Aunt Merce considered my present state a hopeless one.

She was outside the orbit of the family planet, and saw the tendency of its revolutions, perceiving that father and mother were absorbed in their individual affairs.

She called mother's attention to my non-improvement, and proposed that I should return to Barmouth with her for a year, and become a pupil in a young lady's school, which had been recently established there, by a graduate of the Nipswich Female Seminary, a school distinguished for its ethics.
Mother looked astonished, when she heard this proposal.

"What!" she began with vehemence, "shall I subject"-- but checked herself when she caught my eye, and continued more calmly: "We will decide soon." It was decided that I should go, without my being consulted in the matter.

I felt resentful against mother, and could not understand till afterward, why she had consented to the plan.