ambitious. The difference had been from her intercourse with persons
slightly her elders, but who did not look on authorities as natural
enemies, to be tolerated for one's own good. There had been a
development of the conscience and soul even in this first term that
made her regard her elder sister not merely with a sense of
compulsory gratitude and duty, but with sympathy and fellow feeling,
which were the more excited when she saw her own chilliness of last
spring carried further by the two young girls.

So breakfast went off merrily; and after the round of the garden and
the pets, Agatha promised to come, when summoned, to hear how well
Thekla could read French. In the meantime she waited in the morning-
room, looking at her sisters' books; Vera pushed aside the Venetian
blind.

"Don't come in that way, Flapsy!" called Paula. "You'll be heard in
the dining-room, and the M.A. will tremble at your dusty feet."

"They aren't dusty," said Vera, pulling up the blind with a clatter.

"Aren't they?" laughed Paula, pointing.

"You had better go and wipe them," said Agatha.

"I don't believe in M.A.'s fidgets," returned Vera.

"But I do, in proper deference to the head of the house," said
Agatha, gravely.

"Murder in Irish!" cried Vera, bouncing away, while Paula argued,