And now I was myself as he: aye, greater than he; for I knew English, and I could write poetry.
If my head was not turned at this time it was because I was so busy from morning till night.

My father did his best to make me vain and silly.

He made much of me to every chance caller, boasting of my progress at school, and of my exalted friends, the teachers.

For a school-teacher was no ordinary mortal in his eyes; she was a superior being, set above the common run of men by her erudition and devotion to higher things.

That a school-teacher could be shallow or petty, or greedy for pay, was a thing that he could not have been brought to believe, at this time.