'I have seen your two uncles. There's Major Mohun. Oh! he is fun!'

'Yes, dear old Uncle Regie! I wish he was not in Ireland. He will be
so sorry to miss seeing father off, but he can't get leave. And there
was a clergyman who is dead, and father grieved for very much. I think
he did something to make them all nicer to mother, for it was just
after that we went to stay at Beechcroft with Uncle William. You know
him, and how mother used to call him the very model of a country
squire; and I like his wife, Aunt Alethea. Only it is very pokey and
slow down there, and they are always after flannel petticoats and soup
kitchens, and all the old fads that are exploded. I should get awfully
tired of it before a year was out, only I should not be teased with
strange children, and there would be no one to be jealous of me.'

'Can't you get your father to change and send you there?'

'Not a chance. You see Aunt Lilias had offered, and they haven't, and
I must go on with my education. I hope, though I shall have no
advantages, I shall still be able to go up for the Cambridge
examination, if Aunt Lilias has not prejudices, as I dare say she has,
since of course none of her own will be able to try.'

'You'll come up to us for the examination, Dolly dear, and we shall do
it together, and that will be nice!'

'If they will let me; but I don't expect to be allowed to do anything
that I wish. Only perhaps father may be come home by that time.'

'Is it three years?'