dropping her paper, looked fixedly at the girl's profile, with an
eyelid droop which signified calculation.

'How much is he really getting?' she inquired all at once.

'Seventy-five pounds a year. "_Oh where, oh where, is my leetle dog
gone?_"'

'Does he say,' asked Mrs. Peachey, 'that his governor will stump
up?'

They spoke a peculiar tongue, the product of sham education and mock
refinement grafted upon a stock of robust vulgarity. One and all
would have been moved to indignant surprise if accused of ignorance
or defective breeding. Ada had frequented an 'establishment for
young ladies' up to the close of her seventeenth year; the other two
had pursued culture at a still more pretentious institute until they
were eighteen. All could 'play the piano;' all declared--and
believed--that they 'knew French.' Beatrice had 'done' Political
Economy; Fanny had 'been through' Inorganic Chemistry and Botany.
The truth was, of course, that their minds, characters, propensities
had remained absolutely proof against such educational influence as
had been brought to bear upon them. That they used a finer accent
than their servants, signified only that they had grown up amid
falsities, and were enabled, by the help of money, to dwell
above-stairs, instead of with their spiritual kindred below.

Anticipating Fanny's reply, Beatrice observed, with her air of
sagacity: