Miss Arthuret was
cutting, and ordering cutting all round her ruthlessly with
something of the pleasure of a child in breaking a new toy to prove
that it is his own, scarcely listening when the Admiral told her
what the trees were, and how beautiful in their season; while even
as to the evergreens, she did not know a yew from a cedar, and
declared that she must get rid of this horrid old laurustinus, while
she lopped away at a Portugal laurel. Her one idea seemed to be
that it was very unwholesome to live in a house surrounded with
trees; and the united influence of the Merrifields, working on her
mother by representing what would be the absence of shade in a few
months' time, barely availed to save the life of the big cedar;
while the great rhododendron, wont to present a mountain of shining
leaves and pale purple blossoms every summer, was hewn down without
remorse as an awful old laurel, and left a desolate brown patch in
its stead.

'Is it an emblem,' thought Bessie, 'of what she would like to do to
all of us poor old obstructions?'

After all, Mrs. Merrifield could not help liking the gentle mother,
by force of sympathy; and the Admiral was somewhat fascinated by the
freshness and impetuosity of the damsel, as elderly men are wont to
be with young girls who amuse them with what they are apt to view as
an original form of the silliness common to the whole female world
except their own wives, and perhaps their daughters; and Bessie was
extremely amused, and held her peace, as she had been used to do in
London. Susan was perhaps the most annoyed and indignant. She was
presiding over seams and button-holes the next afternoon at school,
when the mother and daughter walked in; and the whole troop started
to their feet and curtsied.

'Don't make them stand! I hate adulation. Sit down, please.
Where's the master?'

'In the boys' school, ma'am,' said the mistress, uncomfortably
indicating the presence of Miss Merrifield, who felt herself obliged
to come forward and shake hands.

'Oh! so you have separate schools. Is not that a needless expense?'

'It has always been so,' returned Susan quietly.

'Board? No? Well, no doubt you are right; but I suppose it is at a
sacrifice of efficiency. Have you cookery classes?'

'We have not apparatus, and the girls go out too early for it to be
of much use.'

'Ah, that's a mistake. Drawing?'

'The boys draw.'

'I shall go and see them. Not the girls? They look