Aunt Jane thought it time to interfere.  ‘Fergus,’ she said, ’you had better not repeat improper sayings, especially about a clergyman.’

Fergus wriggled.

‘And,’ added Aunt Ada, with equal severity, ’you know Mr. Flight is a very kind friend to little Maura and her sister.’

‘Indeed he is,’ said Kalliope earnestly; and Maura, feeling herself addressed, added, ’Nobody but he ever called on poor mamma, till Miss Mohun did; no, not Lady Flight.’

‘We are very grateful for his kindness,’ put in Kalliope, in a repressive tone.

‘But,’ said Gillian, ’I thought you said he had seemed to care less of late.’

‘I do not know,’ said Miss White, blushing; ’music seems to be his chief interest, and there has not been anything fresh to get up since the concert.’

‘I suppose there will be for the winter,’ said Miss Mohun, and therewith the conversation was safely conducted away to musical subjects, in which some of the sisters’ pride and affection for their brothers peeped out; but Gillian was conscious all the time that Kalliope was speaking with some constraint when she mentioned Alexis, and that she was glad rather to dwell on little Theodore, who had good hopes of the drawing prize, and she seriously consulted Miss Mohun on the pupil-teachership for him, as after he had passed the seventh standard he could not otherwise go on with his education, though she did not think he had much time for teaching.

‘Would not Mr. White help him further?’ asked Miss Mohun.

‘I do not know.  I had much rather not ask,’ said Kalliope.  ’We are too many to throw ourselves on a person who is no near relation, and he has not seemed greatly disposed to help.’

‘Your elder brother?’

’Oh, poor Richard, he is not earning anything yet.  I can’t ask him.  If I only knew of some school I could be sure was safe and good and not too costly, Alexis and I would try to manage for Theodore after the examination in the spring.’

The Woodward schools were a new light to her, and she was eagerly interested in Miss Mohun’s explanations and in the scale of terms.

Meantime Miss Adeline got on excellently with the younger ones, and when the others were free, proposed for their benefit a spelling game.  All sat round the table, made words, and abstracted one another’s with increasing animation, scarcely heeding the roaring of the wind outside, till there was a ring at the bell.

‘My brother has come for us,’ said Kalliope.

‘Oh, but it is not fit for you to walk home,’ said Miss Mohun.  ’The brougham is coming by and by; ask Mr. White to come in,’ she added, as the maid appeared with the message that he was come for his sisters.

There was a confusion of acknowledgments and disclaimers, and word was brought back that Mr. White was too wet to come in.  Miss Mohun, who was not playing, but prompting Fergus, jumped up and went out to investigate, when she found a form in an ancient military cloak, trying to keep himself from dripping where wet could do mischief.  She had to explain her regret at his having had such a walk in vain; but she had taken alarm on finding that rain was setting in for the night, and had sent word by the muffin-boy that the brougham would be wanted, contriving to convey that it was not to be paid for.