, and Ernest, on being told that his
tears were for grief at leaving home, took it all on trust, and did
not trouble to investigate the real cause of his tears. As they
approached Roughborough he pulled himself together, and was fairly
calm by the time he reached Dr. Skinner's.
On their arrival they had luncheon with the Doctor and his wife, and
then Mrs. Skinner took Christina over the bedrooms, and showed her
where her dear little boy was to sleep.
Whatever men may think about the study of man, women do really
believe the noblest study for womankind to be woman, and Christina was
too much engrossed with Mrs. Skinner to pay much attention to anything
else; I daresay Mrs. Skinner, too, was taking pretty accurate stock of
Christina. Christina was charmed, as indeed she generally was with any
new acquaintance, for she found in them (and so must we all) something
of the nature of a cross; as for Mrs. Skinner, I imagine she had
seen too many Christinas to find much regeneration in the sample now
before her; I believe her private opinion echoed the dictum of a
well-known head-master who declared that all parents were fools, but
more especially mothers; she was, however, all smiles and sweetness,
and Christina devoured these graciously as tributes paid more
particularly to herself, and such as no other mother would have been
at all likely to have won.
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