e decidedly a very superior
class, you know, both physically, and morally, and mentally; as a high
Tory I acknowledge that. I could not describe the dignity of her voice
and mien as she addressed me thus; still, I fear she was selfish, my
dear. I would never wish to speak ill of my superiors in rank, but I
think she was a little selfish."

"I remember," continued Mrs. Pryor, after a pause, "another of Miss H.'s
observations, which she would utter with quite a grand air. 'WE,' she
would say--'WE need the imprudences, extravagances, mistakes, and crimes
of a certain number of fathers to sow the seed from which WE reap the
harvest of governesses. The daughters of trades-people, however well
educated, must necessarily be underbred, and as such unfit to be
inmates of OUR dwellings, or guardians of OUR children's minds and
persons. WE shall ever prefer to place those about OUR offspring who
have been born and bred with somewhat of the same refinement as
OURSELVES.'"

"Miss Hardman must have thought herself something better than her
fellow-creatures, ma'am, since she held that their calamities, and even
crimes, were necessary to minister to her convenience. You say she was
religious. Her religion must have been that of the Pharisee who thanked
God that he was not as other men are, nor even as that publican."

"My dear, we will not discuss the point. I should be the last person to
wish to instil into your mind any feeling of dissatisfaction with your
lot in life, or any sentiment of envy or insubordination towards your
superiors. Implicit submission to authorities, scrupulous deference to
our betters (under which term I, of course, include the higher classes
of society), are, in my opinion, indispensable to the well-being of
every community. All I mean to say, my dear, is that you had better not
attempt to be a governess, as the duties of the position would be too
severe for your constitution. Not one word of disrespect would I breathe
towards either Mrs. or Miss Hardman; only, recalling my own experience,
I cannot but feel that, were you to fall under auspices such as theirs,
you would contend a while courageously with your doom, then you would
pine and grow too weak for your work; you would come home--if you still
had a home--broken down. Those languishing years would follow of which
none but the invalid and her immediate friends feel the heart-sickness
and know the burden. Consumption or decline would close the chapter.
S