"I am sorry," said Miss Winter, when he was gone. "I thought you had
outgrown that habit of disputing over every phrase."

"I can't tell how a language is to be learned without knowing the
reasons of one's mistakes," said Ethel.

"That is what you always say, my dear. It is of no use to renew it
all, but I wish you would control yourself. Now, Mary, call Blanche,
and you and Ethel take your arithmetic."

So Flora went to read to Margaret, while Blanche went lightly and
playfully through her easy lessons, and Mary floundered piteously
over the difficulties of Compound Long Division. Ethel's mind was in
too irritated and tumultuous a state for her to derive her usual
solace from Cube Root. Her sum was wrong, and she wanted to work it
right, but Miss Winter, who had little liking for the higher branches
of arithmetic, said she had spent time enough over it, and summoned
her to an examination such as the governess was very fond of and
often practised. Ethel thought it useless, and was teased by it; and
though her answers were chiefly correct, they were given in an
irritated tone. It was of this kind:--


What is the date of the invention of paper?
What is the latitude and longitude of Otaheite?
What are the component parts of brass?
Whence is cochineal imported?