Then she offered to read a story to the others, but she found that
this was distasteful even to her friend Sam; he thought it stupid to
be read to, and said he should see after Hal; David trotted after
him, and Susan and Anne repaired to the nursery to play with the
little ones and the baby. She minded it the less, as they all had
some purpose; but she had already been vexed to find that all but
Davy preferred the most arrant vacant idleness to anything rational.
To be sure, Susan sometimes, Bessie and Hal always, would read any
book that made no pretensions to be instructive, but even a fact
about a lion or an elephant made them detect wisdom in disguise, and
throw it aside. She thought, however, she would make the most of
Bessie, and asked whether she would like to hear reading, or read to
herself.
"To myself," said Bessie; and there was a silence, while Miss
Fosbrook, glad of the quiet, began reading her Christian Year.
Presently she heard a voice so low that it seemed at a distance and
it made her start, for it was saying "Christabel!" then she almost
laughed, for it seemed to have been an audacious experiment, to judge
by little Elizabeth's scared looks and the glow on her cheeks.
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