'Oh! Arthurine. How often have I told you that examinations are not
education. I never saw so plainly that I have not educated you.'

'I wanted to prepare Daisy and Pansy, and they didn't care about her
prosing when we wanted to get on with the book.'

'Which would have been the best education for them, poor girls, an
example of courtesy, patience, and humility, or _GETTING ON_, as you
call it?'

'Oh! Miss Elmore, you are very hard on me, when I have just been so
cruelly disappointed.'

'My dear child, it is only because I want you to discover why you
have been so cruelly disappointed.'

It would be wearisome to relate all that Arthurine finally told of
those thwartings by the Merrifields which had thrown her into the
arms of the Mytton family, nor how Miss Elmore brought her to
confess that each scheme was either impracticable, or might have
been injurious, and that a little grain of humility might have made
her see things very differently. Yet it must be owned that the good
lady felt rather like bending a bow that would spring back again.

Bessie Merrifield had, like her family, been inclined to conclude
that all was the fault of High Schools. She did not see Miss Elmore
at first, thinking the Arthurets not likely to wish to be intruded
upon, and having besides a good deal to think over. For she and her
father had talked over the proposal, which pecuniarily was so
tempting, and he, without prejudice, but on principle, had concurred
with her in deciding that it was her duty not to add one touch of
attractiveness to aught which supported a cause contrary to their
strongest convictions. Her father's approbation was the crowning
pleasure, though she felt the external testimony to her abilities,
quite enough to sympathise with such intoxication of success as to
make any compliment seem possible. Miss Elmore had one long talk
with her, beginning by saying--

'I wish to consult you about my poor, foolish child.'

'Ah! I am afraid we have not helped her enough!' said Bessie. 'If
we had been more sympathetic she might have trusted us more.'

'Then you are good enough to believe that it was not all folly and
presumption.'

'I am sure it was not,' said Bessie. 'None of us ever thought it
more than inexperience and a little exaltation, with immense good
intention at the bottom. Of course, our dear old habits did look
dull, coming from life and activity, and we rather resented her
contempt for them; but I