feed, clothe, and in some sort educate Martha, Isabel, and Monica.
To see thus far ahead sufficed for the present; fresh circumstances
could be dealt with as they arose.

Alice obtained a situation as nursery-governess at sixteen pounds a
year. Virginia was fortunate enough to be accepted as companion by a
gentlewoman at Weston-super-Mare; her payment, twelve pounds.
Gertrude, fourteen years old, also went to Weston, where she was
offered employment in a fancy-goods shop--her payment nothing at
all, but lodging, board, and dress assured to her.

Ten years went by, and saw many changes.

Gertrude and Martha were dead; the former of consumption, the other
drowned by the overturning of a pleasure-boat. Mr. Hungerford also
was dead, and a new guardian administered the fund which was still a
common property of the four surviving daughters. Alice plied her
domestic teaching; Virginia remained a 'companion.' Isabel, now aged
twenty, taught in a Board School at Bridgewater, and Monica, just
fifteen, was on the point of being apprenticed to a draper at
Weston, where Virginia abode. To serve behind a counter would not
have been Monica's choice if any more liberal employment had seemed
within her reach. She had no aptitude whatever for giving
instruction; indeed, had no aptitude for anything but being a
pretty, cheerful, engaging girl, much dependent on the love and
gentleness of those about her. In speech and bearing Monica greatly
resembled her mother; that is to say, she had native elegance.
Certainly it might be deemed a pity that such a girl could not be
introduced to one of the higher walks of life; but the time had come
when she must 'do something', and the people to whose guidance she