‘My education, I mean, papa,’ she said, looking at him with eyes so lovely in hue and expression, so piteous in their timid pleading, that they ought to have touched him. ‘I know you sent me to Madame Tolmache to be finished, and that she was very expensive; but I’m afraid I came away horribly ignorant; and I begin to feel that a year or two more of schooling would be of very great value to me. I am older now, don’t you know, papa; and I should try more earnestly to improve myself. Indeed, indeed, papa, I would work very hard this time,’ urged Daphne, remorsefully remembering how little she had worked in the past. ‘I don’t care where you send me: to Asnières, or to Germany, or anywhere: so that I could only go on with my education.’ ‘Go on with it at home,’ answered Sir Vernon contemptuously. ‘You can read, and write, and spell, I suppose. Yes; I have some of your letters asking me for different things in those pigeon-holes. Any woman who can do as much as that can improve herself. There are books enough on those shelves’—with a glance at his classical and correct collection—‘to make you wiser than any woman need be. But as for this freak of wanting to go back to school——’ ‘It is no freak, papa. It is my most earnest desire. I feel it would be better—for all of us.’ She had changed from red to white by this time, and stood before her father like a culprit, downcast and deadly pale. ‘It would not be better for me who would have to pay the bills. I have paid a pretty penny already for your education; and you may suppose how vastly agreeable it is to me to hear your frank confession of ignorance.’ ‘It is best for me to tell the truth, papa. Do not deny me this favour. It is the first great thing I have ever asked of you.’ ‘It is a very foolish thing, and I should be a fool if I humoured your caprice.’ She gave a little cry of mental pain. ‘How can I convince you that it is no caprice?’ she asked despairingly. ‘I was lying awake all last night thinking about it. I am most thoroughly in earnest, papa.’ ‘You were thoroughly in earnest about your boat; and now you are tired of it. You were intensely anxious to come home; and now you are tired of home. You are a creature of whims and fancies.’