smart daughters. I saw one with a Gainsborough hat, and a bunch of
cock's feathers, with a scarlet cactus cocking it up behind."

"Flapsy made use of her opportunities, you see. Being 'emparocked in
a pew' cannot daunt her spirit of research."

"Now, Nag, I only meant to show you what impossible people they are."

"Natives who will repay the study perhaps," continued Agatha, reading
as though from a book of travels. "We were able to observe a group
of the aborigines at their devotions. Conspicuous was a not
ungraceful young female, whose head, ornamented with a plume of
feathers, towered above the enclosure in which she was secluded,
while an aged fakir, hakem or medicine man pronounced from a loftier
structure resembling a sentry box."

"Children, children, that's the wrong way," came Magdalen's voice
from behind. "You must turn into that lane. Wait a moment."

They waited till Mrs. Best's lagging steps allowed Magdalen to come
up with them, but dead silence fell on them when Mrs. Best observed,
"You were very merry." They could not speak of the cause. Perhaps
Magdalen divined something, for she said, "We hope to make some
improvements, and so indeed does Mr. Earl, but he is very poor.
Besides, newcomers must work slowly."

The doubt whether she had heard Agatha's speech made the girls
conscious enough to keep from responding, as she meant them to do, by
cheerful criticisms, and indeed the task of cheering and dragging on
Mrs. Best was quite enough to occupy her. There was only three years