actice, when one
of its most eloquent exponents had been besieged for nearly three hours
in a small and extremely uncomfortable may-tree by an angry boar-pig,
while Lady Carlotta, on the other side of the fence, had proceeded with
the water-colour sketch she was engaged on, and refused to interfere
between the boar and his prisoner. It is to be feared that she lost the
friendship of the ultimately rescued lady. On this occasion she merely
lost the train, which gave way to the first sign of impatience it had
shown throughout the journey, and steamed off without her. She bore the
desertion with philosophical indifference; her friends and relations were
thoroughly well used to the fact of her luggage arriving without her. She
wired a vague non-committal message to her destination to say that she
was coming on "by another train." Before she had time to think what her
next move might be she was confronted by an imposingly attired lady, who
seemed to be taking a prolonged mental inventory of her clothes and
looks.

"You must be Miss Hope, the governess I've come to meet," said the
apparition, in a tone that admitted of very little argument.

"Very well, if I must I must," said Lady Carlotta to herself with
dangerous meekness.

"I am Mrs. Quabarl," continued the lady; "and where, pray, is your
luggage?"

"It's gone astray," said the alleged governess, falling in with the
excellent rule of life that the absent are always to blame; the luggage
had, in point of fact, behaved with perfect correctitude. "I've just
telegraphed about it," she added, with a nearer approach to truth.

"How provoking," said Mrs. Quabarl; "these railway companies are so
careless. However, my maid can lend you things for the night," and she
led the way to her car.

During the drive to the Quabarl mansion Lady Carlotta was impressively
introduced to the nature of the charge that had been thrust upon her; she
learned that Claude and Wilfrid were delicate, sensitive young people,
that Irene had the artistic temperament highly developed, and that Viola
was something or other else of a mould equally commonplace among children
of that class and type in the twentieth century.

"I wish them not only to be _taught_," said Mrs. Quabarl, "but
_interested_ in what they learn. In their history lessons, for instance,
you must try to make them feel that they are being introduced to the life-
stories of men and women who really lived, not merely committin