subscribed for a German as well as an English literary weekly
newspaper, but at times they were almost beaten. Madge more than
Clara was liable to depression.

No Fenmarket maiden, other than the Hopgoods, was supposed to have
any connection whatever, or to have any capacity for any connection
with anything outside the world in which 'young ladies' dwelt, and if
a Fenmarket girl read a book, a rare occurrence, for there were no
circulating libraries there in those days, she never permitted
herself to say anything more than that it was 'nice,' or it was 'not
nice,' or she 'liked it' or did 'not like it;' and if she had
ventured to say more, Fenmarket would have thought her odd, not to
say a little improper. The Hopgood young women were almost entirely
isolated, for the tradesfolk felt themselves uncomfortable and
inferior in every way in their presence, and they were ineligible for
rectory and brewery society, not only because their father was merely
a manager, but because of their strange ways. Mrs Tubbs, the
brewer's wife, thought they were due to Germany. From what she knew
of Germany she considered it most injudicious, and even morally
wrong, to send girls there. She once made the acquaintance of a
German lady at an hotel at Tunbridge Wells, and was quite shocked.
She could see quite plainly that the standard of female delicacy must
be much lower in that country than in England. Mr Tubbs was sure Mrs
Hopgood must have been French, and said to his daughters,
mysteriously, 'you never can tell who Frenchwomen are.'

'But, papa,' said Miss Tubbs, 'you know Mrs Hopgood's maiden name; we
found that out. It was Molyneux.'

'Of course, my dear, of course; but if she was a Frenchwoman resident