were supposed to devote themselves to the study of languages and the
domestic arts, but in private conclave they had already decided on their
future career. They were to keep a select academy for young ladies, in
which they would correct all those glaring errors of governess and
mother under which they themselves had groaned.

"I can bear it better when I feel it is for a good end. Our girls shall
never suffer as I am suffering!" said Chrissie, with an air of
martyrdom, when she was ordered to bed at nine o'clock, and
remorselessly roused from slumber at seven a.m. "If grown-ups were
sensible, they would allow a child to follow its own instinct. Nature
must surely know better than mothers; and my nature tells me to sit up
at nights and have breakfast in bed. To be sent off as if one were a
child in arms is really too horribly trying!"

"And when Mr Barr was there too! So degrading! Last night he was
talking to me about books, and I'm sure he thought I was quite grown up.
The table was between us, you know, so he couldn't see my legs. I was
enjoying myself so much, and saying that I thought Thackeray much over-
rated, when mother came up and said, `Time for bed, Chickie! Run away!'
I assure you, I _blushed_ with mortification."

"Piteous!" said Christabel, bringing out her pet word with emphasis.
"They never think of our feelings. I shall make it a rule to study the
characters of our young ladies, and avoid wounding their
susceptibilities. I know how it feels!"

In spite of their many sufferings, however, the Rendells would one and
all have been ready to declare that there never had been, might, could,
would, or should be, such another father and mother as they possessed.
To have a son at college, and yourself carry off a prize at a tennis
tournament, was surely a feat to be proud of on the part of a father;
and what joy to have a tiny little scrap of a mother, who could be
petted like a child and lifted up in the arms of the youngest daughter--
a mother who had solved the problem of eternal youth, and looked so
pretty and so meek, that it was a constant marvel where on earth she
managed to stow that colossal will-power before which every member of
the household bowed and trembled.

The Rendells' house was at once the brightest, the airiest, and the
noisiest in the neighbourhood. As there were only six daughters, it can
truthfully be asserted that there were never more than half a dozen
girls talking a