She was the only girl in the Five Towns who knew shorthand.

And in a fortnight (they said) the paper was to come out! III At the large table which was laden with prodigious, heterogeneous masses of paper and general litter, she bent over the proofs by Mr.Dayson's side.

He had one proof; she had a duplicate; the copy lay between them.
It was the rough galley of a circular to the burgesses that they were correcting together.

Reading and explaining aloud, he inscribed the cabalistic signs of correction in the margin of his proof, and she faithfully copied them in the margin of hers, for practice.
"l.c.," he intoned.
"What does that mean ?" "Lower case," he explained grandiosely, in the naive vanity of his knowledge.

"Small letter; not a capital." "Thank you," she said, and, writing "l.c.," noted in her striving brain that 'lower case' meant a small letter instead of a capital; but she knew not why, and she did not ask; the reason did not trouble her.
"I think we'll put 'enlightened' there, before 'public' Ring it, will you ?" "Ring it?
Oh! I see!" "Yes, put a ring round the word in the margin.