'
'Well, you see, the difficulty is, that what may work for one's own
children may not work for other people's. And I confess I don't
understand her persistent repulse of Mysie.'
'Nor of you, the nasty little cat!' said Aunt Jane, with a little
fierce shake of the head.
'I do understand that a little. I am too unlike Mary for her to stand
being mothered by me.'
'There must be some other influence at work for this perverseness to
keep on so long. Tell me, did she take up with that very goosey girl,
that Miss Hacket?'
'Oh yes; she goes there every Sunday afternoon. It is the only thing
the poor child seem much to care about, and I don't think there can be
any harm in it.'
'Humph! the folly of girl is unfathomable! Oh! you may say what you
like--you who have thrown yourself into your daughters and kept them
one with you. You little know in your innocence the product of an ill-
managed boarding-school!'
'Nay,' said Lady Merrifield, a little hotly, 'I do know that Miss
Hacket is one of the most excellent people in the world, a little
tiresome and borne, perhaps, but thoroughly good, and every inch a
lady.'
'Granted, but that's not the other one--Constance is her name? My
dear, I saw her goings on at the G.F.S. affair--If she had only been a
member, wouldn't I have been at her.'
'My dear Jenny, you always had more eyes to your share than other
people.'
'And you think that being an old maid has not lessened their sharpness,
eh! Lily? Well, I can't help it, but my notion is that the sweet
Constance--whatever her sister may be--is the boarding-school miss a
little further developed into sentiment and flirtation.
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