“Oh! how delightful—and Spain too!”
“Ay, the Isle of Pheasants, where all the conferences took place.”
“Where Louis XIV. met his bride, and Francois I. sealed his treason with his empty flourish—”
“Well, don’t let us fight about Francois I. now; I want to know how Tom likes Eton.”
“He gets on famously. I am so glad he is in the same house with Hector.”
“Mr. Ramsden—how is he?”
“No better; he has not done any duty for weeks. Tomkins and his set want to sell the next presentation, but papa hopes to stave that off, for there is a better set than usual in the Town Council this year.”
“Cocksmoor? And how are our friends the muses? I found a note from the secretary telling me that I am elected again. How have they behaved?”
“Pretty well,” said Ethel. “Mrs. Ledwich has been away, so we have had few meetings, and have been pretty quiet, except for an uproar about the mistress beating that Franklin’s girl—and what do you think I did, Flora? I made bold to say the woman should show her to papa, to see if she had done her any harm, and he found that it was all a fabrication from one end to the other. So it ended in the poor girl being expelled, and Mary and I have her twice a week, to see if there is any grace in her.”
“To reward her!” said Flora. “That is always your way—”