‘Yes, the children have been doing their best to distract him. Emily, I want to know why it is that those children are for ever in mischief and yelling in all parts of the house.’
‘I wish I could help it,’ said Emily, with a sigh; ‘they are very troublesome.’
‘There must be great mismanagement,’ said her brother.
‘Oh, William! Why do you think so?’
‘Other children do not go on in this way, and it was not so in Eleanor’s time.’
‘It is only Phyllis,’ said Emily.
‘Phyllis or not, it ought not to be. What will that child grow up, if you let her be always running wild with the boys?’
‘Consider, William, that you see us at a disadvantage; we are all unsettled by this illness, and the children have been from home.’
‘As if they learnt all these wild tricks at Broomhill! That excuse will not do, Emily.’
‘And then they are always worse in the holidays,’ pleaded Emily.