governess used that time to
give the two boys Latin lessons. Mrs. Nestor would have been very glad
if grandmamma would have agreed to teach Pert and Quick French too, but
granny did not think she could spare time for it, though a year or two
later when Percival had gone to school she did let Quick join what we
called the second class.

I should have explained that though I could not read or write French at
all well, I could speak it rather nicely, as grandmamma had taken great
pains to accustom me to do so since I was quite little.

I think she had a feeling that I might have to be a governess or
something of the kind when I was grown-up, and that made her very
anxious about my lessons from the beginning of them. And though things
have turned out quite differently from that, I have always been _very_
glad that I was well taught from the first. It is such a comfort to me
now that I am really growing big to be able to show grandmamma that I am
not far back for my age compared with other girls.

Sharley was the first class all by herself, and Nan and Vallie were the
second. I did not do any lessons with them, but after each class had had
half an hour's teaching we had conversation for another half hour, and
when the conversation time began I was always sent for. Grandmamma had
asked Mrs. Nestor if she would like that, and Mrs. Nestor was very
pleased.

We had great fun at the 'conversation.' You can scarcely believe what
comical things the little girls said when they first began to try to
talk. Grandmamma sometimes laughed till the tears came into her eyes--I
do love to see her laugh--and I laughed too, partly, I think, because
she did, for the funny things they said did not seem quite so funny to
me, of course, as to a big person.

But altogether the French lessons were very nice and brought some
variety into our lives. I think granny and I looked forward to them as
much as the Nestor children did.

Grandmamma's birthday happened to come about a fortnight after they
began. I told Sharley about it one day when she was out in the garden
with me, while her sisters were at their lesson. We used to do that way
sometimes, only we had to promise to speak French all the time, so that
I really had a little to do with teaching them as well as grandmamma,
and to tease me, on these occasions Sharley would call me
'mademoiselle,' and make Nan and Vallie do the same. They used in turn,
you see, to be with me while Sharley was w