In the course of her life in London, Mona had met many girls who chafed at home duties, and longed for a 'sphere,' but a girl who longed for a husband, _quâ_ husband, was so surprising an instance of atavism as to be practically a new type. Matilda sighed. "You don't know what our home life is," she said. "We pay calls, and people call on us; we go for proper walks along the highroad; we play on the piano and we do crewel-work; we get novels from the library,--and that is all. Just the same thing over and over again." "And don't you care enough for books and music to find scope in them?" Matilda shook her head. "Can you read German!" she asked abruptly, looking at Mona's book. "Yes; do you?" "No; and I never in my life met any one who could, unless perhaps my German teachers. I took it for three years at school, but I should not know one word in ten now. I wish I did! We had a nice row, I can tell you, when I first came home from school, and Father brought in a German letter from the office one day. He actually expected me to be able to read it!" "You could easily learn. It only wants a little dogged resolution,--enough to worry steadily through one German story-book with a dictionary. After that the neck of the difficulty is broken." Matilda made a grimace. "I have only got _Bilderbuch_," she said, "and I know the English of that by heart, from hearing the girls go over and over it in class. Start me off, and I can go on; but I can scarcely tell you which word stands for moon." She was almost startled at her own frankness. She had never talked like this to any one before. "You know I am not going to take you at your own valuation. Let me judge for myself," and Mona opened her book at the first page and held it out. Matilda put her hands up to her face. "_Don't!_" she said. "I couldn't bear to let you see how little I know. But I will try to learn. I will begin _Bilderbuch_ this very night, though I hate it as much as I do _Lycidas_ and _Hamlet_, and everything else I read at school." Mona shivered involuntarily. "Don't read anything you are sick of," she said. "If you like, I will lend you an interesting story that will tempt you on in spite of yourself." "Thanks awfully. You are very kind." "I shall be very glad to help you if you get into a real difficulty." Mona paused. "As I said before, I have no right to exact a promise from you--but I can't tell you how much more highly I should think of you if you did worry on to the end." The conclusion of this sentence took Matilda by surprise. She had imagined that Mona was going back to the subject of the drawing-master, but Mona seemed to have forgotten the existence of everything but German books. "And may I come here sometimes in the afternoon, and talk to you? I often see you go down to the beach." "I never know beforehand when I shall be able to come; but, if you care to take the chance, I shall always be glad to see you."