ictim of his brother's
self conceit. The young ladies on leaving the dining room ascended the
stairs and went to the room with which Marten had so daringly put his
head in the morning, and here they divided into groups of two or three,
as chance might be, and a chattering began, the like of which could
never be heard again, unless under the like circumstances. It seems a
cruel thing to try to put down any of the nonsense, and perhaps worse
than nonsense, that was then and there talked; and I would not do so if
I did not hope it would prove a warning to some girls that persons do
listen to their conversation sometimes when they fancy no one hears, and
that those same persons do think them very silly and ignorant, and
occasionally wrong. And first, I will take a party of three girls, who
all went to the same school, and these three, I am sorry to say, were
talking of their governess and teachers in a way they ought never to
have done. It was not Mrs. Meredith and Miss Williams, and Miss Smith,
but it was "Meredith, that cross old thing," and "pretty little Smith,"
and that "detestable Williams." And then one asked the other if she
remembered how funnily Fanny Adams had managed in the affair, of
laughing at the French Master, how six of them had been sent up to their
bedrooms in disgrace, and when that detestable Williams came in and
found them still laughing, how she scolded them all, and how Fanny Adams
put some Eau-de-Cologne to her eyes, which nearly blinded her, and made
her eyes water very much, and so deceived Miss Williams that she
pardoned her, though all the rest were left in disgrace.

And here, because there was no better disposed person to speak to these
poor girls upon their light and improper discourse, I would just say one
word:--My dear school boys and school girls, our Saviour says, "Love thy
neighbour as thyself." Let me then ask you, do you in any way follow
this kind command when you so treat your teachers and governors? Think
you, for an instant, of the labour, the anxiety, the perpetual
self-denial, the patience required by an instructor of childhood, even
when the children do their best; but when deceit, hypocrisy, and
hardness of heart is also added to the giddiness and thoughtlessness of
youth, what must be the teacher's suffering?

Remember that our Lord himself was subject to his parents. Luke ii. 57.
Though what could they, poor human creatures, have taught him? Then
follow, as a loving child