AMY O'CONNELL. And is that a reproach or a compliment? WALTER KENT. [_Boldly._] I do. FRANCES TREBELL. Or a man may ... unless he's a philosopher. LADY DAVENPORT. [_To the rescue._] Miss Trebell, you're very hard on mere humanity. FRANCES TREBELL. [_Completing the reproof._] That's my wretched training as a schoolmistress, Lady Davenport ... one grew to fear it above all things. LUCY DAVENPORT. [_Throwing in the monosyllable with sharp youthful enquiry._] Why? FRANCES TREBELL. There were no text books on the subject. MRS. FARRANT. [_Smiling at her friend._] Yes, Fanny ... I think you escaped to look after your brother only just in time. FRANCES TREBELL. In another year I might have been head-mistress, which commits you to approve of the system for ever. LADY DAVENPORT. [_Shaking her wise head._] I've watched the Education fever take England.... FRANCES TREBELL. If I hadn't stopped teaching things I didn't understand...! AMY O'CONNELL. [_Not without mischief._] And what was the effect on the pupils? LUCY DAVENPORT. I can tell you that. AMY O'CONNELL. Frances never taught you. LUCY DAVENPORT. No, I wish she had. But I was at her sort of a school before I went to Newnham. I know. FRANCES TREBELL. [_Very distastefully._] Up-to-date, it was described as. LUCY DAVENPORT. Well, it was like a merry-go-round at top speed. You felt things wouldn't look a bit like that when you came to a standstill. AMY O'CONNELL. And they don't? LUCY DAVENPORT. [_With great decision._] Not a bit. AMY O'CONNELL. [_In her velvet tone._] I was taught the whole duty of woman by a parson-uncle who disbelieved in his Church. WALTER KENT. When a man at Jude's was going to take orders.... AMY O'CONNELL. Jude's? WALTER KENT. At Oxford. The dons went very gingerly with him over bits of science and history. [_This wakes a fruitful thought in_ JULIA FARRANT'S _brain._] MRS. FARRANT. Mamma, have you ever discussed so-called anti-Christian science with Lord Charles? FRANCES TREBELL ... Cantelupe? MRS. FARRANT. Yes. It was over appointing a teacher for the schools down here ... he was staying with us. The Vicar's his fervent disciple. However, we were consulted. LUCY DAVENPORT. Didn't Lord Charles want you to send the boys there till they were ready for Harrow? MRS. FARRANT. Yes. FRANCES TREBELL. Quite the last thing in Toryism! MRS. FARRANT. Mamma made George say we were too _nouveau riche_ to risk it. LADY DAVENPORT. [_As she laughs._] I couldn't resist that. MRS. FARRANT. [_Catching something of her subject's dry driving manner._] Lord Charles takes the superior line and says ... that with his consent the Church may teach the unalterable Truth in scientific language or legendary, whichever is easier understanded of the people. LADY DAVENPORT. Is it the prospect of Disestablishment suddenly makes him so accommodating? FRANCES TREBELL. [_With large contempt._] He needn't be. The majority of people believe the world was made in an English week.