'"Oh mamma, I didn't think you wanted me to go away."
'"Frances, Frances, you don't know what you are talking of," said my mother, taking me on her lap (great girl as I was), and holding me very tight in her arms. "Do you really suppose I shall not miss you a great deal more than Hebe will?"
'"Then why do you let me go?" I whispered, after a good many more tears at the idea of mamma thinking I cared more for Hebe than her.
'"Because your father thinks it best for you," was the answer—the answer with which mamma used to silence us even in our most rebellious moods. No one ever thought of disobeying his commands; and my hopes sank lower and lower.
'"But, mamma," I said despairingly, looking down at the little gold ring I was so proud of being allowed to wear, "surely married ladies don't go to school. I thought they did whatever they liked."
"Indeed they don't always, even when they are grown-up, Frances," she said with a little sigh. "If I did exactly what I liked, I should keep you at home with me, instead of sending you to school; but you see I have to trust to some one else to know what is best for you, and so must you. Why, it is just because you are Lord Desmond's wife, that your father thinks you ought to learn a great many things that I cannot teach you properly. If you were going to live down here in the country all your life, perhaps it would not matter so much; but when you are grown-up, you will most likely have to go out a great deal more into the world, and mix with a great many more people than I ever did; and you would find it very inconvenient to be ignorant of things which every one else knows quite well. For instance, you would like to be able to sing and dance as well as Agnes Blount."
'"I am sure I never could," I said, feeling as if Agnes's attainments were far beyond me, but beginning to have some glimmering perception of what mamma meant.
'"You must ask her to help you. You are to go to the school where she is now—Madame St. Aubert's. So you see you have one friend there already; and I have no doubt you will soon make many more. So cheer up, my foolish little Fan. You look as woebegone as if you were going to be sent to the Tower."
'Mamma's words were more cheerful than her face when she said this; and, as she put me down from her knee with a kiss, I began to see that the parting was as hard for her as it was for me; and I managed to say, though not without a deep sigh:
'"I don't suppose they will be half such good playmates as Oliver and the others; but I will try and bear it; and I will learn everything as quickly as I can, that I may come back sooner."