, whom they pitied sincerely for having so
troublesome a daughter.

At first Rose did not dislike the office of teacher, which brought her
in a little income before she was out of her teens. The whole place
reminded her pleasantly of Miss Burridge's school which she had quitted
but recently, only instead of having a metropolitan superiority in
enlightenment and progress, strange to say, the Misses Stone's
establishment, as if drawing within itself and shrinking back from the
constantly moving, restlessly advancing world around, was really
older-fashioned, less in the van of public opinion than the school at
Redcross. The Misses Stone, their teachers and pupils, were well-bred,
and what might have been called in past days "prettily behaved," though
the behaviour was a little formal. Women and girls were elegantly
accomplished, in place of being solidly informed or scientifically
crammed, in accordance with the fashion of the nineteenth century. Above
all, they declined with a gentle unconquerable doggedness to be turned
from the even tenor of their ways. Italian was still largely taught in
the school, while only a fraction of the pupils learnt German. Latin had
no standing ground save in the derivation of words, Greek was unknown.
The word mathematics was not mentioned. The voice of the drill-sergeant
was not heard, but the dancing-master with his kit attended twice a
week, like Rose, all the year round. The harp was played by the pupils
instead of the violin. Withal there was much careful learning and
repeating of Sunday Collects and the Church Catechism.

The school found ample support. What it attempted to do was in the main
well done. Undoubtedly there was an attraction, half-graceful,
half-quaint, in all connected with it, from the gentle manners of the
elderly Misses Stone, who were only bitter against what was bold,
impertinent, and eccentric, to the most dainty of their small pupils.
Strictly conservative people felt that their daughters were safe in such
an atmosphere, and patronized it accordingly. Undoubtedly they learnt a
good deal which was worth learning.

Rose began by receiving nothing save the most considerate kindness and
approval in that house. It was a libel on its forms and ceremonies to
imagine that they contained anything tyrannical and harsh in their
essence. The very law of their being was amiability, combined with mild
steadfastness in withstanding the subversive attitude of the time. The
mos