er."

"They wouldn't have been like."

Lois laughed, and Mrs. Barclay remarked, that was rather begging the
question.

"What question?" said Charity.

"I mean, you are assuming a thing without evidence."

"It don't need evidence," said Charity. "I never saw a picture yet that
was worth a red cent. It's only a make-believe."

"Then you will not join our drawing class, Miss Charity?"

"No; and I should think Madge had better stick to her sewing. There's
plenty to do."

"Duty comes first," said the old lady; "and _I_ shouldn't think duty
would leave much time for making marks on paper."

The first thing Mrs. Barclay did after breakfast was to unpack some of
her books and get out her writing box; and then the impulse seized her
to write to Mr. Dillwyn.

"I had meant to wait," she wrote him, "and not say anything to you
until I had had more time for observation; but I have seen so much
already that my head is in an excited state, and I feel I must relieve
myself by talking to you. Which of these ladies is _the_ one? Is it the
black-haired beauty, with her white forehead and clean-cut features?
she is very handsome! But the other, I confess, is my favourite; she is
less handsome, but more lovely. Yes, she is lovely; and both of them
have capacity and cleverness. But, Philip, they belong to the strictly
religious sort; I see that; the old grandmother is a regular Puritan,
and the girls follow her lead; and I am in a confused state of mind
thinking what can ever be the end of it all. Whatever would you do with
such a wife, Philip Dillwyn? You are not a bad sort of man at all; at
least you know _I_ think well of you; but you are not a Puritan, and
this little girl _is_. I do not mean to say anything against her; only,
you want me to make a woman of the world out of the girl--and I doubt
much whether I shall be able. There is strength in the whole family; it
is a characteristic of them; a capital trait, of course, but in certain
cases interfering with any effort to mould or bend the material to
which it belongs. What would you do, Philip, with a wife who would
disapprove of worldly pleasures, and refuse to take part in worldly
plans, and insist on bringing all questions to the bar of the Bible? I
have indeed heard no distinctively religious conversation here yet; but
I cannot be mistaken; I see what they are; I know what they will say
when they open their lips. I feel as if I were a swindler, taking your
money on