‘Are they educated?’ said the ex-schoolmistress.

’No.  I am sorry to say they have been much neglected; in truth, they can hardly read.  And so I thought that by marrying a young schoolmistress I should get some one in the house who could teach ’em, and bring ’em into genteel condition, all for nothing.  You see, they are growed up too tall to be sent to school.’

‘O, mercy!’ she almost moaned.  ’Four great girls to teach the rudiments to, and have always in the house with me spelling over their books; and I hate teaching, it kills me.  I am bitterly punished—­I am, I am!’

’You’ll get used to ’em, mee deer, and the balance of secrets—­mine against yours—­will comfort your heart with a sense of justice.  I could send for ’em this week very well—­and I will!  In faith, I could send this very day.  Baptista, you have relieved me of all my difficulty!’

Thus the interview ended, so far as this matter was concerned.  Baptista was too stupefied to say more, and when she went away to her room she wept from very mortification at Mr Heddegan’s duplicity.  Education, the one thing she abhorred; the shame of it to delude a young wife so!

The next meal came round.  As they sat, Baptista would not suffer her eyes to turn towards him.  He did not attempt to intrude upon her reserve, but every now and then looked under the table and chuckled with satisfaction at the aspect of affairs.  ’How very well matched we be!’ he said, comfortably.

Next day, when the steamer came in, Baptista saw her husband rush down to meet it; and soon after there appeared at her door four tall, hipless, shoulderless girls, dwindling in height and size from the eldest to the youngest, like a row of Pan pipes; at the head of them standing Heddegan.  He smiled pleasantly through the grey fringe of his whiskers and beard, and turning to the girls said, ’Now come forrard, and shake hands properly with your stepmother.’

Thus she made their acquaintance, and he went out, leaving them together.  On examination the poor girls turned out to be not only plain-looking, which she could have forgiven, but to have such a lamentably meagre intellectual equipment as to be hopelessly inadequate as companions.  Even the eldest, almost her own age, could only read with difficulty words of two syllables; and taste in dress was beyond their comprehension.  In the long vista of future years she saw nothing but dreary drudgery at her detested old trade without prospect of reward.

She went about quite despairing during the next few days—­an unpromising, unfortunate mood for a woman who had not been married six weeks.  From her parents she concealed everything.  They had been amongst the few acquaintances of Heddegan who knew nothing of his secret, and were indignant enough when they saw such a ready-made household foisted upon their only child.  But she would not support them in their remonstrances.

‘No, you don’t yet know all,’ she said.