"What is that?"
"My dear girl"—Mrs. Cassilis looked unutterable horror as a thought struck her—"did you actually never go to church?"
"No. Mr. Dyson used to read prayers every day. Why should people go to church when they pray?"
"Why? why? Because people in society all go; because you must set an example to the lower orders. Dear me! It is very shocking! and girls are all expected to take such an interest in religion. But the first thing is to learn reading."
She had been carrying a little box in her hands all this time, which she now placed on the table and opened. It contained small wooden squares, with gaudy pictures pasted on them.
"This is a Pictorial Alphabet: an introduction to all education. Let me show you how to use it. What is this?"
She held up one square.
"It is a very bad picture, abominably coloured, of a hatchet or a kitchen chopper."
"An axe, my dear—A, x, e. The initial letter A is below in its two forms. And this?"
"That is worse. I suppose it is meant for a cow. What a cow!"