Meanings, we have seen, played a great part in these studies: “Dollar—_a Dutch coin_”; “Engineer—_an Artist_”; “Gambadoes—_a Sort of Boots_”; “History—_an Account of Things_”; “Interview—_Mutual Sight_”; “Logarithms—_Artificial Numbers_”; “Mahomet—_the Turkish Impostor_”; “Replevin—_a Writ so called_”; “Stolidity—_Foolishness_”; “Tarantula—_a Baneful Insect_”; “Valentine—_a Romish Festival_”; “Upholsterer—_an Undertaker_”; “Zodiac—_a Circle in the Heavens_”: such were the strange vocables she kept muttering and misunderstanding: believing indeed that “Paramour” was merely a grander word for “_Lover_” and connecting divorce with “Schismatic—_one guilty of unlawful separation_.” It pained her to meet the “Sadducees—_a People that Denies the Being of Angels_,” slurring, as did these unimaginable heretics, the status of her own mother. Surely it was for such that “Damnation—_the punishment of Hell Torments_” had been designed. Punctuation too she studied, growing learned in Apostrophes, Asterisks, Carets, Crotchets, and Obelisks; other hours were devoted to Grammar, Tenses, Degrees of Comparison (always between good and better _Boys_), Genitives, and even Scraps of Latin. Pronunciation, however, was her great stumbling-block. How was it possible to keep one’s feet in the chaos, say, of four-syllabled words, each accented on a different syllable? Antiquary, Ambassador, Affidavit, Animadvert—it was heart-breaking and head-splitting. Her memory, so marvellous when vivified by realities, broke down before this procession of shadows. With what relief she turned to the rich riot of “Moral and Satyric Poems”—though her sex was still distressingly ignored, and through every loophole the eternal male popped up. _He most improves who studies with Delight_ _And learns Sound Morals while he learns to write._ Still, where “Swearing, Gaming, and Pride” were rebuked in lashing lines, she was not sorry to find the petticoat conspicuous by its absence. It was a rare joy to come on Queen Anne in a “List of Abbreviations” under the unexpected guise of A.R.; in the list of kings, too, she appeared again, together with Mary and Elizabeth; not a large proportion, Jinny thought, rejoicing at the Victoria unforeseen by the learned author, whose “Chronological Account of Remarkable Things” stopped, like her friend Commander Dap’s, at the Battle of Trafalgar.