you've quite given me up at chess, and you only condescend
to backgammon when it is mid-winter and there has been no curling, and
the book club is all amiss. Lilias insists upon the card, because the
parties are by no means always merry affairs, and she says that
otherwise we would slip them off on each other, and pick and choose, and
be guilty of a great many selfish, dishonourable proceedings."

"Lilias is the wise woman in the household. I'm aware there is a wise
woman in every family--but how comes it that Lilias is the authority
with us? It always rather puzzles me, Joanna; for when I used to implore
Miss Swan to accept her salary, and pay Dominie Macadam his lawful
demand of wages for paving the boys' brains in preparation for the High
School, they always complimented me with the assurance that you were my
clever daughter."

"Because they saw your weak side, I dare say, my dear," suggests
Mrs. Crawfurd.

"No, I am the cleverest, papa; I am so deep that I see that it is easier
to live under an absolute monarchy than to announce myself a member of a
republic, and assert my prerogatives and defend my privileges--but I
confess I have a temper, papa. Lilias says I am very self-willed, and I
must grant that she is generally in the right."

"You don't feel satisfied with the bridle, child, till it gets into
stronger hands."

"Yes, Joanna has a temper," chimed in Mrs. Crawfurd, pursuing her own
thread of the conversation. "Strangers think her softer than Susan; but
I have seen her violent, and when she takes it into her head, she is the
most stubborn of the whole family. I don't mean to scold you, my dear;
you are a very good girl, too, but you are quite a deception."

"Oh, mamma! what a character!" Joanna could not help laughing. "I must
amend my ways."

Of course, Joanna was violent at times, as we imagine a sensitive girl
with an abhorrence of meanness and vice, and she was stubborn when she
was convinced of the right and her friends would assert the wrong. Mr.
Crawfurd's idea was, that Joanna had a temper like Cordelia, not when
she spoke in her pleased accents, "gentle, soft, and low," but when she
was goaded into vehemence, as will happen in the best regulated palaces
and households.

"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Mrs. Crawfurd, five minutes afterwards, disturbing
the cosy little party round the tea-table by her sudden air of distress.
"Oh! dear, dear me! Susie has left her pearl sprigs behind her. There
they are