another unfeeling thing, without seeming
to be aware of it: Evelyn's nurse had been most kind to her, but she
unhappily spoke broad Berkshire, and was a plain, ordinary-looking
person; so she was dismissed, with a handsome legacy left by her
master, and the poor little girl was placed under the care of a sort of
upper servant called Harris. Harris was charged never to use any but
the most genteel language in her presence, and to treat her with the
respect due to a young lady who was already in possession of a vast
property, though under guardians.

"Three handsome rooms in one wing of the house on the first floor were
given to the little lady and Harris; and an inferior female servant was
provided to wait upon them in private, and a footman to attend the
young lady in public. It was not the custom for young children then to
dine with the family; the only meal, therefore, which Evelyn took with
her aunts was the tea, when she saw all the company who ever visited
them; her breakfast and dinner were served up in her own rooms.

"She was required to come down at noon, and to go down and salute her
aunts and ask their blessing; and whenever any one of them declined the
daily airing, she was invited to take the vacant place as a great
treat.

"Her education was begun by Harris, who taught her to read, to use her
needle, and to speak genteelly; it was afterwards carried on by masters
from Reading, for her aunts had no sort of idea of that kind of
education which can only be carried on by intellectual company and
teachers. Harris was told that no expense would be spared for Miss
Vaughan; that her dress must be of the first price and fashion; that if
she desired toys she was to have them, and as many gift-books as St.
Paul's Church-yard supplied.

"As to her religious duties, Harris was to see that she was always very
well dressed, and in good time to go to Church with her aunts; that she
was taught her Catechism; and that she read a portion every day of some
good book; one of the old ladies recommending the _Whole Duty of Man_,
another Nelson's _Fasts and Festivals_, a third Boston's _Fourfold
State_, whilst the fourth, merely, it is to be feared, in opposition to
her sisters, remarked, half aside to Harris, that all the books above
mentioned were very good, to be sure, but too hard for a child, and
therefore that the Bible itself might, she thought, answer as well,
till Miss Vaughan could manage hard words. As Harris herse