But whilst Maud and Dora were still with their homely schoolmistress, Wattleborough saw fit to establish a Girls' High School, and the moderateness of the fees enabled these sisters to receive an intellectual training wholly incompatible with the material conditions of their life.

To the relatively poor (who are so much worse off than the poor absolutely) education is in most cases a mocking cruelty.

The burden of their brother's support made it very difficult for Maud and Dora even to dress as became their intellectual station; amusements, holidays, the purchase of such simple luxuries as were all but indispensable to them, could not be thought of.

It resulted that they held apart from the society which would have welcomed them, for they could not bear to receive without offering in turn.

The necessity of giving lessons galled them; they felt--and with every reason--that it made their position ambiguous.