Willingly she consented, only requesting that Lady Helen would not mention her intentions either to Annie or Miss Malison till her husband had been consulted, and to this Lady Helen willingly consented, for in secret she dreaded Miss Malison's lamentations and reproaches, when this arrangement should be known.
When Mr.Grahame, in compliance with Mrs.Hamilton's message, called on her the following morning, and heard the cause of his summons, his surprise almost equalled that of his wife.

He knew her dislike to the plan of sending girls to school, however it might be in vogue; and almost in terror he asked if she proposed this scheme because the evil character of his child required some such desperate expedient.

It was easy to prove to him such was very far from her meaning.

She spoke more openly on the character of Lilla than she had yet done, for she thought their long years of intimacy demanded candour on her part; and each year, while it increased the evil of Lilla's present situation heightened her earnest desire to draw the father and child more closely together.

She did not palliate her faults, but she proved that they were increased by the constant contradiction and irritation which she had to encounter.