"Ask Blanche; she is nearer you than I."

"Oh，don"t refer him to me，mama! I have just one word to say of the whole tribe; they are a nuisance. Not that I ever suffered much from them; I took care to turn the tables. What tricks Theodore and I used to play on our Miss Wilsons，and Mrs. Greys，and Madame Jouberts! Mary was always too sleepy to join in a plot with spirit.

The best fun was with Madame Joubert: Miss Wilson was a poor sickly thing，lachrymose and low-spirited，not worth the trouble of vanquishing，in short; and Mrs. Grey was coarse and insensible; no blow took effect on her. But poor Madame Joubert! I see her yet in her raging passions，when we had driven her to extremities- spilt our tea，crumbled our bread and butter，tossed our books up to the ceiling，and played a charivari with the ruler and desk，the fender and fire-irons.

Theodore，do you remember those merry days?"

"Yaas，to be sure I do," drawled Lord Ingram; "and the poor old stick used to cry out "Oh you villains childs!"- and then we sermonised her on the presumption of attempting to teach such clever blades as we were，when she was herself so ignorant."

"We did; and，Tedo，you know，I helped you in prosecuting (or persecuting) your tutor，whey-faced Mr. Vining- the parson in the pip，as we used to call him. He and Miss Wilson took the liberty of falling in love with each other- at least Tedo and I thought so; we surprised sundry tender glances and sighs which we interpreted as tokens of "la belle passion," and I promise you the public soon had the benefit of our discovery; we employed it as a sort of lever to hoist our dead-weights from the house. Dear mama，there，as soon as she got an inkling of the business，found out that it was of an immoral tendency. Did you not，my lady-mother?"

"Certainly，my best. And I was quite right: depend on that: there are a thousand reasons why liaisons between governesses and tutors should never be tolerated a moment in any well-regulated house; firstly-"