Alice, who had never been a student in the proper sense of the word, read for the twentieth time a few volumes in her possession--poetry, popular history, and half a dozen novels such as the average mother of children would have approved in the governess's hands.

With Virginia the case was somewhat different.

Up to about her twenty-fourth year she had pursued one subject with a zeal limited only by her opportunities; study absolutely disinterested, seeing that she had never supposed it would increase her value as a 'companion', or enable her to take any better position.

Her one intellectual desire was to know as much as possible about ecclesiastical history.

Not in a spirit of fanaticism; she was devout, but in moderation, and never spoke bitterly on religious topics.