The one duty clearly before him was to set an example of righteous life, and to develop the girls' minds--in every proper direction.

For, as to training them for any path save those trodden by English ladies of the familiar type, he could not have dreamt of any such thing.

Dr.Madden's hopes for the race were inseparable from a maintenance of morals and conventions such as the average man assumes in his estimate of women.
The guest at table was a young girl named Rhoda Nunn.

Tall, thin, eager-looking, but with promise of bodily vigour, she was singled at a glance as no member of the Madden family.

Her immaturity (but fifteen, she looked two years older) appeared in nervous restlessness, and in her manner of speaking, childish at times in the hustling of inconsequent thoughts, yet striving to imitate the talk of her seniors.
She had a good head, in both senses of the phrase; might or might not develop a certain beauty, but would assuredly put forth the fruits of intellect.