C. I shall tell mother that if she must needs come down to wallow in her native goodiness, it is due to let me board in Kensington till my courses are completed. L. Since she won't be an unnatural daughter, she is to leave the part to you. Well, I suppose it will be for the general peace. C. Now, Lucius, you speak out of the remains of the old tyrannical barbarism, when the daughters were nothing but goods and chattels. L. Goods, yes, indeed, and betters. C. No doubt the men liked it! But won't you stand by me, Lucius? You say it would be for the general peace. L. I only said you would be better away than making yourself obnoxious. I can't think how you can have the heart, Cis, such a pet as you always were. C. I would not hurt their feelings for the world, only my improvement is too important to be sacrificed, and if no one else will stand up for me, I must stand up for myself. III. BRIDE-ELECT AND FATHER SCENE.--THREE WEEKS LATER. BREAKFAST TABLE AT DARKGLADE VICARAGE, MR. AVELAND AND EUPHRASIA READING THEIR LETTERS. THREE LITTLE CHILDREN EATING BREAD AND MILK. E. There! Mary has got the house at Brompton off her hands and can come for good on the 11th. That is the greatest possible comfort. She wants to bring her piano; it has a better tone than ours. MR. A. Certainly! Little Miss Hilda there will soon be strumming her scales on the old one, and Mary and Cis will send me to sleep in the evening with hers. E. Oh! MR. A. Why, Phrasie, what's the matter? E. This is a blow! Cicely is only coming to be bridesmaid, and then going back to board at Kensington and go on with her studies. MR. A. To board? All alone? E. Oh! that's the way with young ladies! MR. A. Mary cannot have consented. E. Have you done, little folks? Then say grace, Hilda, and run out till the lesson bell rings. Yes, poor Mary, I am afraid she thinks all that Cecilia decrees is right; or if she does not naturally believe so, she is made to. MR. A. Come, come, Phrasie, I always thought Mary a model mother. E. So did I, and so she was while the children were small, except that they were more free and easy with her than was the way in our time. And I think she is all that is to be desired to her son; but when last I was in London, I cannot say I was satisfied, I thought Cissy had got beyond her. MR. A. For want of a father? E. Not entirely. You know I could not think Charles Moldwarp quite worthy of Mary, though she never saw it. MR. A. Latterly we saw so little of him! He liked to spend his holiday in mountain climbing, and Mary made her visits here alone.