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268 is the same, and unless we have a friend to wake us up, we get as dull as ditch-water. It really would be very charitable in you girls to cheer us and shake us up a little, and the children would be in ecstacies if you would come. Do, Mrs. Lindsay, give your consent."

"Well, well, we'll see about it," was all the answer Mrs. Lindsay could be prevailed upon to make.

"At any rate I'll leave you the books I promised to lend you, and you can return them in person if you please. When you have ﬁnished these I can supply you with others. I have hundreds of novels at Richlands, and I like to do my best for the diffusion of useless knowledge."

"That is a poor thing to aim at," said Mrs. Lindsay.

"Not that I consider novel-reading really useless," said Mrs. Troubridge; "I only contrast it with what is called useful knowledge, which hated at school."

"So did I," said Isabel

"And I hate it st'," continued Mrs. Troubridge, with charming frankness. "But you know that novels give you great insight into human nature, and I know I have learned more history from novels than from anything else.