e.

_Mr. Falconer._ Would you like to hear them?

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ Indeed I should.

The two younger sisters having answered the summons, and the doctor's
wish having been communicated, the seven appeared together, all in the
same dress of white and purple.

'The seven Pleiads!' thought the doctor. 'What a constellation
of beauty!' He stood up and bowed to them, which they gracefully
acknowledged.

They then played on, and sang to, the harp and piano. The doctor was
enchanted.

After a while, they passed over to the organ, and performed some sacred
music of Mozart and Beethoven. They then paused and looked round, as if
for instructions.

'We usually end,' said Mr. Falconer, 'with a hymn to St. Catharine, but
perhaps it may not be to your taste; although Saint Catharine is a saint
of the English Church Calendar.'

'I like all sacred music,' said the doctor. 'And I am not disposed to
object to a saint of the English Church Calendar.'

'She is also,' said Mr. Falconer, 'a most perfect emblem of purity, and
in that sense alone there can be no fitter image to be presented to the
minds of young women.'

'Very true,' said the doctor. 'And very strange withal,' he thought to
himself.

The sisters sang their hymn, made their obeisance, and departed.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ The hands of these young women do not show signs
of menial work.

_Mr. Falconer._ They are the regulating spirits of the household. They
have a staff of their own for the coarser and harder work.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ Their household duties, then, are such as
Homeric damsels discharged in the homes of their fathers, with (Greek
word) for the lower drudgery? _Mr. Falconer._ Something like it.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ Young ladies, in short, in manners and
accomplishments, though not in social position; only more useful in a
house than young ladies generally are.

_Mr. Falconer._ Something like that, too. If you know the tree by its
fruit, the manner in which this house is kept may reconcile you to the
singularity of the experiment.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ I am perfectly reconciled to it. The experiment
is eminently successful.

The doctor always finished his day with a tumbler of brandy and water:
soda water in summer, and hot water in winter. After his usual draught
he retired to his chamber, where he slept like a top, and dreamed of
Electra and Nausicaa, Vestals, Pleiads, and Saint Catharine, and woke
with the last words h