'
'If I thought of her being sent to school,' said Claude, 'it would be
to shield her from--the rule of love.'
'Oh! you think we are too indulgent,' said Emily; 'perhaps we are,
but you know we cannot torment a poor child all day long.'
'If you call the way you treat her indulgent, I should like to know
what you call severe.'
'What do you mean, Claude?' said Emily.
'I call your indulgence something like the tender mercies of the
wicked,' said Claude. 'On a fine day, when every one is taking their
pleasure in the garden, to shut an unhappy child up in the
schoolroom, with a hard sum that you have not taken the trouble to
teach her how to do, and late in the day, when no one's head is clear
for difficult arithmetic--'
'Hard sum do you call it?' said Jane.
'Indeed I explained it to her,' said Emily.
'And well she understood you,' said Claude.
'She might have learnt if she had attended,' said Emily; 'Ada
understood clearly, with the same explanation.'
'And do not you be too proud of the effect of your instructions,
Claude,' said Jane, 'for when honest Phyl came into the garden, she
did not know farthings from fractions.'
'And pray, Mrs.
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