Elsie would have preferred another training, but it was not
given to her; and though she made but a lame attempt to follow Jane's
footsteps, and acquired only a superficial knowledge of what her sister
was the perfect mistress of, her uncle believed that, bad as she was,
she would have been much worse if she had not been forced into rational
studies. Though she was not a marvel of solidity, she still had as good
a knowledge of accounts, general information, history, and science, as
is possessed by many boys who get on very well in business or in
professions, when once set fairly to work.

Mr. Hogarth had no great opinion of the value of teaching languages,
and thought that a knowledge of things was of far more importance than
a knowledge of the names of things. The girls had learned, however, a
good deal of Latin and Greek from Mr. Wilson, their tutor, who thought
it a pity that Jane's fine abilities should not have a classical
education; and he had induced Mr. Hogarth to agree to it by the
argument that these languages are invaluable for the ready and
correct understanding of all scientific terms. French and Italian the
girls themselves were anxious to learn; and as they had been promised a
continental tour some fine summer, their uncle thought they might be
useful acquirements then, so they had lessons from the best masters in
Edinburgh, and profited by them. And here for the first time Elsie's
progress had been far greater than Jane's. Mr. Hogarth had himself
spent a good deal of time in his youth in France; but he had a higher
opinion of French society than of French literature, and he thought
that from the lips of brilliant Parisian women they would learn more of
the spirit of the language and of the people than from the books they
studied in classes or read at home.