in a Utopia of her own,
fancying that things that were right were always expedient, and that
they should always be valued for their intrinsic worth, that she did
not see the difficulties of her situation as clearly as many people who
had not half her understanding. She and her uncle had been too apt to
talk of things as they ought to be, and not as they actually were. With
all Jane's quiet good sense, there were points on which she could be
enthusiastic, and on this evening the successful cousin was struck by
the warm expressions of an optimism in which he could not share,
uttered by one who had good cause for complaint and dissatisfaction.

When the cousins went together to the Bank of Scotland on the following
day, and were shown into Mr. Rennie's private room, Jane's hopes were
somewhat damped by the details she received about the situation. The
duties were even greater than she had supposed, consisting in the
active and complete superintendence of a great many female servants,
and a slighter control over a still larger number of female keepers,
who also acted as housemaids and chambermaids; the control of the
workroom, so as to see that there was no waste, extravagance, or
pilfering there; the arrangements necessary in the cooking and
distribution of such large quantities of food, so that each should have
enough, and yet that there should be no opportunity of theft; and the
watchfulness required to prevent any of the girls employed in the
establishment from flirting with any of the convalescent gentlemen. The
wages given by the directors had been too low to keep servants long in
the place, or to secure a good class of girls who would be above
dishonesty or other weaknesses; and this made the duties of their
superintendent particularly irksome; while there was a good deal to be
done for the patients themselves, though not so much by the second as
by the upper matron.

All this seemed a formidable amount of work for one head and one pair
of eyes to do; and when Jane was told that the salary was 30 pounds
a-year, and that so many applications had been and were likely to be
sent in, that great interest was necessary for success, she was by no
means so decided on sending in hers. Even the privileges annexed to the
situation, of a small bedroom for herself, and a parlour shared by two
others, with a fortnight's holidays in the year, though very necessary
to prevent the second matron being removed speedily into one of th