another. To live here
all the year long! What a prospect! There isn't a decent neighbour
nearer than five miles.--If this could only have happened a year or two
later, after I had had a _little_ fun!"

"Rowena, how selfish! You think only of yourself, and not a bit of
anyone else--father or mother, or the boys, or--or Me!" cried Dreda,
smiting herself on the breast with dramatic _empressement_ as she
uttered the last all-important word. "It won't be a bit easier for me
when the time comes, but I do _hope_ and _believe_ that I shall bear it
bravely, and try to be an example to the rest. It's our duty, you know,
as the eldest daughters of the house!"

"Oh, Dreda, _stop_ preaching! It's too ridiculous. _You_ to lecture
me! For that matter, you need not wait until you are finished to set me
an example. You can begin this very minute, for I don't believe for a
moment that father will be able to afford to send you to Madame Clerc's.
It's a frightfully expensive school, and he used to grumble at the way
my extras ran up, even before, when he was rich. I expect you will have
to finish at home with the Spider, and then she will go, and you will
have to set to work to teach Maud!"

"I shan't!" shrieked Dreda, and flamed a sudden violent red.

"She shan't!" shrieked Maud, at one and the same moment, her fair,
placid face flushing to the same crimson hue.

They faced each other like two infuriated turkey cocks--heads erect,
feathers ruffled, bodies swaying to and fro with indignation.

"As if I should!"

"As if I'd let you!"

"Teach her!"

"Teach me!"

"The very idea!"

"I'm 'stonished you should talk such nonsense, Rowena!"

Rowena laughed softly. It was the first time she had unbent since the
telling of the dread news. She put her head on one side and stared at
Dreda's furious face with an "I told you so!" expression which that
young lady found infinitely exasperating.

"Our dear Dreda, as usual, finds preaching easier than practice. You
see, my dear, when it comes to the point, you are not a bit more
resigned than I am myself. It's worse for me to give up all the fun of
my first season than for you to stay at home instead of going to school;
the only difference is that I have sense enough to realise what is
before me, while you are so taken up with sentiment and--"

"Oh, shut up, girls! Stop wrangling, for pity's sake!" cried Hereward,
impatiently. "Things are bad enough as they are, without m