“And English manners, I presume?”
“Manners, ma’am! Madame La Blond’s was a fashionable seminary.”
“And what is fashion, my dear?”
“Oh, nothing—nothing, ma’am, but doing as we please: we seldom saw Madame except in evening parties.”
“Then to whom were you indebted for instruction?”
“To our masters, ma’am,” said Miss Vincent, in a tone of surprise. “At Madame La Blond’s we were instructed in all the sciences; in the nature of valves; the specific gravity of bodies; the astonishing properties of magnetic steel; and how many thousand miles the sun was from the earth.”
“And perhaps you were told, by what means Archimedes burned the ships of Marcellus, at the siege of Syracuse?”
“O no, ma’am; but we learned the art of memorizing by hieroglyphics. This formed a part of our morning exercises.”
“Pray, my dear,” said Elizabeth very gravely, “can you repeat the multiplication table throughout?”
Miss Vincent hesitated. “I know very little, ma’am, of figures: our studies were in general of the highest order. But it was a charming seminary! We had no particular rules; we could go to rest, or rise when we pleased; and favourites were always asked to dance with select parties in an evening.”