It will be readily supposed that, with the hopes now entertained of
Matilda's conduct, Mrs. Harewood did not hesitate to provide the governess
we have spoken of, and accordingly Miss Campbell was soon established in
the family.
She found Matilda rapid in her ideas, persevering in her pursuits, but
prone to resentment on every trifling occasion, and still subject to
finding herself cause for repentance. On these occasions Miss Campbell
conducted herself with composure and dignity, as if she considered a
petulant child below the notice of a sensible woman: by this means the
pride of the culprit was humbled; she was taught to retread her first
steps, and perceive that she was an insignificant being, obliged to the
suffrage of her friends, and only capable of being valuable in proportion
to her docility and amiable conduct.
Mrs. Harewood had been accustomed to give her children the treat of a ball
at Christmas; but on this year she put it off until midsummer, partly
because she was afraid, in so large a party, and with such various
dispositions, Matilda might not be able to conduct herself with perfect
propriety during a whole evening, and partly because she wished her to
learn to dance; for although this was, in her eyes, a very secondary
accomplishment, when compared to solid knowledge, yet, as a healthful and
innocent amusement, and called for in order to form the person in that
station of life in which Matilda was likely to move, she desired to see her
acquire at least as much of it as would preserve her from the appearance of
awkwardness. It was an object of anxiety with this truly maternal friend to
save her from all unnecessary mortification, at the same time she earnestly
desired to see her tractable, humble, and gentle.
Time now passed away pleasantly, for all were occupied, and therefore
happy: the idle are subject to many errors, and therefore many sorrows,
from which the busy are exempt.
The good governess studied the temper and disposition of her pupils, and
drew them forth in the happiest manner; not by making exhibitions of their
attainments to others, but by showing them what was necessary to themselves
for their improvement. She considered the work of education as sowing good
seed, which shall spring up with vigour in advancing life, in proportion to
the depth of the soil and its preparation for receiving it.
Whilst Miss Campbell inculcated those branches of polite learning which
give a grace to virtue, she was still more desirous of inculcating virtue
itself, by grafting it on religious principle, and that "fear of God, which
is the beginning of wisdom."
The children of Mrs. Harewood had been taught, from their earliest days,
that prudence and charity must go hand in hand; but it remained for Miss
Campbell to impress this salutary truth on the mind of Matilda, who was
naturally very generous, but debased that feeling by ostentation, and ever
sought to indulge it with a vain and hurtful profusion, until she became
enlightened by her young preceptress, who likewise, in many other points,
regulated those desires in her pupils which blend good and evil, and
require a firm and delicate management. She was very solicitous to render
them active, both personally and mentally, knowing that the health of both
body and mind depends upon their due exercise, and that a taste for study
is yet perfectly compatible with those various exertions to which the
duties of a woman always call her, in whatever sphere she may have occasion
to move.
Miss Campbell wished to save her pupils alike from that perpetual
fidgetiness, which renders so many females unable to amuse themselves for
a single hour, unless their hands, feet, and tongue are employed, and that
pertinacious love of reading, which renders them utterly unable to enter
into the common claims of society, while a new story is perused, or a new
study developed; she considered these errors as diseases in the mental
habit it was her duty to prevent or eradicate, since they must be ever
inconsistent with general duty and individual happiness.
Time passed--the vacation arrived, and the young people had the pleasure of
all meeting again. Matilda was nearly as glad as Ellen to see Edmund and
Charles, who, on their own parts, were much improved, and delighted to find
the girls so. Matilda was in every respect altered, and although she had
not Ellen's sweetness of temper, yet she had greatly conquered her
propensity to passion, was very obliging in her general manners, and
considerate to her inferiors, and attached to Ellen, her governess, and Mr.
and Mrs. Harewood, with a tenderness and gratitude that was very amiable
and even affecting.