When a naturalist is desirous of describing any genus of peculiar
interest in the world of nature, we generally find him selecting one of
the kind as a specimen from which to draw his description of the whole
race; satisfied that, although distinctions may exist in minor details
between it and others of its species, the general characteristics will
be found alike in all.
In endeavouring to sketch the principal incidents in the history of a
class whose trials seem peculiarly interesting, because coming at a
period of life usually exempted from them, I have pursued a similar
course; and though the career of my heroine may present features
peculiar to itself, as must ever be the case with personal history,
her experiences will, I believe, be found to differ in no essential
particular from those of the great body of her sisterhood. It can
hardly be deemed necessary perhaps to begin the biography of the
half-boarder from the hour of her birth; it may be sufficient to state
that she is usually the eldest daughter of parents of the middle class,
depressed into comparative poverty either by misfortune or imprudence,
but blessed with the inalienable advantage of belonging to 'a good
family,' and being enabled to boast of relatives of consideration
in the world. Her earliest years are too often passed amid all the
horrors of genteel but biting penury; in witnessing, daily, cares that
have become familiarised, though not lightened, to her by frequent
recurrence; and sharing anxieties which, though studiously concealed
from her, experience has enabled her to divine, without suggesting any
means of alleviating. Her duties are sufficiently multifarious: she
shares the labours of
'The little maid some four foot high,'
by taking upon herself the lighter portion of the house work; and adds
to this the heavier burthens of unremitting attendance on an ailing
mother, and constant endeavours to divert the anxieties of a careworn
father. She is the governess of such of her half-dozen brothers and
sisters as are old enough to profit by her instruction, enlightening
them with such gleams of knowledge as her own limited opportunities
may have enabled her to acquire; and is at the same time the playmate
and nurse of the younger members of her family. Thus matters usually
stand until our heroine is about fourteen years old, when some pressing
emergency induces the wife, notwithstanding her own repugnance, and
the strong discouragement of her husband, to apply to his family for
pecuniary assistance. The welldoing uncles or cousins, though at first
astonished at the assurance of the world in general, and their own
poor relation in particular, are not more hardhearted than is usual
with persons who have all their lives enjoyed an uninterrupted tide
of prosperity, and a family council is therefore held to consider
what should be done in the matter. It is agreed at once, without a
dissentient voice, that any pecuniary advances would be entirely out of
the question; that they would only patch matters for a time, without
being of any permanent service to the family; and, what is not the
least objection, might afford an inconvenient precedent for similar
applications in future emergencies: and it is finally determined that
the aid which will prove eventually of most service to the family, at
the least cost to themselves, may be afforded by assuming the charge
of the education of the eldest child. The matron of the conclave is
therefore deputed to make known to the applicant that, although they
feel themselves precluded from complying with the specific request
contained in her letter, yet that, being desirous of serving her family
in consideration of the blood relationship subsisting between her
husband and themselves, they have determined on relieving her from the
burthen of Maria's education.
The first feeling of the anxious circle on the receipt of this
announcement is one of unmixed disappointment. The father had not been
without hopes of the success of the application, though he professes
that the result is just what he had expected from the beginning. Maria
is but young, and her education at this precise period is comparatively
unimportant, while he is convinced that a compliance with the original
request would have relieved him from all difficulty, and have enabled
him satisfactorily to provide himself for his children's education;
while the mother, though by no means so sanguine on this head, has
nevertheless her own cause of disappointment in the cold and measured
tone of the communication, which she feels with all the sensitiveness
of misfortune. The matter, however, is talked over in all its bearings,
and by degrees a brighter light seems to break in upon them.
The father begins to consider that, although the aid offered is not
precisely that which he desired, it is nevertheless an important
assistance; and the mother soon loses sight of the affront to her
own _amour propre_ in the chilling tone in which the favour is
proffered, when she thinks of the advantages it promises to her child.
Both parents remember having noticed particularly the young ladies
of Miss Wilson's establishment at church, their superior gentility
both of appearance and deportment, and forthwith follows a bright
daydream on the advantage of Maria's becoming a day-boarder at that
establishment--thus securing the double benefit of the good education
for herself, without losing the advantage of the evening instruction
for her sisters, and the solace of her society to them all. A letter
of thanks for the consideration of the uncle or cousin is cheerfully
penned, a card of the terms of Miss Wilson's school is procured and
enclosed, and, for one entire evening, the whole family rejoice
together in the midst of their cares at this stroke of good-fortune.
For a whole week no reply is vouchsafed to the letter, and they
begin to feel anxious lest some stray word or unconsidered sentence
should have given offence to the persons they are most interested in
conciliating. At length, however, they are relieved on this head: a
brief note arrives, in which the writer regrets that they cannot fall
into the plan sketched out by the parents; but as their motive in
consenting to undertake the charge of the child at all, is to give
her the means of securing her own livelihood in a respectable manner,
they are of opinion that that object will be best attained by removing
her altogether from her own family, and placing her as half-boarder,
for a term of years, in some well-known school, for which they are
already on the look-out. The letter concludes by professing, with
extreme humility, that should this arrangement not coincide with the
parents' views, they would by no means desire its adoption; in which
case, however, it is very clearly intimated, they would of course feel
themselves relieved from any further responsibility in the matter.
The dictatorial tone and startling brevity of this communication fall
like an ice-bolt on the assembled group. The first impulse of the
father is to reject the offer altogether; but when he looks on the
anxious countenance of his child, he feels that he has no right to
sacrifice her permanent benefit to a mere consideration of feeling on
his own part. He accordingly smothers his resentment at the manner in
which the boon is offered, and tries to rejoice that the comforts of a
respectable home, and freedom from home cares and menial drudgery, are
by any means secured to his child.
An anxious consultation next ensues on the subject of her outfit: the
family wardrobe is produced in the little parlour; the least mended of
the under-garments are selected, and a clean white tucker is appended
to the well-worn best frock; the Sunday bonnet is relined with an
eighteenpenny sarsnet, and retrimmed with a threepenny ribbon; the
cost of half-a-dozen home-made muslin collars is calculated; and the
propriety of a new merino frock is finally canvassed and determined
on. The father looks on with an aching heart and a moistened eye as
the last article of absolute necessity is provided for by a cheerful
surrender, on the part of the mother, of her own squirrel boa and
scarlet shawl.
A few days elapse, during which our heroine endeavours to soften the
loss her absence will occasion in the household by redoubled diligence
on her own part. The fortnight's wash is anticipated by a few days;
she works early and late to mend up all the stockings; the children
are doubly tasked on the score of lessons; the sister next in age to
herself is enjoined to be very attentive to poor mamma, and the younger
children to render due obedience to her deputy. On the evening of the
Saturday following the father brings home a letter from his munificent
relative, announcing that a school having been found for the child,
she is to repair, on the Monday following, by Dawney's Wimbleton
Coach, where a place for her has been taken and paid for, to their
country-house; and intimating that it will not be necessary for the
father to be at the trouble of accompanying her himself, as her safety
has been secured by an order already issued to the gardener to be in
attendance at the end of the avenue on the arrival of the vehicle.
The intervening Sunday is a day of restless anxiety to the whole
family. Advice on the minutest particular of her future conduct is
affectionately bestowed on our heroine. A faint attempt at cheerfulness
is maintained by the whole circle, till the arrival of night and
darkness permits each individual to give free vent to the pent-up
feelings by an unrestrained burst of tears. The heart thus lightened
of its load, they sleep calmly, and rise in the morning of separation
conscious of a feeling of hope and cheerfulness, to which anxiety
has kept them strangers since the first opening of the important
negotiation.
The middle of Monday sees our heroine, for the first time in her
life, surrounded by all the refinements of a well-appointed English
gentleman's household. On her arrival she is conducted to the
school-room of her young cousins, where she joins the party at dinner,
and undergoes a somewhat unceremonious scrutiny on the part of the
young ladies. They are good-natured, thoughtless girls, however; and
though they do not fail to remark that her hands are rather coarse,
and that she wants the self-possession of a lady, the circumstance is
noted to each other in a carefully-subdued tone, and does not in anyway
influence their kindly dispositions towards her. They exhibit, by way
of amusing her, their toys and trinkets, and question her of her own
possessions and attainments; but meeting with little response on this
head, they try another resource, and considerately propose some merry
game. The young novice, alas, has never had time to play! but she
feels their kindness, and does her best to participate in the gaiety
around her. The lady-mother returns from her drive barely in time to
dress for dinner; and thus the awful period of introduction to her is
deferred until the accustomed hour of dessert summons the denizens of
the school-room and nursery to the dining-room.
I wish that truth would enable me to endow my heroine with that best
letter of introduction--personal beauty; but what girl of her age was
ever even pretty? The beautiful roundness of the features of childhood
is past, and the skeleton only of womanhood has succeeded it: hence the
falling-in chest, the long, thin arms, the bony ankles, the squareness
of figure, and, above all, the vacant or anxious school-girl face.
It is utterly impossible to conjure up beauty out of such materials;
they belong less to the individual than to the age, and nothing short
of time itself can remedy the evil. But when, to such disadvantages,
a frightened awkwardness of manner is superadded, as in the present
instance, by the unaccustomed appearance of everything around, and
the consciousness of a dubious position, it is hardly to be expected
that the result could be of a nature greatly to conciliate the favour
of an indifferent, not to say prejudiced, spectator; and the reader,
therefore, will not be surprised to learn that a reception perfectly
civil, though rather cold, is all that awaits the protégée in the
halls of her benefactors. The hostess fills her plate with fruit,
and the host, without asking her consent, adds a glass of wine; and
then both turn to listen to the wit of their own offspring, and talk
over the events of the day. In the course of some half-an-hour the
gentleman exhibits signs of an inclination to take his siesta, and the
rest of the party adjourn to the drawing-room, where a confidential
conversation ensues between madam and the resident governess, in
reference, apparently, to the dependent child, who, with the quick
instinct of inborn propriety, retreats towards the other end of the
room, where she endeavours to amuse the younger children; in which
she is so eminently successful, that the stately manner of the lady
gradually begins to relax. Previously to the arrival of coffee, she
is heard to request some trifling service at the hands of her little
relative; and before the conclusion of the evening, finds herself even
addressing the child as 'my dear!' The rest of the circle take their
cue from the lady-in-chief; and the young stranger, by degrees, feels
herself on a footing of intimacy almost approaching to equality.
With the earliest dawn our heroine is wide awake, the unaccustomed
luxury of down pillows having, she thinks, prevented her from sleeping
well. She wonders whether they are thinking of her at home, and how
her sister performed her new duties; and ponders with some anxiety
on her own future lot. Her father's relations have been very kind
to her, far more kind, indeed, than she had expected; and she does
not despair for the future. She is, however, rather annoyed at being
obliged to admit the assistance of a servant in dressing her, and
rejoices when the morning salutation with her cousins is over. However,
a walk round the extensive grounds tends somewhat to brace up her
nerves; and she receives a personal summons to attend her benefactress
in her dressing-room without experiencing any serious trepidation.
On her arrival in this sanctum she is desired to take a seat, and
has to undergo a rather minute cross-examination as to her personal
attainments, as well as in regard to her late habits and occupations.
Her replies elicit no further remark than a caution, not harshly
given, against bestowing any unnecessary confidences on these points
upon the lady, her future governess, and the companions of her future
home; whereof the advantages are forcibly pointed out to her, and a
due appreciation of their benefits earnestly enjoined. Then follows
the expression of a confident hope on the part of her monitor that
the great expense incurred to secure for her all these benefits will
be met by proportionate exertions on her part to profit to the very
utmost by the advantages thus generously placed within her reach. This
exordium brought to a close, and a dutiful acknowledgment returned
thereto, she is next interrogated as to the extent and quality of her
wardrobe, and replies with cheerful alacrity that she is well provided
for on that score; but whether a hint dropped to the governess by the
under-housemaid of the result of her observations at her toilet may
have suggested a doubt on this head, or whether a feeling of curiosity
is entertained by the lady as to what is considered a good provision by
a poor relation, is uncertain, but the poor girl is required to produce
the wardrobe, the extent of which does not preclude her from fulfilling
the mandate in person. The carpet-bag is brought down, and hastily
opened, and, with an involuntary gesture of distaste, as hastily
closed. The services of the maid of the young ladies are in instant
requisition, and an order is given to her to make a selection of the
more ordinary garments from the wardrobes of her young mistresses. The
damsel, though by no means approving of this wholesale appropriation of
what she has been accustomed to regard as her own ultimate property,
obeys her instructions, and soon returns with an ample supply of
half-worn garments, which, with an air of subdued sullenness, she
places before her mistress. The lady, who fathoms at once the origin
of her dissatisfaction, desires her, in a voice of some asperity,
instantly to pack them up; and secures a more cheerful compliance with
the mandate by an intimation that compensation will be made to her in
another way. These preliminaries adjusted, luncheon and the carriage
are ordered to be in readiness an hour before their usual time; the
lady announces her intention of personally introducing her protégée to
her new home; and then intimates that her presence may for the present
be dispensed with.
At the hour appointed the carriage is announced, the lady sweeps
in, followed by her young relative, and an hour's drive brings them
to the end of their journey. The aristocratic peal of the footman
remains unanswered for a period sufficiently long to admit of a brief
investigation of our heroine's future home. It is a large, red brick
house, old fashioned, but perfectly respectable in appearance, with a
multiplicity of windows, carefully veiled by blinds from top to bottom.
A small front garden intervenes between the house and the public
road, and is surrounded by a low brick wall, surmounted by a lofty
hedge of laurustinas, under which blooms a perpetual growth of the
blue periwinkle. The box-edges of the parterres are more than usually
luxuriant, and the gravel walk, though carefully swept, presents
visible signs of the moss of ages. The brass-plate on the outer gate,
and the ample steps leading into the house, are scrupulously clean.
On either side of the entrance hall, which is spacious, and even
handsome, stand two large professional-looking globes, appropriate
introductions to the world of knowledge beyond; while from the centre
branches off a square flight of broad, well-carpeted oak stairs, which,
if any criterion of the size of the rooms above, promise well for the
domestic comfort of the establishment.
In the absence of a footman--a functionary not admissible in a seminary
for young ladies--the party is conducted by a smart parlour-maid to
a well-proportioned, though somewhat chilly drawing-room, handsomely
furnished with chairs, guarded from use as carefully as 'the throne'
of Lady Margaret Bellenden at Tillietudlem, and footstools which,
though preserved by oil-silk covers, are yet guiltless of ever having
been pressed by the foot of human being. The chimneypiece exhibits
hand-screens as smart as gold paper and water-colours can make them,
in which the conflicting styles of the pupil and the master, though
ingeniously blended, are easily to be distinguished; and on the
principal table stands a valuable work-box, which the lady of the house
will not fail incidentally to remark was a present to her from her
affectionate pupils. The room, in short, is redolent of professional
decorations, from the Berlin wool and embroidery of the present day, to
the bygone glories of filigree and shellwork. The visitors have only
time to look around them, and select two chairs upon which they can
sit with a good conscience, before the mistress of the house presents
herself in the person of a very upright, ladylike woman, attired in
black silk of glossy freshness, and leading by the hand a beautiful
little girl, the pride of the school. The child (who is exquisitely
dressed for exhibition) has been committed to her charge by its
doting parents the day before they sailed for India, and she cannot,
therefore, persuade herself to lose sight of her for an instant. This
is said by way of apology; and the little piece of sentimentalism
having produced its desired effect, the child is quietly dismissed to
amuse herself at the other end of the room.
The important subject of terms and length of engagement having been
adjusted at a previous interview, the patroness has little to do beyond
introducing the new pupil to her new protector; and the identity of the
family name unhappily preventing her début as the orphan child of a
deceased schoolfellow, no alternative remains but to name her as Miss
Maria Armstrong, a young person in whose welfare she feels a lively
interest, the young lady being, in fact, a distant relative of Mr
Armstrong himself, the offspring, she is sorry to add, of an imprudent
marriage. How far her education may already have proceeded, the lady
has had no means of ascertaining, never having seen any member of the
family until the previous evening. She, however, without solicitude,
confides the child to her maternal care, in the fullest confidence that
whatever talents she may possess will receive the highest culture at
her hands, and in the hope that the same will be met by a corresponding
degree of diligence on the part of the young person herself, as on the
exercise of these talents, be they great or small, her future wellbeing
must depend. The lady believes that every necessary for the use of
one in the position of her protégée has been provided; but should
anything indispensable have been forgotten, she begs Mrs Sharp will
have the goodness to procure it. She has only further to request, that
no unnecessary intercourse with her own family may be encouraged on
the part of the child; such communications, if of frequent occurrence,
having a very obvious tendency to unsettle the mind, and unfit it
for its manifold duties. With these sentiments Mrs Sharp entirely
coincides. The lady rises, bestows a kiss on the little fairy--a
shake of the hand and half-a-guinea on the young dependent--and a bow
expressive of mingled cordiality and condescension on the mistress of
the house--and then, with a measured step, regains her equipage; and,
as the nursery rhyme has it--
'The carriage drives off with a bound.'
As the new-comer is only a half-boarder, it cannot of course be
expected that the head of an establishment of pretensions equal to the
one of which we are speaking should herself introduce the stranger
to her dormitory; and as the attendance of a housemaid might lead
to unwarrantable expectations of future service, the little girl is
deputed to convoy Miss Armstrong to the room over the kitchen, the
left-hand closet of which will be found vacant for the reception of her
clothes. When this is accomplished, should any time remain previously
to the tea-bell, she had better inform herself of the names and
localities of the various departments, with which her little guide will
have pleasure in making her acquainted. The clothes are unpacked, and
put away, and the tour of the house is hardly accomplished when the
expected peal is rung. A rustling sound, accompanied by the shuffling
of many feet, is heard in the distance; the little girl safely pilots
her companion to the parlour door, leaving her to make her _entrée_
alone, and then skips off to join her companions in the refectory. The
young novice waits a few moments to gather both breath and courage, and
then gently taps at the door; a voice from within desires her to enter,
and she stands before half-a-dozen smart ladies at tea. A pause of a
moment succeeds, which is broken by the governess, who thinks (aloud)
that it will perhaps be the best plan for Miss Armstrong at once to
enter upon her duties. She is therefore desired to proceed along the
passage till she arrives at a green baize door, on opening which, a
second door will introduce her to the apartments of the young ladies.
She makes her exit from the parlour in the best manner she is able,
and experiences but little difficulty in discovering the eating-room,
from which issues a cheerful buzz of voices. She wisely resolves not
to give her courage time to cool, and so enters without observing the
preliminary ceremony of self-announcement. The sound of the opening
door produces an instantaneous hush, and at the same time directs
towards her the glance of four-and-twenty pair of curious eyes, besides
a piercingly-black individual pair appertaining to the French governess
at the head of the table. She stands perfectly astonished at her own
temerity; then thankfully sinks into a chair pointed out by that lady
on her left hand; accepts a cup of tea, which a choking sensation
in the throat prevents her from swallowing, and is conscious of an
unwilling suffusion of colour from the crown of her head to her very
fingers' ends. Tea and the tea things at length despatched, the usual
half hour supervenes previously to the period for preparing lessons,
advantage of which is taken by madame to inquire the name, age, &c. of
the new-comer; whilst the little figurante, whose position renders her
a sort of _avant-courier_ to the school-room of the proceedings in the
drawing-room, is captured by one of the elder girls, who, on pretence
of plaiting her hair, seats her on her knee in the midst of her own
peculiar set, and proceeds to extract, with very commendable ingenuity,
all the events of the day, reserving to herself the liberty of drawing
her own inferences from the detail, copious or meagre, as the case may
be. One circumstance connected with the arrival of the young stranger
does strike the privileged set with inexpressible astonishment.
If, as is asserted, she came in a private carriage, and that
carriage the veritable property of her friends, and not a 'trumpery
glass-coach'--how, then, could she be going to sleep in the room over
the kitchen?--that chamber of Blue-Beard reputation, strongly suspected
of harbouring mice, and convicted, beyond question, of being subject
to a very disagreeable odour! The thing is pronounced impossible, and
unworthy a moment's credit. In vain the child assures them, upon her
word and honour, she helped to put away her clothes; the proposition
is not to be believed for an instant. The informant, indignant at
having her veracity impeached, calls aloud on Miss Armstrong to
verify her assertion. The appeal is, however, happily overpowered by
a simultaneous shuffle of the feet of the inquisitors; she is quietly
slided from the knee on which she had been sitting, and the discussion
proceeds in the absence of the witness. There certainly is something
very unusual attending the new-comer: no note of preparation announced
her advent; no cheerful congratulations had been offered to themselves
on the prospect of a new companion; no hopes expressed that they
would do their best to make her home a pleasant one. And then the
circumstance of her taking her _first_ tea in the eating-room, to which
she was not even introduced; such a mark of contumely had never before
been suffered within the memory of the oldest school-girl present; and
of this fact they were themselves eye-witnesses. It was inexplicable:
they could not understand it. A single hour, however, suffices to solve
the mystery: the period at length arrives for preparing lessons, and
with it the housemaid to curl the hair of the younger children; and in
this labour of love Miss Armstrong is requested to lend her assistance!
A glimmering light as to her real position flashes across the minds
of the bewildered spectators. But when she is further required to
attend the children to their respective rooms, and light the candles
preparatory to the arrival of the elder girls, the matter is put beyond
a doubt: she is--she must be--a half-boarder!
Reader, picture to yourself, I beseech you, the estimation in which a
Christian slave is held by a follower of the true Prophet, a Nazarene
by a Jewish rabbi, a Pariah by a holy Brahmin of immaculate descent,
and you may then have some faint, some very faint idea, of the depths
to which this fact has sunk our heroine in the estimation of the major
part of her schoolfellows!
The young ladies are at length fairly disposed of for the night; and
the half-boarder, having completed her duties, descends again to the
school-room, which she finds in the possession of the housemaid and
a cloud of dust, the French teacher having joined the party in the
parlour. Thither she also repairs, and requests permission to retire
to her room. The concession is readily granted to her, and she gladly
seeks her bed, to sleep with what soundness of repose she may. Anxious
to fulfil the duties of her post to the spirit as well as to the letter
of the bond, she is dressed even before the school-bell rings, and is
ready on its summons to assist in the ablutions of the little ones. She
saves many a heedless chit a fine by herself folding up the forgotten
night-clothes; an indulgence, however, not to be taken as a precedent,
her duty being to aid in the reformation of evil habits, not to slur
them over. Having had no lessons marked out for her on this first
morning, she watches the order of proceedings, and helps the little
favourite to master the difficulties of a column of spelling.
After breakfast, the pupils having dispersed themselves in the garden
to taste the morning air (young ladies have no playground), the
half-boarder has a private audience of the superior, in order that,
her mental standing having been duly ascertained, she may be drafted
into class second or third, as the case may be. After rendering a
true and particular account of her acquirements in reading, writing,
needlework, &c. &c. and admitted her total ignorance of French,
music, and dancing, the order is given for her admission into the
third class, and beginning French forthwith. Dancing and music are
held out as stimulants to quicken her diligence in making herself
'generally useful,' in consideration of having been received into
the establishment at one-half the usual charge. Her duties cannot
very clearly be defined, but she will soon comprehend them. Soon,
indeed, poor girl! they being, in fact, to do all that is neglected
to be performed by the other members of the household--to stand in
the alternate relations of nursemaid and instructress of the younger
children, and of butt and fag to the elder ones. She must be prepared
to consider herself the link between the lower teacher and the upper
servant, willing to lend her aid to each, and to bear the blame due
to either; to labour with untiring diligence to improve her mind
and increase her accomplishments, and thus eventually supersede the
necessity for an under teacher at all.
These are multifarious duties, it must be admitted; but, as Dr Johnson
says, 'few things are impossible to ingenuity and perseverance.' She
has not been brought up in the lap of refinement, and therefore misses
not its comforts: she is blessed with a strong constitution and a
willing mind, loves learning for its own sake, and never forgets that
every member of her own family may be ultimately benefited through her
means.
It is true that at first it is painful to stand up with the little
class--herself a giant among pigmies; to be conscious of a sneering
smile on the part of the teacher as she draws a parallel between
her bodily height and her dwarfish information. It is mortifying
to know that her dresses have been discovered, by their misfit, to
have belonged to other parties--that the discrepancies between her
own initials and those on her linen have not been overlooked--and
to feel that the absence of a weekly allowance, and regular home
correspondence, are never-failing sources of unsympathising wonder.
All this is mortifying enough, but it is not all she has to undergo.
After rising early, and lying down late, and eating the bread of
carefulness, she finds that even the rigid performance of her own
duties, and the neglected work of half-a-dozen people besides, meets
at first with but little encouragement from the mistress of the house,
who receives it purely as a matter of course, while it does not fail
to awaken the distrust and jealousy of her subordinates. The cook
remembers her refusal to connive at the abstraction of 'a dust of
tea,' even when the key of the storeroom was actually in her hand;
and the housemaid bears in mind that Miss Johnson would have bestowed
upon her her last year's cloak on the arrival of her new _visite_, had
not the half-boarder suggested the necessity for asking leave. The
French teacher does not forget that, on the only occasion in which she
indulged in a little harmless flirtation with a whiskered cousin of her
own, the half-boarder looked reproof; the English teacher remembers her
refusal furtively to procure sundry little delicacies not included in
the daily bill of fare; while her assistant notes her strenuous efforts
to qualify herself to supersede her in her own department.
All these offences are registered and retaliated. The cook, when
reproved for any omission, stoutly declares that orders transmitted
through Miss Armstrong never reach her; the housemaid, in waiting
at table, contrives that the least savoury _plat_ shall fall to her
lot; the Parisienne shrugs her shoulders as she comments on her air
_bourgeois_; the English teacher frankly declares she never could like
her; whilst her subordinate sister 'hopes' that Miss Armstrong may
prove as simple as she appears.
But a Sacred Authority has assured us that though sorrow may endure
for a night, joy cometh in the morning; and the experience even of
a half-boarder demonstrates that a patient continuance in welldoing
is not without its reward. By degrees the lot of our heroine is
considerably ameliorated: the prejudice against her begins to wear
away; and even the English teacher, who has held out the longest,
having a character for consistency to maintain, is constrained to admit
that Miss Armstrong is an estimable and well-conducted young person.
Her desire to please is at length appreciated, and her poverty is even
admitted to be rather her misfortune than her fault. The great girls
cease to despise her--the little girls learn to love her. The higher
powers readily second the exertions for self-improvement which promise
to relieve them from the drudgery of initiatory instruction; and the
prize held out for the successful fulfilment of her humbler duties is
in process of time secured. Instruction in dancing and music commences
with the second half year, and glimmerings of still greater glories are
pointed out in the distance.
The governess, though an exacting, is not an unjust taskmistress. If
she requires much during school-hours, she allows the unusual luxuries
of fire and lights when school duty is over; and furthermore advances
the interests of her pupil by a statement, under her own hand, to the
benefactress of the half-boarder, that she promises to do honour to
that lady's patronage no less than to her own establishment.
Her successful progress in the road to learning, and in the good graces
of those around her, coupled with the encouragement afforded by a kind
word, and now and then a small present bestowed on her by the grateful
mamma of some infant prodigy, all combine to quicken her steps in the
race towards the grand object of her ambition--the qualifying herself
for the situation of a nursery governess. In the meantime, in the words
of Crabbe, her duty is--
----'to feel
Dependent helper always at the wheel;
Her power minute, her compensation small,
Her labours great, her life laborious all;
Set after set the lower tribe to make
Fit for the class which her superiors take.
The road of learning for a time to track
In roughest state, and then again go back,
Just the same way on other troops to wait--
Doorkeeper she at Learning's lower gate.'
This is her lot for some two years; but she has the encouragement
of knowing that her apprenticeship, though a hard one, is gradually
fitting her for the object of her ambition; while, as she advances in
her career, the experience of the past inspires her with confidence
for the future, since it proves to her that right principle and steady
perseverance are invincible, or they could never have enabled her
to overcome the trials and difficulties which beset the path of a
Half-Boarder.