The young Hardys had for come time given up doing any personal
labor, and were incessantly occupied in the supervision of the
estate and of the numerous hands employed: for them a long range of
adobe huts had been built at some little distance in the rear of
the enclosure.
Maud and Ethel had during this period devoted much more time to
their studies, and the time was approaching when Mrs. Hardy was to
return with them to England, in order that they might pass a year
in London under the instruction of the best masters. Maud was now
seventeen, and could fairly claim to be looked upon as a young
woman. Ethel still looked very much younger than her real age: any
one, indeed, would have guessed that there was at least three
years' difference between the sisters. In point of acquirements,
however, she was quite her equal, her much greater perseverance
more than making up for her sister's quickness.
A year previously Mr. Hardy had, at one of his visits to Buenos
Ayres, purchased a piano, saying nothing of what he had done upon
his return; and the delight of the girls and their mother, when the
instrument arrived in a bullock cart, was unbounded. From that time
the girls practiced almost incessantly; indeed, as Charley
remarked, it was as bad as living in the house with a whole
boarding-school of girls.
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