When Miss Vincent entered the music-room to receive her first lesson,
with haughty indifference she seated herself at the piano, and in a
careless manner began a voluntary. Elizabeth, who was reading a letter,
now closed it, leisurely opened a book, and desired her to play the
lesson to which she pointed.
"This piece, ma'am! Gravana thinks English music despicable."
"And English manners, I presume?"
"Manners, ma'am! Madame La Blond's was a fashionable seminary."
"And what is fashion, my dear?"
"Oh, nothing--nothing, ma'am, but doing as we please: we seldom saw
Madame except in evening parties."
"Then to whom were you indebted for instruction?"
"To our masters, ma'am," said Miss Vincent, in a tone of surprise. "At
Madame La Blond's we were instructed in all the sciences; in the nature
of valves; the specific gravity of bodies; the astonishing properties of
magnetic steel; and how many thousand miles the sun was from the earth."
"And perhaps you were told, by what means Archimedes burned the ships of
Marcellus, at the siege of Syracuse?"
"O no, ma'am; but we learned the art of memorizing by hieroglyphics.
This formed a part of our morning exercises."
"Pray, my dear," said Elizabeth very gravely, "can you repeat the
multiplication table throughout?"
Miss Vincent hesitated. "I know very little, ma'am, of figures: our
studies were in general of the highest order. But it was a charming
seminary! We had no particular rules; we could go to rest, or rise when
we pleased; and favourites were always asked to dance with select
parties in an evening."
"I seriously regret," said Elizabeth, "that we have robbed Madame La
Blond of so amiable a pupil."
"Madame, I assure you, ma'am, lamented it. She told Papa I was the
chief ornament of her school. But he was very angry,--I don't know why;
but he questioned me so closely, that I might as well have been before a
court-martial. Indeed I am certain he would have ordered me, had I been
a private soldier, to the triangle, merely because I said that Madame
despised people in trade."
"And your Papa really vindicated trade!"
"Oh, ma'am, the Colonel has strange plebeian notions. I never saw him so
angry as he was when I told him that we--I mean ladies of a certain
rank--had been the means of sending a merchant's daughter from school,
by styling her 'Miss Thimbleton,' and 'the little seamstress.' Her
mamma had the meanness, I may say the impertinence, to send vulgar check
muslin to be made into a frock, at Madame La Blond's! We took care,
however, to break the needles, and burn the thread."
"I hope you have finished your remarks: be pleased, now, to listen to
me. In consequence of the close intimacy that exists between our
families, I pass over your presuming manner this morning; but
recollect," said Elizabeth with firmness, "that it shall never be
repeated. If you dare to disobey, expect punishment. From this time you
are never to speak to me, unless I ask a question. Now play the lesson I
proposed."