mistress of his youth had become some other person, although the
change, in a sense, might have been development and progress. He did
really love her piety, too, for its own sake. It mixed something
with her behaviour to him and to the children which charmed him, and
he did not know from what other existing source anything comparable
to it could be supplied. Mrs Hopgood seldom went to church. The
church, to be sure, was horribly dead, but she did not give that as a
reason. She had, she said, an infirmity, a strange restlessness
which prevented her from sitting still for an hour. She often
pleaded this excuse, and her husband and daughters never, by word or
smile, gave her the least reason to suppose that they did not believe
her.



CHAPTER II



Both Clara and Madge went first to an English day-school, and Clara
went straight from this school to Germany, but Madge's course was a
little different. She was not very well, and it was decided that she
should have at least a twelvemonth in a boarding-school at Brighton
before going abroad. It had been very highly recommended, but the
head-mistress was Low Church and aggressive. Mr Hopgood, far away
from the High and Low Church controversy, came to the conclusion
that, in Madge's case, the theology would have no effect on her. It
was quite impossible, moreover, to find a school which would be just
what he could wish it to be. Madge, accordingly, was sent to
Brighton, and was introduced into a new world. She was just