Magdalen laughed. “A new sentiment!” she said. “I don’t like the stones,” said Vera, “but I did not know Filsted was such a poky place.” “A dead flat!” added Paula. “No sea, no torrs! one wanted something to look at! and _such_ a church!” “Did you see Minnie Maitland?” put in Thekla. “I saw all the Maitlands in a hurry,” said Vera. “I don’t remember which was which. They were all dressed alike in horrid colours. Hubert said they set his teeth on edge!” “How was old Mrs. Delrio?” “Just the same as ever, lean and pinched.” “But so kind!” added Paula. “She could not make enough of Flapsy.” “I should think not!” ejaculated Vera. “Enough! aye, and too much! just fancy, no dinner napkins! and Edith went away and made the scones herself!” “Very praiseworthy,” said Magdalen. “Don’t you know how Hubert always tells us what a dear devoted good girl she is?” “Well, I only hope Hubert does not expect me to live in that way,” said Vera. “His mother looks like a half-starved hare, and Edith is giving lessons as a daily governess! “Edith is very nice,” said Paula; “and I never understood before how excellent old Mr. Delrio’s pictures are! Do you remember his ‘Country Lane’? What a pity it did not sell!” “Poor man!” said Magdalen. “He married too soon, and that has kept him down.” “It is beautiful to see how proud they are of Hubert,” said Paula, “and his pretty gentle attention and deference to them both. Mr. Delrio is really a gentleman, I am sure; but, Maidie,” she said, falling back with her, while Vera and Thekla mounted faster, “it was very odd to see how different things looked to us from what they seemed when we were at Mrs. Best’s. Filsted High Street has grown so small, and one could hardly breathe in Mrs. Delrio’s stuffy drawing-room. And as to Waring Grange, which we used to think just perfect, it was all so pretentious and in such bad taste. Hubert saw it as much as we did, but I could see he was on thorns to hinder Flapsy from making observations.” Certainly the visit had not done much good, except in making the girls appreciate the refinement of their surroundings at the Goyle. And when letters arrived from Hubert at the American Vale Leston, asking questions requiring some research in books, either Magdalen’s or at the Rock Quay library, Vera dawdled and sighed over them; and when the more zealous Magdalen or Paula took all the trouble, and left nothing for her to do but to copy their notes, and write the letters, she grew cross. “It was for Hubert, and she did not want any one else to meddle! So stupid! If he had only taken Pratt and Pavis’s offer, there would not have been all this bother!” That, of course, she only ventured to utter before Paula and Thekla, and it made them both so furious that she declared she was only in joke, and did not mean it.