"Very good, Mumsie," said Amelia encouragingly. "Go on."
"But it puts me out of breath so, child, as soon as I begin to think of it," complained her pupil. "I shall never learn."
"Yes, you will," said Amelia confidently. "H's are just a matter of proper breathing, Daddy says. Now try the next sentence, and remember there's a trap in it!"
Miss Amelia seated herself upon the floor, clasping her long black legs with her arms and resting her chin on her knees.
"Now," she said, with a little nod.
Conscientious Mrs. Welwyn, having audibly recharged her lungs, now began to emit another heavily aspirated sentence.
"Hildebrand," she announced, "has hit Henry hard hintentionally. There, that's done it!" She sighed despairingly.
"And I warned you, Mother," said Amelia reproachfully. "That last word is put in on purpose to trip you up."
"Yes, I know," replied her mother with an apologetic smile. "And it always does. You can't teach an old dog new tricks, ducky, and that's a fact. I have always been common in my talk, and common in my talk I always will be. All I can promise is that I will do my best this afternoon; and I hope, for all of your sakes, that your old mother won't go and disgrace you."
Little 'Melia's reply to this humble aspiration was an embrace which entirely disorganised the hooks and eyes at the back of Martha Welwyn's festal garment. While the disaster was being repaired, Tilly entered briskly. In her hand she held a printed card, bearing the legend