ough it was London and not Paris style.

Primrose kept her bed in Patty's room. There were plain little gowns for
her daily wear, but white aprons instead of homespun ginghams. She came
to breakfast with Madam Wetherill when there were no guests, or only one
or two intimates. For the people of the town had much of the Southern
ways of hospitality, and when on their farms in summer often invited
their less fortunate friends. It was not always lack of money, but many
of the merchants in trade and commerce between the home ports had no
time to spend upon country places, and were not averse to having their
wives and daughters enjoy some of the more trying summer weeks in the
cooler suburban places.

So Primrose sat like a mouse unless someone spoke to her, and it was
considered not best to take too much notice of children, as it made them
forward. Then there were two hours devoted to studying, and sewing with
Patty until dinner, which was often taken upstairs in the sewing room.
Twice a week the tutor came for Latin and French, the former first; and
then Anabella came for French, and after that the little girls could
have a play or a walk, or a ride with Madam Wetherill. Then there was a
dancing lesson twice a week, on alternate days, and a young woman came
to teach the spinet, which was a rather unusual thing, as women were not
considered to know anything except housekeeping well enough to teach it.
But this was one of Madam Wetherill's whims. For the girl's family had
been unfortunate, and the elder woman saw in this scheme a way to assist
them without offering charity.

"Do you suppose the little girls I knew last winter will ever come
back?" she asked of Patty one day.

"Oh, la, no!" was the reply. "Five years of school lies before them--not
like Master Dove's school, where one goes every morning, but a great
boarding house where they are housed and fed and study, and have only
half of Saturday for a holiday. And they study from morning to night."

"It must be very hard," sighed Primrose. "And why do they learn so
much?"

"To be sure, that's the puzzle! And they say women don't need to know.
They can't be lawyers nor doctors nor ministers, nor officers in case of
war, nor hold offices."

"But they can be queens. There was Queen Elizabeth, and Queen Anne. I
read about them in a book downstairs one day. And if women can be
queens, why can't they be something else?"

Patty looked down, nonplused for a moment. "I s