“Ah!  I spent nine years there, and not always unhappily.”

Eveena, who sat beside me, pressed my hand, with an intention easily understood.

“And you would like to see it again?” I inquired in compliance with her silent hint.

“Not to go back,” said Eunane.  “But I should like to pay it a visit, if it were possible.”

“Can we?” I asked Eveena.

“I think so,” she answered.  “I observe half a dozen people have gone in since we came in sight, and I fancy it is inspection day there.”

“Inspection?” I asked.

“Yes,” she replied in a tone of some little annoyance and discomfort.  “The girls who have completed their tenth year, and who are thought to have as good a chance now as they would have later, are dressed for the first time in the white robe and veil of maidenhood, and presented in the public chamber to attract the choice of those who are looking for brides.”

“Not a pleasant spectacle,” I said, “to you or to myself; but it will hardly annoy the others, and Eunane shall have her wish.”

We descended from our carriage at the gate, and entered the grounds of the Nursery.  Studiously as the health, the diet, and the exercise of the inmates are cared for, nothing is done to render the appearance of the home where they pass so large and critical a portion of their lives cheerful or attractive in appearance.  Utility alone is studied; how much beauty conduces to utility where the happiness and health of children are concerned, Martial science has yet to learn.  The grounds contained no flowers and but few trees; the latter ruined in point of form and natural grace to render them convenient supports for gymnastic apparatus.  A number of the younger girls, unveiled, but dressed in a dark plain garment reaching from the throat to the knees, with trousers giving free play to the limbs, were exercising on the different swings and bars, flinging the light weights and balls, or handling the substitutes for dumb-bells, the use of which forms an important branch of their education.  Others, relieved from this essential part of their tasks, were engaged in various sports.  One of these I noticed especially.  Perhaps a hundred young ladies on either side formed a sort of battalion, contending for the ground they occupied with light shields of closely woven wire and masks of the same material, and with spears consisting of a reed or grass about five feet in length, and exceedingly light.  When perfectly ripened, these spears are exceeding formidable, their points being sharp enough to pierce the skin of any but a pachydermatous animal.  Those employed in these games, however, are gathered while yet covered by a sheath, which, as they ripen, bursts and leaves the keen, hard point exposed.  Considerable care is taken in their selection, since, if nearly ripe, or if they should ripen prematurely under the heat of the sun when severed from the stem, the sheath bursting in the middle of a game, very