o an inland farm--and she had found
the money for Martha Tilden's wedding, and for her lying-in a month
afterwards, and some time later she had helped Peter Relf with ready
cash to settle his debts and move himself and his wife and baby to West
Wittering, where he had the offer of a place with three shillings a week
more than they gave at Honeychild.

She might have indulged herself still further in this way, which
gratified both her warm heart and her proud head, if she had not wanted
so much to send Ellen to a good school. The school at Rye was all very
well, attended by the daughters of tradesmen and farmers, and taught by
women whom Joanna recognized as ladies; but she had long dreamed of
sending her little sister to a really good school at Folkestone--where
Ellen would wear a ribbon round her hat and go for walks in a long
procession of two-and-two, and be taught wonderful, showy and intricate
things by ladies with letters after their names--whom Joanna despised
because she felt sure they had never had a chance of getting married.

She herself had been educated at the National School, and from six to
fourteen had trudged to and fro on the Brodnyx road, learning to read
and write and reckon and say her catechism.... But this was not good
enough for Ellen. Joanna had made up her mind that Ellen should be a
lady; she was pretty and lazy and had queer likes and dislikes--all
promising signs of vocation. She would never learn to care for Ansdore,
with its coarse and crowding occupations, so there was no reason why she
should grow up like her sister in capable commonness. Half unconsciously
Joanna had planned a future in which she ventured and toiled, while
Ellen wore a silk dress and sat on the drawing-room sofa--that being the
happiest lot she could picture for anyone, though she would have loathed
it herself.

In a couple of years Ansdore's credit once more stood high at Lewes Old
Bank, and Ellen could be sent to a select school at Folkestone--so
select indeed that there had been some difficulty about getting her
father's daughter into it. Joanna was surprised as well as disgusted
that the schoolmistress should give herself such airs, for she was very
plainly dressed, whereas Joanna had put on all her most gorgeous apparel
for the interview; but she had been very glad when her sister was
finally accepted as a pupil at Rose Hill House, for now she would have
as companions the daughters of clergymen and squires, and l