say her prayers if she were not obliged; and yet she did say them;
therefore she must be obliged to say them; therefore we should be
obliged to say them, and this was a very great disappointment. Awe-
struck and open-mouthed we listened while the lady prayed in sonorous
accents, for many things which I do not now remember, and finally for
my father and mother and for both of us--shortly afterwards she rose,
blew out the light and got into bed. Every word that she said had
confirmed our worst apprehensions; it was just what we had been
taught to say ourselves.

Next morning we compared notes and drew the most painful inferences;
but in the course of the day our spirits rallied. We agreed that
there were many mysteries in connection with life and things which it
was high time to unravel, and that an opportunity was now afforded us
which might not readily occur again. All we had to do was to be true
to ourselves and equal to the occasion. We laid our plans with great
astuteness. We would be fast asleep when the lady came up to bed,
but our heads should be turned in the direction of her bed, and
covered with clothes, all but a single peep-hole. My brother, as the
eldest, had clearly a right to be nearest the lady, but I could see
very well, and could depend on his reporting faithfully whatever
should escape me.

There was no chance of her giving us anything--if she had meant to do
so she would have done it sooner; she might, indeed, consider the
moment of her departure as the most auspicious for this purpose, but
then she was not going yet, and the interval was at our own disposal.
We spent the afternoon in trying to learn to snore, but we were not
certain about it, and in the end regretfully concluded that as
snoring was not de rigueur we had better dispense with it.