entered, till the bell rang for "Eda to fetch the Misses Dalton," it would be an incessant repetition of reproofs. Nothing discourages a child so much as the impossibility of pleasing. At first Julia and Ellen held up their heads, and altered their position every second minute, but it was in vain. They grew careless at last, and, not loving Mrs. Dalton, became indifferent whether they pleased her or not.
In the meantime their father found all this very tiresome; and, too indolent to examine who was in fault, satisfied himself with repeating, what his wife so often asserted, "that all children were plagues when come to a certain age." He only hoped that this age would soon be past, and in the meantime only supposed that his own had more than ordinary allotment of wearisomeness and stupidity. The fact was that they scarcely dared to speak, or raise their eyes, during the brief visit which they paid to the dining-room. He was little aware of the system of minute tyranny which his wife pursued. Not that she was cruel,
