Miss La Sarthe looked stern:

"More than thirty-five years ago, Roberta, I told you I disapproved of
Hester's chattering. I cannot conceive personally, how you can converse
with servants as you do. Hester would not have dared to gossip to me!"

Poor Miss Roberta looked crushed. She had often been chided on this
point before.

Halcyone would like to have reminded her elder aunt that William, who
was equally a servant, had announced some such news to her that
afternoon; but she remained silent. She must gain her point if she
could, and to argue, she knew, was never a road to success.

"I am sure if we could get a really nice English girl," hazarded Miss
Roberta, wishing to propitiate, "it might be company for us all,
Ginevra--but if Mrs. Anderton insists upon sending another foreign
person--"

"And of course she will," interrupted the elder lady; "people of Mrs.
Anderton's class always think it is more genteel to have a smattering of
foreign languages than to know their own mother tongue. We may get
another German--and that I could hardly bear."

"Then do write to my stepfather, please, please," cried Halcyone. "Say I
am going to be splendidly taught--lots of interesting things--and oh--I
will try so hard by myself to keep up what I already know. I will
practice--really, really, Aunt Ginevra--and do my German exercises and
dear Aunt Roberta can talk French to me and even teach me the Italian