"Oh! dear!"

The plaintive ejaculation fell on the drowsy noonday air, and the
speaker fished a chocolate out of the box, offered her in heartfelt
sympathy by her companion.

"Buck up, old thing!" said the latter. "These very same old exam rods
were laid up in pickle for our forbears, and they survived the ordeal.
The summer's here and the holidays are due, so let's grin and bear it,
and what _does_ it matter if you _do_ mix your futures and
conditionals? As long as it's French and you don't split your
infinitives you're all right, the splitting, I believe, _is_ a mortal
sin in some cases, though I don't quite understand how, or exactly what
it means."

Seaview House is an establishment for the finishing of young ladies,
which process includes the rounding of their anatomical angles by means
of dancing and physical culture, and the polishing of the facets of
their intelligence by the gentle manipulation of three or four foreign
governesses and professors of music, singing, drawing, etc. These
latter smile suavely through the excruciating half-hours they allot to
each unfinished damsel, and tear their hair in private at the memory of
the daily and hourly murderous executions of the old masters at which
they must perforce assist.

And as much, and even more, attention is paid to the repoussé work on
the outside of the platter.

The hirsute covering is brushed and burnished until the heads of the
two score damsels bob about in the sun like globes of ebony, or straw,