of that. But, then, you have relatives somebody who could assist you?
He shook his head.
My father and mother are dead. Ive two sisters one married, an the otherll get married soon, I suppose. Then Ive a string of brothers Im the youngest but they never helped nobody. The oldest died in India. Two are in South Africa now, an anothers on a whaling voyage, an ones travellin with a circus he does trapeze-work. An I guess Im just like them. Ive taken care of myself since I was eleven thats when my mother died. Ive got to study by myself I guess, an what I want to know is where to begin.
I should say the first thing of all would be to get a grammar book. Your grammar is She had intended saying awful, but she amended it to, is not particularly good.
He flushed and sweated.
I know I must talk a lot of slang an words you dont understand. But, then, theyre only words I know how to speak. Ive got other words in my mind picked emup from books but I cant pronounce em, so I dont use em.
It isnt what you say so much as how you say it. You dont mind my being frank, do you? I dont want to hurt you.
No, no! he cried; while he secretly blessed her for her kindness. Fire away; Ive got to know, and Id sooner know from you than anybody else.
Well, then, you say You was; it should be You were. You say I seen for I saw. You use the double negative
Whats the double negative? he demanded, then added humbly: You see, I dont even understand your explanations.
Im afraid I didnt explain that, she smiled. A double negative is let me see well, you say, Never helped nobody. Never is a negative. Nobody is another negative. It is a rule that two negatives make a positive. Never helped nobody means that, not helping nobody, they must have helped somebody.
Thats pretty clear, he said. I never thought of it before, and Ill never say it again.
Youll find it all in the grammar book, she went on. Theres something else I noticed in your speech. You say dont when you shouldnt. Dont is a contraction, and stands for two words. Do you know them?
He thought a moment, then answered: Do not.
She nodded her head, and said: And you use dont when you mean does not.
He was puzzled over this.
Give me an illustration, he asked.
Well she thought a moment. It dont do to be hasty. Change dont to do not, and it reads, It do not do to be hasty, which is wrong. It must jar on your ear.
Cant say that it does, he replied judicially.
Why didnt you say, Cant say that it do?
That sounds wrong, he said slowly. As for the other, I guess my ear aint
had the trainin yours has.
There is no such word as aint, she said emphatically.
Martin flushed again,
And you say ben for been, she continued; I come for I came; and the way you chop your endings is something dreadful.