key, she laid hold
of some books of mine, and will never rest till she has come to some
conclusion as to what is wanting in Maria.'

'Too young to feel what it means,' repeated Phoebe.

She was no great acquisition as a companion, for she neither spoke nor
stirred, so that the governess would have thought her drowsy, but for the
uprightness of the straight back, and the steady fold of the fingers on
the knee. Much as Miss Fennimore detested the sight of inaction, she
respected the reverie consequent on the blow she had given. It was a
refreshing contrast with Bertha's levity; and she meditated why her
system had made the one sister only accurate and methodical, while the
other seemed to be losing heart in mind, and becoming hard and shrewd.

There was a fresh element in Phoebe's life. The native respect for 'the
innocent' had sprung up within her, and her spirit seemed to expand into
protecting wings with which to hover over her sister as a charge
peculiarly her own. Here was the new impulse needed to help her when
subsiding into the monotony and task-work of the schoolroom, and to
occupy her in the stead of the more exciting hopes and fears that she had
partaken in London.

Miss Fennimore wisely relaxed her rule over Phoebe, since she had shown
that liberty was regarded as no motive for idleness; so though the maiden
still scrupulously accomplished a considerable amount of study, she was
allowed to portion it out as suited her inclination, and was no longer
forbidden to interrupt herself for the sake of her sisters. It was
infinite comfort to be no longer obliged to deafen her ears to the
piteous whine of fretful incapacity, and to witness the sullen heaviness
of faculties overtasked, and temper goaded into torpor. The fact once
faced, the result was relief; Maria was spared and considered, and Phoebe
found the governess much kinder, not only to her sister but to herself.
Absence had taught the value of the elder pupil, and friendly terms of
equality were beginning to be established.

Phoebe's freedom did not include solitary walks, and on weekdays she
seldom saw Miss Charlecote, and then only to hear natural history, the
only moderately safe ground between the two elder ladies. What was
natural science with the one, was natural history with the other. One
went deep in systems and classifications, and thrust Linnaeus into the
dark ages; the other had observed, collected, and drawn specimens with
the enthus