Joanna had planned a future in which she ventured and toiled, while
Ellen wore a silk dress and sat on the drawing-room sofa--that being the
happiest lot she could picture for anyone, though she would have loathed
it herself.

In a couple of years Ansdore's credit once more stood high at Lewes Old
Bank, and Ellen could be sent to a select school at Folkestone--so
select indeed that there had been some difficulty about getting her
father's daughter into it. Joanna was surprised as well as disgusted
that the schoolmistress should give herself such airs, for she was very
plainly dressed, whereas Joanna had put on all her most gorgeous apparel
for the interview; but she had been very glad when her sister was
finally accepted as a pupil at Rose Hill House, for now she would have
as companions the daughters of clergymen and squires, and learn no doubt
to model herself on their refinement. She might even be asked to their
homes for her holidays, and, making friends in their circle, take a
short cut to silken immobility on the drawing-room sofa by way of
marriage.... Joanna congratulated herself on having really done very
well for Ellen, though during the first weeks she missed her sister
terribly. She missed their quarrels and caresses--she missed Ellen's
daintiness at meals, though she had often smacked it--she missed her
strutting at her side to church on Sunday--she missed her noisy,
remonstrant setting out to school every morning and her noisy
affectionate return--her heart ached when she looked at the little empty
bed in her room, and being sentimental she often dropped a tear where
she used to drop a kiss on Ellen's pillow.

Nevertheless she was proud of what she had done for her little sister,
and she was proud too of having restored Ansdore to prosperity, not by
stinging and paring, but by her double capacity for working hard herself