said the ex-schoolmistress.

'No. I am sorry to say they have been much neglected; in truth,
they can hardly read. And so I thought that by marrying a young
schoolmistress I should get some one in the house who could teach 'em,
and bring 'em into genteel condition, all for nothing. You see, they
are growed up too tall to be sent to school.'

'O, mercy!' she almost moaned. 'Four great girls to teach the
rudiments to, and have always in the house with me spelling over their
books; and I hate teaching, it kills me. I am bitterly punished--I am,
I am!'

'You'll get used to 'em, mee deer, and the balance of secrets--mine
against yours--will comfort your heart with a sense of justice. I
could send for 'em this week very well--and I will! In faith, I
could send this very day. Baptista, you have relieved me of all my
difficulty!'

Thus the interview ended, so far as this matter was concerned.
Baptista was too stupefied to say more, and when she went away to
her room she wept from very mortification at Mr Heddegan's duplicity.
Education, the one thing she abhorred; the shame of it to delude a
young wife so!

The next meal came round. As they sat, Baptista would not suffer
her eyes to turn towards him. He did not attempt to intrude upon her
reserve, but every now and then looked under the table and chuckled
with satisfaction at the aspect of affairs. 'How very well matched we
be!' he said, comfortably.

Next day, when the steamer came in, Baptista saw her husband rush
down to meet it; and soon after there appeared at her door four tall,
hipless, shoulderless girls, dwindling in height and size from the
eldest to the youngest, like a row of Pan pipes; at the head of them
standing Heddegan. He smiled pleasantly through the grey fringe of his
whiskers and beard, and turning to the girls said, 'Now come forrard,
and shake hands properly with your stepmother.'

Thus she made their acquaintance, and he went out, leaving them
together. On examination the poor girls turned out to be not only
plain-looking, which she could have forgiven, but to have such
a lamentably meagre intellectual equipment as to be hopelessly
inadequate as companions. Even the eldest, almost her own age, could
only read with difficulty words of two syllables; and taste in dress
was beyond their comprehension. In the long vista of future years
she saw nothing but dreary drudgery at her detested old trade without
prospect of reward.

She went about quite