'
General information, indeed! Just as if she who had lived in London,
gone to lectures, and travelled on the Continent, must not know more
than these children cast up and down in a soldier's life; and as if her
Fraulein, with all her diplomas, must not be far superior to a mere
little daily governess, and a mother! It was all for the sake of
depreciating her.
At twelve o'clock, to her further indignation, she found there was to
be an hour of reading aloud and of needlework-actual plain needlework.
The three girls were making under-garments for themselves; and on
Dolores proving to have no work of any sort, her aunt sent Gillian to
the drawer, and produced a child's pinafore, which she was desired to
hem. Each, however, had a quarter of an hour's reading aloud of
history to do in turn, all from one big book, a history of Rome, and
there was a map hung up over the black board, where they were in turn
to point to the places mentioned. Before Gillian began reading, the
date, and something about the former lesson was required to be told by
the children, and it came quite readily, Valetta especially declaring
that she did love Pyrrhus, which the others seemed to think very bad
taste.
Dolores knew nothing about ancient history, and thought it foolish to
study anything that did not tell in a Cambridge examination; but she
supposed they knew no better down there; and when it came to her turn
to read, she mangled the names so, that Val burst out laughing when she
spoke of A-pious-Claudius.
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