nature or not, for fear of
putting the whole mechanism out of order, her present and future being
less considered than the smooth working of the machine--she was a girl
again with some character of her own to be formed and developed. Here,
too, she was put upon her honour to do all that was expected of her,
and the immediate consequence of this in her case was the most
scrupulous exactness. She attached herself to Miss Ella, attracted
first of all by the fact that she was a Roman Catholic. How she could
be one was a mystery Beth longed to solve; but Miss Ella did not
consider it loyal to Protestant parents to influence their daughters
at school, and would give her no help in this. In every other respect,
however, Beth found her exceedingly kind and sympathetic, a serene,
strong woman, who began to curb the exuberance of Beth's naughtiness
from the first, and to direct the energy of which it was the outcome
into profitable channels.

There was no monotony in Miss Blackburne's establishment. The girls
were taken in turns to operas, concerts, picture-galleries, and every
kind of exhibition that might help to cultivate their minds. To be
able to discuss such things was a part of their education. They were
expected to describe all they saw, fluently and pleasantly, but
without criticism enough to require thought and provoke argument,
which is apt to be tedious; and thus was formed the habit of chatting
in the genial light frothy way which does duty for conversation in
society. Geraldine had not exaggerated when she called Miss
Blackburne's school a forcing house for the marriage market. At that
time marriage was the only career open to a gentlewoman, and the
object of her education was to make her attractive. The theory then
was that solid acquirements were beyond the physical strength of
girls, besides being unnecessary. Showy accomplishments, therefore,
were all that was aimed at; but they had to be thorough. Music,
singing, drawing, dancing, French, German, Italian--whatever it might
be; the girl who was learning it had the greatest attention from her
master or mistress during the lesson; she was made to do it as much by
the will of the teacher as by her own intelligence. This was the first
experience of thorough teaching Beth had ever had, and she enjoyed
it, and would have worked harder to profit by it than Miss Blackburne
would allow. As it was, she made great progress with her work, while
all the time the more inform