Arabella Clinker took Sunday afternoons generally to write a long letter to her mother, and Good Friday seemed almost a Sunday, so she went up to her room from force of habit.

But first she looked up some facts in the countless books of reference she kept always by her.

Mrs.Cricklander had skated over some very thin ice at luncheon upon a classical subject, when talking to the distinguished Mr.Derringham, and she must be warned and primed up before dinner.

Arabella had herself averted a catastrophe and dexterously turned the conversation in the nick of time.

Mrs.
Cricklander had a peculiarly unclassical brain, and found learning statistics about ancient philosophies and the names of mythological personages the most difficult of all.