Page:The New Arcadia (Tucker).djvu/55

Rh "Maud says she will not accept Lady Woolenough's invitation. She is not going out any more," explained the elder, flinging herself on the settee with a tennis-racquet in her lap. "She wants to play the heroine."

Poor Maud, looking very guilty, stood beside her parents.

"We have not dresses to go in, and I do not want a new one."

"Why not, pray?" asked the mother.

"Because we cannot afford it."

"For that very reason we cannot afford to drop out of everything," remarked Hilda.

"What makes you think that we are not in a position to go out, Maud?" inquired her mother.

"I am very stupid, I dare say," replied the girl, "but I know that father is worn with care and anxiety. I am not going to add to his embarrassment."

"My dear," remarked her mother, severely, "this is really not your business. This is too bad! It appears to me that even the girls are becoming mercenary in these days. When I was young we never talked of 'ways and means.' Do you not think that your father and I can manage our own financial affairs?"

"She says she is going as a governess," interposed Hilda. "I pity the poor children. An awful lot Maud will teach them!"

"Perhaps so," was the reply. "We girls really learn nothing, now-a-days. All that we have known is forgotten twelve months after we 'come out.' At any rate I shall try to improve matters for myself."

"Very likely we shall let you leave home in that way!" said her father, kindly, drawing the accused towards him, "It would break my heart to think of girls brought up as you have been, becoming drudges of a modern