Magdalen, after her game at croquet, had spent a very pleasant time with Lady Merrifield and her brother and sister, till they were imperiously summoned by Primrose to come and give consent to the transfer of Phœbus, or to choose between him and the Mufti, to whom Thekla had begun to incline. The whole party adjourned to the back settlements, where Magdalen was edified by the antics of the mungoose, and admired the Begum and her progeny with a heartiness that would have won Thekla’s heart, save that she remembered hearing Vera say, over the domestic cat in the morning, that M.A.’s were always devoted to cats. But, on the whole, the visit had done much to reconcile the young sisters to their new surroundings; books, bicycles, and kitten had reconciled them even to the intimacy with “swells.” The hired bicycle and tricycle had arrived in their absence, and the moment breakfast was over the next morning, the three younger ones all rushed off to the enjoyment, and, at ten minutes past the appointed hour for the early reading and study, Agatha felt obliged to go out and tell them that the M.A. was sitting like Patience on a monument, waiting for them; on which three tongues said “Bother,” and “She ought to let us off till the proper end of the holidays.” “Then you should have propitiated her by asking leave after the Scripture was done,” said Agatha; “you might have known she would not let you off that.” “Bother,” said Vera again; “just like an M.A.” “I did forget,” said Paula; “and you know it was only just going through a lesson for form’s sake, like the old superlative.” They had, in fact, read the day before; when Thekla had made such frightful work of every unaccustomed word, and the elders by one or two observations had betrayed so much ignorance alike of Samuel’s history and of the Gospel of St. Luke, that she had resolved to endeavour at a thorough teaching of the Old and New Testaments for the first hour on alternate days, giving one day in the week to Catechism and Prayer Book. She asked what they had done before. “Mrs. Best always read something at prayers.” “Something?” “Something out of the Bible.” “No, the Testament.” “I am sure it was the Bible, it was so fat.” “And Saul was in it, and we had him yesterday.” “That was St. Paul before he was converted,” said Paula. There their knowledge seemed to end, and it further appeared that Mrs. Best heard the Catechism and Collect on Sundays from the unconfirmed, and had tried to get the Gospel repeated by heart, but had not succeeded. “We did not think it fair,” said Vera. “None of the other houses did.” “Yes,” said Agatha, “Miss Ferris’s did.” “Oh, she is a regular old Prot,” said Paula, “almost a Dissenter, and it is not the Gospel either, only texts out of her own head.” “Polly!” said Agatha. “Texts out of her own head!”