Tom and Some Other Girls | Page 8

to her as a brilliant inspiration that there was no possible hurry, and that
sitting under the trees reading a book, and drinking lemon squash, was
a much more agreeable method of spending a hot summer's day than
working like a charwoman. She carried her latest book into the garden
forthwith, ordered the "squash," and spent an hour of contented
idleness before lunch.
The story, however, was not interesting enough to tempt a second
reading during the afternoon, for the heroine was a girl of
unimpeachable character, who pursued her studies at home under the
charge of a daily governess, and such a poor-spirited creature could

hardly be expected to commend herself to a girl who had decided for
two whole days to go to the newest of all new schools, and already felt
herself far removed from such narrow experiences. Rhoda cast about in
her mind for the next diversion, and decided to bicycle across the park
to call upon the Vicar's daughter the self-same Ella Mason who had
been her informant on so many important points. Ella would be indeed
overcome to hear that Rhoda herself was to be a "Hurst" girl, and there
would be an increased interest in hearing afresh those odd pieces of
information which had fallen from the cousin's lips.
She felt a thrill of relief on hearing that her friend was at home, and in
finding her alone in the morning-room, which looked so bare and
colourless to eyes accustomed to the splendours of the Chase.
Something of the same contrast existed between the two girls
themselves, for while Rhoda sat glowing pink and white after her ride,
Ella's cheeks were as pale as her dress, and her eyes almost as
colourless as the washed-out ribbon round her waist. She was not a
beauty by any means, but unaffectedly loving and unselfish, rejoicing
in her friend's news, though it would deprive her of a favourite
companion, and she was all anxiety to help and encourage. She knitted
her brow to remember all that the cousin had said of Hurst Manor,
wishing only that she had listened with more attention to those pearls of
wisdom.
"Yes, she said that they did a great deal of Latin. All the girls learn it,
and it seems to be looked on as one of the most important subjects.
They translate Horace and Livy and all kinds of learned books."
"Humph! I shan't!" declared Rhoda coolly. "I don't approve of Latin for
girls. It's silly. Of course, if you intend to teach, or be a doctor, or
anything like that, it may be useful, but for ordinary stop- at-home girls
it's nonsense. What use would Latin be to me, I should like to know? I
shall take modern languages instead. I can read and write French
fluently, though it doesn't come quite so easy to speak it, and German,
of course, is second nature after jabbering with Fraulein all these years.
I should think in German if I would allow myself, but I won't. I don't
think it is patriotic. There is not very much that any one can teach me

of French or German!"
"Then what is the use of studying them any more?" inquired Ella, aptly
enough; but Rhoda was not a whit discomposed.
"My dear, it is ever so much pleasanter doing things that you
understand! The first stages are such a grind. Well, what next? What
other subjects are important?"
"Mathematics. Some of the girls are awfully clever, and are ever so far
on in Euclid. I did one book with father; but it worried me so, and I
cried so much one day when he altered the letters and put the whole
thing out, that he grew tired, and said I could give it up. You didn't do
any with Fraulein, I think?"
"No; it's a nuisance. I wish I did now; but I'll have to begin at once,
that's all! I'll get Harold's old books and cram up before I go, so that I
can just bring in an expression now and then, as if I knew all about it.
Girls are so patronising if they think you are a beginner... I'm pretty
well up in history, and can say reams of poetry, and play, and draw, and
paint in water colours--"
"Ye-es!" assented Ella feebly. She was afraid to say so much in words,
but her conviction was that her friend's methods of work would seem
strangely antiquated when contrasted with the vivid strength of the new
regime. She recalled Rhoda's mild copies of village scenes, with
cottages in the foreground, trees to the rear, and a well-regulated flight
of swallows on the sky line, and mentally placed them beside her
cousin's vigorous sketches on the Slade system, where two or three
lines