however, he immediately
suppressed--interrupted her. 'Dear mater, what does it matter whether you
are learned or not? For my part, I don't see what women want to be
educated for at all.'

'Oh, you don't, don't you? You ought to have lived about the year one.
You're several centuries behind the times, George!' exclaimed his sister
indignantly.

'I wish I had. I'm sure the girls of that time were nicer than they are
nowadays,' he replied, calmly relapsing into his nonchalant attitude.

'I'm sure they never talked about not respectin' their dads,' said Mrs
Clay plaintively. She had, as will be seen, a habit of harping back to
the same grievance, and this remark of her daughter's evidently rankled
in her mind.

'Perhaps their fathers were more respectable than mine,' replied Sarah.

'Well, I never did!' cried Mrs Clay, scandalised.

'Draw it mild, Sarah! The pater may be a bit of a tartar sometimes, but
he's respectable enough, in all conscience,' remonstrated her brother.

'I don't think so,' declared Sarah.

Before her mother could utter the protests which her son saw in her face,
George said, 'Oh, let her talk! She's got some maggot in her brain, and
she wants to air it. It amuses her, and it doesn't hurt us, as long as
the pater doesn't come in and hear her; and she'll take good care to shut
up if he does,' he wound up with a laugh.

His laugh exasperated his sister, and she retorted with some warmth, 'If
I do shut up when he comes in, it's only because he's so violent and
hateful!'

'Sarah! Sarah!' came from the mother and son simultaneously, in accents
of horrified indignation; and Mrs Clay continued, 'Leave the room at
once, miss. I won't sit 'ere an' 'ave my 'usband insulted like that.'

Without a word, the girl rose from her seat and left the drawing-room,
shutting the door sharply behind her.

'What's the governor been doing to upset her now?' inquired Mr George
Clay of his mother.

'Nothin' that I know of. It's some crotchet of Sairey, now she's begun
studyin' the woman's question, as she calls it, an' thinks 'e treats the
women 'ere badly.'

'Oh goodness, don't you tell me she's started that! Do they go in for
politics at that school, then?' cried her brother. 'I never heard of such
a thing at a girls' school; it ought not to be allowed.'

'Well, I don't know that it's politics exactly; it's somethin' to do wi'
women's duties to each other an' the 'ard life our mill-lasses 'ave, or
somethin'.