examine him at each vacation, with adjurations to let her know the
instant he discovered that her task of tuition was getting beyond
her. In truth, Tom fraternally held her cheap, and would have
enjoyed a triumph over her scholarship; but to this he had not
attained, and in spite of his desire to keep his brother in a
salutary state of humiliation, candour wrung from him the admission
that, even in verses, Aubrey did as well as other fellows of his
standing.

Conceit was not Aubrey's fault. His father was more guarded than in
the case of his elder sons, and the home atmosphere was not such as
to give the boy a sense of superiority, especially when diligently
kept down by his brother. Even the half year at Eton had not
produced superciliousness, though it had given Eton polish to the
home-bred manners; it had made sisters valuable, and awakened a
desire for masculine companionship. He did not rebel against his
sister's rule; she was nearly a mother to him, and had always been
the most active president of his studies and pursuits; and he was
perfectly obedient and dutiful to her, only asserting his equality,
in imitation of Harry and Tom, by a little of the good-humoured
raillery and teasing that treated Ethel as the family butt, while she
was really the family authority.

'All gone, Ethel,' he said, with a lazy smile, as Ethel mechanically,
with her eyes on the newspaper, tried all her vessels round, and
found cream-jug, milk-jug, tea-pot, and urn exhausted; 'will you have
in the river next?'

'What a shame!' said Ethel, awakening and laughing. 'Those are the
tea-maker's snares.'