ot "preaching" to Eleanor by the kitchen
fire, but writing my autobiography. I am forgetting, also, that I have
not yet said who Miss Mulberry was.

CHAPTER XIV.

MISS MULBERRY--DISCIPLINE AND RECREATION--MADAME--CONVERSATION--ELEANOR'S
OPINION OF THE DRAWING-MASTER--MISS ELLEN'S--ELEANOR'S APOLOGY.

Miss Mulberry was our school-mistress, and the head of the Bush House
establishment. "Madame" was only a French mistress employed by Miss
Mulberry, though she had more to do with the pupils than Miss Mulberry
herself.

Miss Mulberry was stout, and I think by nature disposed to indolence,
especially in warm weather. It was all the more creditable to her that
she had worked hard for many years to support a paralytic mother and a
delicate sister. The mother was dead now. Miss Ellen Mulberry, though an
invalid, gave some help in teaching the younger ones; and Bush House
had for so long been a highly-reputed establishment that Miss Mulberry
was more or less prosperous, and could afford to keep a French governess
to do the hard work.

Miss Mulberry was very conscientious, very kind-hearted, and the pink of
propriety. Her appearance, at once bland and solid, produced a
favourable impression upon parents and guardians. Being stout, and
between fifty and sixty years old, she was often described as
"motherly," though in the timidity, fidgetiness, and primness of her
dealing with girls she was essentially a spinster.

Her good conscience and her timidity both helped to make her feel
school-keeping a heavy responsibility, which should perhaps excuse the
fact that we suffered at Bush House from an excess of the meddlesome
discipline which seems to be _de rigueur_ in girls' schools. I think
Miss Mulberry would have felt that she had neglected her duty if we had
ever been left to our own devices for an hour.

To growing girls, not too robust, leading sedentary lives, working very
hard with our heads, and having (wholesome and sufficient meals, but)
not as much animal food as most of us were accustomed to at home, the
_nag_ of never being free from supervision was both irritating and
depressing. Much worse off were we than boys at school. No
playing-fields had we; no leave could be obtained for country rambles
by ourselves. Our dismal exercise was a promenade in double file under
the eye and ear of Madame herself.

True, we were allowed fifteen minutes' "recreation" together, and by
ourselves, in the school-room, just aft