"It was Corinthians," said Paula. "I ought to have recollected, but
the lectures are very dull and disjointed; you said so yourself, Nag,
and the Rector is very low church."

"So you could not learn from him!"

"Really, sister," said Agatha, "the lectures are not well managed,
they are in too many hands, and too uncertain, and it is not easy to
learn much from them."

"Well, that being the case, I think we had better begin at the
beginning. Suppose I ask you to say the first answer in the
Catechism."

On which Vera said they had all been confirmed except Thekla, and
passed it on to her.

However, the endeavours of that half-hour need not be recounted, and
the moment half-past ten chimed out the young ladies jumped up, and
would have been off to the bicycles, if Magdalen had not felt that
the time was come for asserting authority, and said, "Not yet, if you
please. We cannot waste whole days. You know Herr Gnadiger is
coming to-morrow, and it would be well to practise that sonata
beforehand; you ought each to practise it; Paula, you had better
begin, and Vera, you prepare this first scene of Marie Stuart to read
with me when Thekla's lessons are over. Change over when Paula has
done."

"It is of no use my doing anything while anyone is playing," said
Vera.