Mr. Kendal had read aloud to his wife in the evening during the stay at the sea-side, and she was anxious not to let the habit drop.  He liked it, and read beautifully, and she thought it good for the children.  She therefore begged him to read, catching him on the way to his study, and coaxing him to stay no longer than to find a book.  He brought Schlegel’s Philosophy of History.  She feared that it was above the young ones, but it was delightful to herself, and the custom had better be established before it was perilled by attempts to adapt it to the children.  Lucy and Sophy seemed astonished and displeased, and their whispers had to be silenced, Gilbert learnt his lessons apart.  Albinia rallied her spirits, and insisted to herself that she did not feel discouraged.

Monday had gone, or rather Albinia had been robbed of it by visitors—­now for a vigorous Tuesday.  Her unpacking and her setting to rights were not half over, but as the surface was habitable, she resolved to finish at her leisure, and sacrifice no more mornings of study.

So after she had lingered at the door, to delight Gilbert by admiring his pony, she returned to the dining-room, where the girls were loading a small table in the window with piles of books and exercises, and Lucy was standing, looking all eagerness to show off her drawings.

’Yes, my dear, but first we had better read.  I have been talking to your papa, and we have settled that on Wednesdays and Fridays we will go to church; but on these days we will begin by reading the Psalms and Lessons.’

‘Oh,’ said Lucy, ’we never do that, except when we are at grandmamma’s.’

‘Pray are you too old or too young for it?’ said Albinia.

‘We did it to please grandmamma,’ said Sophy.

‘Now you will do it to please me,’ said Albinia, ’if for no better reason.  Fetch your Bibles and Prayerbooks.’

‘We shall never have time for our studies, I assure you, mamma,’ objected Lucy.

‘That is not your concern,’ said Albinia, her spirit rising at the girls’ opposition.  ‘I wish for obedience.’

Lucy went, Sophy leant against the table like a post.  Albinia regretted that the first shot should have been fired for such a cause, and sat perplexing herself whether it were worse to give way, or to force the girls to read Holy Scripture in such a mood.

Lucy came flying down with the four books in her hands, and began officiously opening them before her sister, and exhorting her not to give way to sullenness—­she ought to like to read the Bible—­which of course made Sophy look crosser.  The desire to establish her authority conquered the scruple about reverence.  Albinia set them to read, and suffered for it.  Lucy road flippantly; Sophy in the hoarse, dull, dogged voice of a naughty boy.  She did not dare to expostulate, lest she should exasperate the tempers that she had roused.

‘Never mind,’ she thought, ’when the institution is fixed, they will be more amenable.’