rather think they were." In a flash those childhood scenes, and
instantly with them interpretation of the funny feeling and the
blink that they had caused: they had been the rooting in her of a
new perception added to the impregnably rooted impression of the
wonder and power of men,--the perception that men knew they were
wonderful and powerful and liked to show off how wonderful and
powerful they were.

They were superior creatures but they were apt to be rather
make-you-blinky creatures; that was the new perception.

On the day after her eighth birthday, the birthday itself being a
treat and a holiday, Rosalie began to do lessons with Hilda. Hilda,
at sixteen, had "finished her education" as had Anna and Flora at
the same age. Harold, who had been a boarder at a Grammar School,
had stayed there till he was eighteen; and Robert, ultimately,
continued at Helmsbury Grammar School till he was eighteen. It was
apparent--and it was another manifestation of the greater importance
of males--that boys had more education to finish, or were permitted
longer to finish it, than girls.

The school at which Anna, Flora and Hilda thus in the eight years
between leaving their mother's knee at eight and completing their
education at sixteen, learnt everything it was possible to know,
was kept by two very thin ladies called (ungrammatically) the
Miss Pockets. The Miss Pockets were daughters of the former vicar
of St. Mary's and inhabitant of the rectory, and on their father
dying and Mr. Aubyn coming, they established themselves in a prim
villa near-by and did what they called "took in pupils." They were
very thin, they had very long thin noses, they were always very