'If we go to the Castle, we shall want more money to buy dresses,' said
Olive.

'_La mer a toujours son écume pour habiller ses déesses,'_ replied
Milord; and he got into his carriage amid pearly peals of laughter from
Mrs. Barton, intermingled with a few high notes from Olive, who had
already taken to mimicking her mother.




V


Mr. Barton, or Arthur, as he was usually called, always returned to his
studio immediately after breakfast, and, as Mrs. Barton had domestic
duties to attend to, the girls were left to themselves to appreciate
their return home from school and look forward to their entry into the
life of the world.

The two girls descended the stairs with their summer hats and sunshades,
and Alice stopped at the door of the schoolroom. It was here that, only
a few years ago, she had interceded with the dear old governess, and
aided Olive to master the difficulties against which the light brain
could not contend singly--the hardships of striving to recall the number
of continents the world possesses, the impossibility of learning to say
definitely if seven times four made twenty-eight or thirty.

At the end of the passage under the stairs the children used to play for
hours, building strange houses out of boxes of bricks, or dressing dolls