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Rh his wife made this clear to him—he would certainly not object to her being sent to school.

She heard of one that seemed to offer exceptional advantages in Elizabeth's case. The principal was a remarkable woman, of rather broad religious views (some called them "lax"), who was said to have exercised an extraordinary influence for good over several girls committed to her care. Those who shook their heads over her "laxity," went further; they declared she was altogether too unconventional in her treatment of many other subjects to please them. This argument pleaded strongly in her favour with Mrs. Shaw. Elizabeth would never stand views cut, dried, and buttered for her consumption. She would require a certain independence and flexibility of judgment, which scholastics seldom admit. The conviction grew slowly stronger and stronger in the mother's mind that here was the direction her child needed.

Elizabeth was sent from home six months before her mother died. Anthony was wholly unprepared for the blow when it fell. Like many another devoted husband, his eyes were blinded, and he never knew what she suffered. Only a few days before she died, feeling that the last change was at hand, she said to him, in her habitual slow, sweet way—

"I don't think I shall be very long here, Anthony, and I want to talk to you about Elizabeth. We did right in sending her to school. I feel sure of it now. I am only so sorry for you, dear, left quite alone; but I hope you will marry again some nice woman—she must be a very nice woman—who will be a mother to Elizabeth. It is