"Julia," he said, "I bear with much of your petulance because I think I have in some degree deserved it, by neglecting to superintend your education sufficiently closely.

Yet I would not have you give it the rein upon a subject so delicate.

If you do not respect the feelings of your surviving parent towards the memory of her whom you have lost, attend at least to the sacred claims of misfortune; and observe, that the slightest hint of such a jest reaching Miss Bertram's ears would at once induce her to renounce her present asylum, and go forth, without a protector, into a world she has already felt so unfriendly." 'What could I say to this, Matilda?
I only cried heartily, begged pardon, and promised to be a good girl in future.

And so here am I neutralised again, for I cannot, in honour or common good-nature, tease poor Lucy by interfering with Hazlewood, although she has so little confidence in me; and neither can I, after this grave appeal, venture again upon such delicate ground with papa.

So I burn little rolls of paper, and sketch Turks' heads upon visiting cards with the blackened end--I assure you I succeeded in making a superb Hyder-Ally last night--and I jingle on my unfortunate harpsichord, and begin at the end of a grave book and read it backward.