"Your directions shall be attended to，sir," said Miss Temple. "And，ma"am," he continued，"the laundress tells me some of the girls have two clean tuckers in the week: it is too much; the rules limit them to one."

"I think I can explain that circumstance，sir. Agnes and Catherine Johnstone were invited to take tea with some friends at Lowton last Thursday，and I gave them leave to put on clean tuckers for the occasion."

Mr. Brocklehurst nodded.

"Well，for once it may pass; but please not to let the circumstance occur too often. And there is another thing which surprised me; I find，in settling accounts with the housekeeper，that a lunch，consisting of bread and cheese，has twice been served out to the girls during the past fortnight. How is this? I looked over the regulations，and I find no such meal as lunch mentioned. Who introduced this innovation? and by what authority?"

"I must be responsible for the circumstance，sir," replied Miss Temple: "the breakfast was so ill prepared that the pupils could not possibly eat it; and I dared not allow them to remain fasting till dinner-time."