'Lizzie, Lizzie!' exclaimed three voices at once, 'do you know what
you have done ?'
'Is it anything very fatal?' said Elizabeth, looking quite composed.
'A fine scrape you have got into!' cried Katherine.
'A pretty kettle of fish you have brought us into!' exclaimed
Harriet.
'But what is the matter, good ladies?' said Elizabeth; 'why do you
look so like the form that drew Priam's curtains at the dead of
night?'
'Come, Lizzie,' said Katherine pettishly, 'do not be so provoking
with Priam and all that stuff, but tell us what is to be done about
that horrid Institute.'
'Oh! that is it, is it?' said Elizabeth; 'so I suppose Fido was
stolen there, and you are afraid to tell!'
'I am afraid he was,' said Katherine; 'but that is not the worst of
it--I know nothing about him. But do you know what Papa says? Uncle
Edward has been asking about the Institute; and, oh dear! oh dear!
Papa said he could not bear Mechanics' Institutes, and had resolved
quite firmly that none of his family should ever set foot in one!'
Elizabeth really looked quite appalled at this piece of intelligence;
and Katherine continued, 'And Chartists, and Socialists, and horrible
people, have been lecturing there! I remember now, that when you
were at Merton Hall in the spring, there was a great uproar, and the
Abbeychurch Reporter behaved very badly to Papa about it.
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