'Now, Juliana, it's no good, no good at all, bringing out all these old volumes of yours. _Mangnall's Questions_ might comprise all that was necessary for a girl to learn in your day, but it's obsolete. So is _Murray_. Why, good Heavens! a chit of a creature told me the other night at the Deanery that there isn't an article now in our English grammar, and all the other parts of speech are playing puss-in-the-corner--for want of it, I should think. Cynthy must learn to read and write and cipher, of course; she'll have to sign cheques and witness deeds one of these days. She can read any book in my library; there isn't one vicious thing there; and as for allusions in Shakespere, for instance, well, she'll lay the good to heart and won't understand the bad. She'll pick up information as she goes along, and then, of course, she must finish off with masters. But as for _Mangnall_, it's no good at all. Just leave the child alone. I'll teach her to ride, and jump, and fence, and play bowls, and we shall have her a fine woman, and that's all a woman need be.' But he pulled his moustache ferociously, and his hand trembled so much in fixing his eye-glass, when he presently took up the _Gentleman's Magazine_, that Mrs. Marlowe was sure he had misgivings. However, it was a mercy that she was not expected to lay down the law and take responsibility. But this did not exempt her from unhappiness on Cynthia's account. She had a clear vision of a _via media_ that should not entail mathematics and classics, but should comprise more than the three R's. It made her miserable to see Cynthy's fearlessness on her pony; she would ride to hounds and break her neck; she would sprain her ankle when jumping and be crippled for life; and when she had learnt dancing who in the world was to chaperon her to balls? The Admiral was too headstrong; she would be a tomboy after all, and set every social rule at defiance and chaperon herself! The skipping-rope was all very well; she liked to see her spring up and down the length of the corridors on a wet day, and it was really pretty to watch the Admiral teach her bowls, but was a girl ever taught to fence? He would be teaching her the tactics of naval warfare next. Why was he crazy for her to be a fine-looking woman? _she_ had never been so. Just so; and she was delicate. Well, perhaps he was right. But she sighed and was sure he was wrong.