During that period they lived entirely in the nursery. I remember I
was staying there at the time, and I thought I had never enjoyed a visit
to my daughter so much. Next time I went the children were being brought
up in the fashion of their great-grandmothers. They were taught to say
'Ma'am' to their mother, and 'Sir' to their father, and were not allowed
to sit down in their presence, and never, never to speak unless they were
spoken to. I enjoyed that visit too. But the latest and the reigning idea
is that they are not to be thwarted or crossed in any way, and as for
being punished such barbarity is not to be thought of. If detected in
naughtiness they are to be reasoned with only, and if the naughtiness
is persisted in it is to be taken for granted that the small sinners are
ill, and must be gently nursed into good health and goodness again."
As she listened to this Margaret came to the conclusion that their mother
must be an extraordinarily silly woman, but when Mrs. Danvers went on to
add that Joanna, after expounding her new theory in detail, had gone away
to Norway to fish with her husband, and left her mother to find out how
it worked, Margaret smiled outright.
Mrs. Danvers laughed too. "It is rather funny," she said in her
good-natured way, "and the worst of it is that Joanna made me promise to
give her system a fair trial, and as I never broke my word to any of my
children yet, I am giving it a fair trial.
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