"All the three governesses I have had here did not speak French to me," interrupted Flora, resentfully. "Not one of them." "Have you had three governesses? That is a great many, considering you are yet young," observed Madame, in English. "They were all bad ones," said the girl. "Or was it that you were a bad pupil You must be a better one with me." Ethers shapely head, with its bright dark hair, was bent over her copying again: she said nothing. Madame Guise determined to speak in English to the child for at least this morning, until the studies should be put in train. "We will begin with your English grammar"--taking up the dog-eared, untidy book. "How far have you advanced in it, Miss Flora?" "I don't like grammar." "How far have you advanced in it?" equably pursued Madame. "I don't recollect." "To begin English grammar again," spoke Madame, addressing herself, and making a note on paper with a pencil. "I shan't begin it again." "You will not say to me I shall or I shan't; you will do what I please," quietly corrected Madame. "This is your English History. What reign are you in?" Miss Flora had her elbows on the table, her hands under her chin, and her pretty face pushed out defiantly opposite Madame. The patches of plaster were nearly all gone; her light curls tied back with a black ribbon, hang low behind. She wore a black frock and white pinafore. "Which of the king's reigns are you in?" pursued Madame. "Not in any. I know them all. Charles the Second was beheaded; and Henry the Eighth had ten wives: and Guy Faux blew up the gunpowder plot; and Elizabeth boxed people's ears." "Oh," said Madame, "I think we shall have to begin that again. Are you good at spelling?" "I can't spell at all. I hate it. Mamma says I need not learn to spell." "I fancy that cannot be true. How will you write letters if you cannot spell?" "Who wants to write letters?--I don't." "Flora!" put in Ethel in a warning tone. The girl turned angrily on Ethel. "Nobody asked you to speak: mind your copying." "Mind your manners, said Ethel nodding to her. "Not for you, or for anybody else in this room." "It is very unpleasant to hear young ladies say these rude things," interposed Madame. "As your governess, Miss Flora, I shall not permit it." "That's what my other governesses would say," retorted Flora. "It made no difference to me." "If the other governesses did not do their duty by you, it is no reason why I should not do mine," said Madame. "Your papa has charged me with forming your manners; if I have trouble in doing it I am to appeal to him." Flora was silent. The one only authority she feared, in the house or out of it, was her father's. He would not be trifled with, however her mother might be. "I hate governesses, Madame Guise. I'd like to know what they were invented for?"