They've good stuff in them--good, staying stuff; and they do a lot of useful work in keeping down Radicalism and keeping up the sentiment of our imperial responsibilities and traditions.

They are solid, at all events, not hollow.' And to this poor Aunt Julia, whose traditions did not allow her the retort of sheer brutality, could find no answer.
The absurd outcome of the situation was that Althea and Aunt Julia came to look for succour to the girls.

The girls were able--astonishingly so, to cope with Miss Buckston.

In the first place, they found her inexpressibly funny, and neither Althea nor Aunt Julia quite succeeded at that; and in the second, they rather liked her; they did not argue with her, they did not take her seriously for a moment; they only played buoyantly about her.

A few months before, Althea would have been gravely disturbed by their lack of reverence; she saw it now with guilty satisfaction.