No carriages are allowed out on Sunday, so we had to walk; and coming back
it began to rain, and we could not go round the stables, which I
understand is the custom here every Sunday.
Everything is done because it is the custom, not because you want to amuse
yourself.
"When it rains and we can't go round the stables," Kirstie said, "we look
at the old _Illustrated London News_, and go on our way from afternoon
church."
I did not particularly want to do that, so stayed in my room as long as I
could. The four girls were seated at a large table in the hall, each with
a volume in front of her when I got down at last. They must know every
picture by heart, if they do it every Sunday it rains--they stay in
England all the winter.
Jean made room for me beside her.
"I am at the 'Sixties,'" she said. "I finished the 'Fifties' last Easter."
So they evidently do even this with a method.
I asked her if there were not any new books they wanted to read, but she
said Lady Katherine did not care for their looking at magazines or novels
unless she had been through them first, and she had not time for many, so
they kept the few they had to read between tea and dinner on Sunday.
By this time I felt I should do something wicked; and if the luncheon gong
had not sounded, I do not know what would have happened.
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