Schneider and his wife had barely exchanged a few words when the boys and girls came tumbling downstairs one after another.
The eldest daughter sat down with her brow tightly knitted, making one think she was still mulling over yesterday's theology lesson.
But in fact?
Her mind had not yet freed itself from the fashionable novel she'd just borrowed yesterday.
The second daughter had only just settled into her chair when she realized her stockings had slipped down to her heel.
She quietly drew one foot back under the table, meaning to slip off her shoe and pull them up again, but was interrupted by mocking laughter from across the table.
Mocking her was her rough little brother in his jacket, a spinning top secretly tucked in his pocket, a day pupil at Westminster School.
Young Schneider scolded his sister while biting into his bread, as though he were the true master of the Schneider household.
