Diana’s position was a difficult one.  It was this:  if she told Hugh there were no rabbits in Heaven, he wouldn’t pray to go there; and if she said there was no shooting in Heaven, Hugh would know for certain that his father wouldn’t want to go there, and it wouldn’t do for Hugh to think his father didn’t want to go to Heaven.  It was a difficulty, but Hugh’s Heaven was or is a very real and very happy place to him.  It is strangely like Hames; and isn’t the home of every happy child very near to Heaven?  Surely it lies at its very gates, which we could see if it was not for the mountains which intervene, those beautiful snow mountains, which foolish grown-ups call clouds.

Diana has come triumphantly out of situations more difficult, and she will no doubt surmount those connected with the spiritual upbringing of Hugh, Betty, and Sara.

It is the custom of Diana to read the Bible every morning with her children, and they resent any deviation from custom.

After breakfast on the particular Sunday over which this shooting-party extended, Hugh marched through the hall, .where most of us were assembled) with his Bible under his arm, followed by Betty, carrying a smaller Bible.  Hugh’s seemed particularly cumbersome.  He cast a reproachful glance at his mother and her guests, and said to Betty, “I will teach you, darling.”

Betty said, “Can you, Hugh?” and he said, “Rather!”

Into the drawing-room he stumped, followed by the impressed Betty.

“You may come, Aunt Woggles,” he said, “if you don’t talk.”

I promised not to talk, and sat down to write letters.

Hugh sat down on the sofa and Betty plumped down beside him.  She carefully arranged her muslin skirts over her long black-stockinged legs, and then told Hugh to begin.

“What’s it going to be about?” she asked.

“All sorts of things,” said Hugh grandly.  “Perhaps about Adam and Eve, and Jonah and the whale, and Samson and Elijah.  Do you know the diff’rence between Enoch and Elijah?  That’s the first thing.”

“No, I don’t,” said Betty reluctantly.

“Well, darling, you must remember the diff’rence is that Enoch only walked with God, but the carriage was sent for Elijah!”

“Was it a carriage and pair, Hugh?”

“More, I expect.”

“What next, Hugh?”

“We’ll just look until we find something.”  And Hugh opened the Bible.

“It’s upside down,” whispered Betty.

Hugh assumed the expression my spaniel puts on when he meets a dog bigger than himself —­ an expression of extreme earnestness of purpose combined with a desire to look neither to the right nor to the left, but to get along as fast as he can.

Hugh assumed an immense dignity and looked straight in front of him, just to show Betty he was thinking and had not heard what she said, while he turned the Bible round.

“Go on, Hugh,” said Betty humbly, feeling it was she who had made the mistake.  How often do men make women feel this!