The St.Quentins were slender, ladylike girls, much alike, and rendered more so by an exact similarity of costume.
Their governess was a very charming and talented woman, and when Mrs.
St.Quentin proposed that Matilda and I should share her daughters' French lessons under Miss Airlie, Major Buller and Aunt Theresa thankfully accepted the offer.

I think that our short association with this excellent lady went far to cure us of the silly fancies and tricks of vulgar gossip which we had gleaned from Miss Perry.
So matters went on for some months, much to Matilda's and my satisfaction, when a letter from my other guardian changed our plans once more.
Mr.Arkwright's only daughter was going to school.

He wrote to ask the Bullers to let her break the journey by spending a night at their house.
It was a long journey, for she was coming from the north.
"They live in Yorkshire," said Major Buller, much as one might speak of living in Central Africa.
Matilda and I looked forward with great interest to Miss Arkwright's arrival.

Her name, we learnt, was Eleanor, and she was nearly a year older than Maria.
"She'll be _your_ friend, I suppose," I said, a little enviously, in reference to her age.
"Of course," said Matilda, with dignity.

"But you can be with us a good deal," she was kind enough to add.
I remember quite well how disappointed I felt that I should have so little title to share the newcomer's friendship.
"If she had only been ten years old, and so come between us," I thought, "she would have been as much mine as Matilda's." I little thought then what manner of friends we were to be in spite of the five years' difference in age.