Then Elsmere picked a stonecrop, quarrelled over its precise name with Rose, and waited for Catherine, who had a very close and familiar knowledge of the botany of the district.
'You have crushed me,' he said, laughing, as he put the flower carefully into his pocketbook; 'but it is worth while to be crushed by anyone who can give so much ground for their knowledge.

How you do know your mountains--from their peasants to their plants!' 'I have had more than ten able-bodied years living and scrambling among them,' she said, smiling.
'Do you keep up all your visits and teaching in the winter ?' 'Oh, not so much, of course! But people must be helped and taught in the winter.

And our winter is often not as hard as yours down south.' 'Do you go on with that night school in Poll Ghyll, for instance ?' he said, with another note in his voice.
Catherine looked at him and colored.

'Rose has been telling tales,' she said.

'I wish she would leave my proceedings alone.