at unexpected thunder. A murmur ran along the desks, from girl to girl, and then some one, near that end of the
faltered the girl who had ventured diffidently
an absolute fact? Either she is taking her lesson, or she is not taking her l
alf a dozen Irises started up to carry the ruler's message; but
rls to carry one messag
young lady who thought herself quite the most refined and elegant thing at Mauleverer Manor, and so entirely superior to her surroundings as to be absolved from the necessity of being obliging. But Miss Pew's voice, when fortified by anger, was too much even for Miss Rylance's calm sens
spered Miss Cobb, the Kentish brewer's daughter, to Mi
d unrefined good looks - a girl who bore 'beer' written in unmistakable characters across her forehead, Miss Rylance had obse
of authority, she is so drilled, and lectured, and ruled and regulated, that, when the eye of authority is off her, she seems nat
ong bare room, with its four tall windows facing a hot blue sky, felt almost as exhausted by the heat as if they had been placed under an air-pump. Miss Pew had a horror of draughts, so the upper
nkfort, and it was Fr?ulein Wolf's mission to go on eternally explaining the difficulties of her native language to the pupils at Mauleverer Manor, and to correct those
were wrong, and then the door was opened suddenly - not at all in the manner so carefully instilled by the teacher of deportment. It was flung back, rather, as if with an angry hand, and a young wo
Fr?ulein, blinking at that distant f
nate, Miss Pillby, the useful drudge who did a little indifferent teaching in English grammar a
ow Ida Palliser the state of her desk?' ask
know the state of my desk quite as well as she does. I dare
not the word. It's degrading. Miss Pillby, be good enough to call ov
was impossible. There was no dirty work she would not have done meekly, willingly even, at Miss Pew's bidding. The girls were neve
nd proceeded in a flat, drawling voice to call o
ldren of the Abbey
ighed M
square of hardbake. An old neck-ribbon. An odd cuff. Seven letters. A knife, with the
r to me,' comm
very ridiculous guise and attitude by that young person's facile pen. Her large cheeks reddened in anticip
er Miss Palliser's resolute f
pursued Miss Pillby, with implacable monotony. 'Three Brazil n
ou are not going to confiscate that, Miss
I were to burn everything in your locker,
might never get another. Papa is so thoughtless.
a school, a hardening process which is supposed to deaden the instincts of womanhoo
ve no time to be tidy. You can't ex
Palliser turned her back upon
?' murmured the irrepressibl
has nothing to lose. Old Pew couldn't possibly treat her any
d a worn-out old square piano, and sat down for her hour's practice. She was always told off to the worst pianos in the house. She took out a book of five-finger exercises, by a Leipsic professor, placed it on the desk, and then, just as she
, or an articled pupil. Her father, a military man, living abroad on his half pay, with a young second wife, and a five-year old son, had paid Miss Pew a lump sum of fifty pounds, and for those fifty pounds Miss Pew had agreed to maintain and educate Ida Palliser during the space of three years, to give her the benefit of in
nual duties in the way of assisting in the lavatory on tub-nights, washing hair-brushes, and mending clothes, could be too much for a healthy young woman of ni
a, in the midst of her sobs. 'I ha
edly, and began her five-finger exercises, tum, tum, tum, with the lit
d stupid, they would have been a little
ck of teaching she enlarged her sphere of tuition, and from taking the lowest class only, as former articled pupils had done
er to improve herself, for that career of governess in a gentleman's family was the only future open to her. She used to read the advertisements in the governess column of the Times supplement, and it comforted her to see that an all-accomplished teacher demanded from eighty to a hundred a year for her services. A hundre
de. She braced herself up, and set herself valourously
steadily,' she told herself; 'ther
egan to laugh t
caricatures,' she thought, 'and whether she
n ancient canterbury under the ancient piano, and went to the room where she slept, in co
ers, a race now as extinct as the Dodo. It was a roomy, rambling old house of the time of the Stuarts, and bore the date of its erection in many unmistakable peculiarities. There were fine rooms on the ground floor, with handsome chimney-pieces and oak panelling. There were small low rooms above, curious old passages, turns and twists, a short flight of steps here, and another flight there, various levels, irregularities of al
quare-cut coat, knee-breeches, and silk stockings rolled up over his knees. He was supposed to be one of the extinct Mauleverers; harmless and even benevolently disposed; given to plucking flowers in the garden at dusk; and to gliding along pas
ess of her aspirates - she managed them sometimes, but they often
asked Miss Rylance with superb disdain,
itants who gave character to the locality. The five-bedded room off the front landing was occupied by the stiffest and best behaved of the first division, and might be ranked with Grosvenor Square or Lancaster Gate. There were rooms on the second floor where girls of the second an
s among roses and lilies in a strictly conventional style of art. The butterfly-room was the most fashionable and altogether popular dormitory at the Manor. It wa
across the garden to the Thames, which at this point took a wide curve between banks shaded by old pollard willows. The landscape was purely
Chertsey, in a land of meadows and gardens whi
he valuation had been ridiculously low. Thus it happened that a big wainscot wardrobe, with doors substantial enough for a church, projected its enormous bulk upon one side of the butterfly-room, while a tall narrow cheval glass stood in front of a window. That cheval was t
e tea, knowing that Miss Pew and her younger sister, Miss Dulcibella - who devoted herself to dress an
le, and another girl, a plump little sixteen-year-old, with nut-brown hair, and a fresh complexion, was adv
tract,' said this damsel, 'but it re
laxen plait into a shining knob at the back of her head, and contemplating her reflect
, Miss Rylance ought to have been lovely. But she had escaped loveliness b
you suppose I've never been into an hotel, or even into a tavern? When I go for a long drive with papa h
it,' said Miss Rylance, fastening her brooch. 'Call
er toes, and surveyed her image in the glass from head to foot, with an aggravated air. 'I hope I'm not vulgar-looking, but I'm
or?' asked Ida, coming into the room, and seat
across the room and
there. It would have been "Up, guards, and at 'em!" if I had. I'm sure I should have said something cheeky to old Pew.
o more account in her eyes than an artist's lay figure, which is put away in a dark closet when it isn't in use. She
's bosom friend. 'It's too bad the way they use you. Have this neck-ribbon,' suddenly untying the bow
y-coloured ribbon under her friend's collar, pat
way, while Miss Rylance looked on with ineffable contempt. 'Y
ith cold scorn; 'then I ought to hav
ney matter?'
l like you, who has nev
poverty. The rents are so slow to come in; the tenants are always wanting drain-pipes and barns and thi
erty from mine. You have never known what it is
as if she were
u horrid thing, you need never feel the wa
te into that loathsome animal a sponge,' said Ida, rising suddenly from
ds, divinely tall And
f a deep warm brown rippling naturally across her broad forehead, a complexion of creamiest white and richest carnation. These were but the sensual parts of beauty which can be catalogued. But it was in the glorious light and variety of expression that Ida shone above all compee