y more social sacrifices, the servant came in
with a letter, and stopped her.

Mrs. Gallilee looked at the address. The weary indifference of her
manner changed to vivid interest, the moment she saw the handwriting.
"From the Professor!" she exclaimed. "Excuse me, for one minute." She
read the letter, and closed it again with a sigh of relief. "I knew
it!" she said to herself. "I have always maintained that the albuminoid
substance of frog's eggs is insufficient (viewed as nourishment) to
transform a tadpole into a frog--and, at last, the Professor owns that
I am right. I beg your pardon, Carmina; I am carried away by a subject
that I have been working at in my stolen intervals for weeks past. Let
me give you some tea. I have asked Miss Minerva to join us. What is
keeping her, I wonder? She is usually so punctual. I suppose Zoe has
been behaving badly again."

In a few minutes more, the governess herself confirmed this maternal
forewarning of the truth. Zo had declined to commit to memory "the
political consequences of the granting of Magna Charta"--and now stood
reserved for punishment, when her mother "had time to attend to it."
Mrs. Gallilee at once disposed of this little responsibility. "Bread and
water for tea," she said, and proceeded to the business of the evening.

"I wish to speak to you both," she began, "on the subject of my son."

The two persons addressed waited in silence to hear more. Carmina's
head drooped: she looked down. Miss Minerva attentively observed Mrs.
Gallilee. "Why am I invited to hear what she has to say about her son?"
was the question which occurred to the governess. "Is she afraid
that Carmina might tell me about it, if I was not let into the family
secrets?"

Admirably reasoned, and correctly guessed!

Mrs. Gallilee had latterly observed that the governess was insinuating
herself into the confidence of her niece--that is to say, into the
confidence of a young lady, whose father was generally reported to
have died in possession of a handsome fortune. Personal influence, once
obtained over an heiress, is not infrequently misused. To check the
further growth of a friendship of this sort (without openly offending
Miss Minerva) was an imperative duty. Mrs. Gallilee saw her way to the
discreet accomplishment of that object. Her niece and her governess
were interested--diversely interested--in Ovid. If she invited them both
together, to consult with her on the delicate subject of her son