1861.]

I WAS in very great and perplex

ing want of a governess. Miss Thorold had just left me, to be married to the rector of an adjoining parish, a match regarding which I shall ever consider myself to have acted in an heroic spirit of selfdenial. Had I willed it, it would neither have come on, nor off. Mr. Simpson, but for my judicious assistance, would have never discovered beneath the modesty with which they were concealed the merits of the young lady; nor would Miss Thorold, but for my subtle connivance, have ever found means of meeting, or fascinating, so eligible an admirer. It was the only match which I ever assisted in making, and I look back on it with the sort of satisfaction with which one learns to regard those good deeds which have been done solely to contribute to the happiness of others, with the chance of their detracting from our own. She was a great loss to us all, one which we were not likely readily to repair. How we succeeded in doing so it is my purpose now to relate. I had tried in vain, through all the private sources which were open to me, to hear of such a lady as I required, when my eye caught the following advertisement in a highly respectable and strictly ecclesiastical weekly newspaper:

The wife of a clergyman is desirous of recommending, as governess in a gentleman's family, a young lady who has for some years had the education of her own children. She is admirably qualified to give instruction in music and drawing, and would teach French and Italian if required.'

The advertisement attracted me : it did not promise any impossible combinations, nor did I demand them, having always more than one governess for my girls, and among them generally two foreigners. Music and drawing were what I chiefly at this moment desired; if in addition I could secure the services of a well-educated woman who could read and write her own language, I felt that I

should have obtained as much as I could reasonably expect from any single individual.

Without delay I wrote to the lady who had inserted the advertisement; and finding that her protégée was still disengaged, I made arrangements that she should call upon me at the Burlington Hotel, where Mr. Chester and myself usually stay when in town.

The morning after my arrival in London, at the appointed moment, Miss Morton, the young lady referred to in the advertisement, was announced. I always await such interviews with some anxiety, as one knows not how great may be the results for good or evil of the connexion which may arise from them. I regarded the young lady as she entered with considerable interest. She was tall, but neither slight nor pale, as are the governesses who usually appear in the pages of a story; nor did she appear sensitive to any superlative. extent, as are, for the most part, the heroines on such occasions. Indeed she appeared to be more self-possessed than myself, and gave me at once, with very little cross-questioning on my part, the very information about herself which I desired. Perhaps it is due to myself to state here that I am not a fat, vulgar, purse-proud woman, as the reader, conversant in modern novels, has doubtless at once pictured me, on hearing that I was about to engage a governess. Miss Morton was the daughter, of a clergyman, her age, she told me, five-and-twenty (she looked younger); she gave into my hands two notes-one from an eminent water-colour artist of the day, the other from an equally distinguished musician, both testifying in very high terms to her proficiency in their several arts. A piano was in the room; I requested her to try it. She demurred slightly.

I have no show pieces for these occasions,' she said, smiling not unpleasantly.

Will you kindly play your minor scales? I asked; I should be more satisfied with those.'

She played them through with exquisite smoothness and precision.

'If you would indulge me with a few bars of this,' I said, placing before her an andante of Beethoven. She complied readily. The first few notes were sufficient to assure me of her skill as a musician; but for my own delight I suffered her to play on, until she paused of her own accord, asking if that would be sufficient.

'Quite,' I answered, 'more than sufficient. I have one more request to make, Miss Morton. It may seem a strange one; but will you read aloud to me a page out of this book-it is English.'

She took up the book with perfect sang froid, and read with good pronunciation and considerable expression the passage to which I pointed. It is a lamentable fact that few English girls can read or write. I had always determined that mine should do both, and chosen their teachers accordingly.

The only point on which we seemed likely to disagree arose from the circumstance that I and my family did not habitually spend the season in town; but when I mentioned in extenuation that we usually passed part of the autumn and winter at Brighton, Miss Morton at once consented to my terms, and our engagement was concluded.

I was lying on the sofa, fatigued and prostrate with the exertions of the morning (a very little tires me greatly), when my husband returned from a business expedition into the city.

'Well, Harriett,' he asked, 'what about your young friend? Will she do?'

I have engaged her,' I replied; 'she will come to Ashfield next week.'

'A plain and disagreeable woman, I foresee.'

'By no means; it is only that I cannot make up my own mind as to whether I can subscribe to what I am sure would be the general verdict in her favour.'

It was not long before Miss Morton came to us. I happened to be in the hall on her arrival, and was struck by the air of quiet selfpossession with which she greeted me, without for a moment withdrawing her attention from her luggage, of which she seemed to have brought a somewhat formidable amount for the wagonette which had been sent to convey her from the station.

'Was not the cart there for the luggage, William?' I inquired, rather sharply perhaps, outraged that so heavy a load should have been put upon the somewhat light carriage.

'Yes, ma'am,' said the man, 'but- he hesitated to proceed. Miss Morton at once concluded the sentence for him.

But I was particularly anxious to bring these few things under my own eye; the rest are following in the cart. Your servant is rather stupid,' she continued, as we crossed the hall together; 'I could scarcely make him understand which were my packages.'

We do not consider him stupid,' I answered shortly, making my way towards the drawing-room, and resigning my original intention of showing the young lady to her room in favour of one of the housemaids. She needed plainly no encouragement which I could offer towards making herself at home in a strange house; indeed, if this were to be a specimen of the relations which were to subsist between us, I might rather be puzzled myself one day to hold my own.

"You need not have doubted about her manners or appearance,' said my husband that evening. "The first are quite those of good society, and the last would anywhere be considered prepossessing. I should call her,' he continued, ‘a very handsome woman, as well as modest and well-mannered.'

Well-mannered certainly she

was; handsome, possibly; but modest, could the adjective be applied as at all distinctively applicable to her? possibly so. For at the early dinner, which we generally take ourselves at one o'clock with our children and their governesses, Miss Morton sat next to my husband, and to him I had noticed that the tones of her voice were softened, and her accents far more deferential than to myself.

She was, I am bound to confess, an admirable instructress. My girls improved wonderfully under her tuition. It was not only that they played and drew better than before, but their taste and feeling for art were educated and improved by her to an extent which I regarded with almost as much surprise as pleasure.

I had retired at first in alarm from anything approaching to companionship with Miss Morton, resolved to keep the position which was due to myself in my own house, and that she should keep hers in like manner; but I found after a while that the reserve in which I had entrenched myself was unnecessary, and that it might be undesirable.

Her duties had been well performed; her conduct had been irreproachable. It seemed incumbent on me to express by something more of kindness and attention than I had hitherto ventured to display, my approval and appreciation of what had really given me so great satisfaction. And so it came about that Miss Morton became not unfrequently my companion in a drive or walk, and that she gradually assumed in a few months, by patience and tact, the position which I am inclined to think that she had at the first determined to secure by a coup de main. It may be the proper thing -I dare say it is-that a governess should be considered as one of the family; but with us this has never been quite the case. My husband is generally, more especially in the hunting and shooting seasons, out of doors the whole day, and we neither of us have yet arrived at that degree of unselfishness which

237

would admit of disturbing, by the admission of a third person, our evening tête-à-tête. Whenever we had company staying in the house we had always made a point of inviting our governesses to join our evening circle; and likewise on those rare occasions in which we exercised hospitality in the form of a dinner-party. Miss Morton's musical powers were so great an addition at such times to our resources in the way of entertaining our guests, that we could not but feel grateful for the rare good nature with which she always was ready to exert them.

I have described as well as L could in the brief limits to which I intend to confine myself, the position of affairs, when my son Walter arrived at Ashfield from Oxford for the long vacation.

He

was in his third year, and we were very proud of him, though I dare say many of our neighbours would tell you, with little cause; there was no probability of his getting a 'first' or a 'second,' or even an honorary 'fourth,' though there was, we hoped (tremblingly), a reasonable prospect of his getting through.' Our pride was therefore not based on his intellectual proficiency. I fear indeed, when I come to analyse it, that it was a poor pride, and that his being so tall and straight, so handsome, so frank and manly, had a good deal to do with it. bade fair to be as good a rider as his father in the hunting-field; while under his strokeship' (if such a word be in use) the Christ Church boat rose briefly and brilliantly to be the head of the river. These were his triumphs. We shared them, and were content with him as he was with his strong health, his active hardy habits, his noble unsuspecting nature, and singular unselfishness.

He

As the eve of his arrival drew nigh, I began to fear that I might have acted unwisely in having suffered myself to be drawn into relations so much more intimate than I had intended with Miss Morton. With all the respect and regard which we had entertained for Miss Thorold, she had never been on such easy terms in our

domestic circle as her successor had become. The former had indeed studiously avoided, as I had often remarked, anything approaching to familiarity, preserving ever a quiet dignity in the reserve which she appeared to desire should subsist between her and ourselves.

My husband laughed at my fears, and told me, with some show of truth, that I was ever meeting evils half-way, especially such as seemed to menace Walter-that he was too young to dream of entertaining ideas of marriage; that Miss Morton was too old for him, if he were not, and too sensible and well-principled, he was sure, to have such thoughts in her own head or put them in his.

At our early dinner, when the first meeting took place between Miss Morton and my son, I sat on thorns and found it difficult to conceal the disquietude which I felt. In spite of some delicate manœuvring on my part, they sat upon the same side of the table and next to one another. He had always been so attentive and considerate towards Miss Thorold that it ought not to have affected me in any way to see him exercise the ordinary politeness due from him on such an occasion to her successor. Yet his most trivial remarks, his passing glances, were watched by me with apprehension, and I longed to hear, and wondered whether he would tell me with his usual openness, the result of his first impression respecting her. Yes, she was very handsome, very well dressed, very well mannered, I could not but acknowledge as I regarded her on this occasion. The most severe matron in the matter of sumptuary regulations could have taken no exception to the plain black silk in which she was dressed; yet how well it was made, how exquisitely it became her; what a contrast she formed in it, with her dark hair so simply arranged around her well-shaped head, to Mesdemoiselles Aubery and Hoffman, her French and German fellow-labourers in the schoolroom.

Nothing could be more coldly

She

indifferent than Miss Morton's manner on this occasion. scarcely responded so far as ordinary politeness required to his civilities; her answers were short and repelling; indeed, I thought that she discouraged almost unnecessarily his slight attempts at conversation.

'I don't much like your new governess, mother,' was Walter's first exclamation, when he found himself in the drawing-room with only his father and myself.

Don't you. She is a very good governess, nevertheless,' I replied, 'as you will say when you find what improvement your sisters have made in their music.'

'Oh, I dare say; but she is not half so pleasant to talk to as Miss Thorold. When are you going to ride, father?'

Át three o'clock.'

"Then I shall go and look at the young pheasants that Grace was telling me about, and meet you in the stable-yard.'

As he left the room I saw a quiet smile on Arthur's face.

'Not much mischief yet, you see,' he said.

'No; I dare say it was very absurd to expect any,' I replied.

The first impression made by Miss Morton upon my son did not seem to wear off. In Miss Thorold's day I had sometimes seen him join her and his sisters, of whom he was very fond, in their walk. Now this never seemed to occur. It appeared to me indeed that Miss Morton carefully avoided all but the most strictly necessary intercourse between them. I began to have as high an opinion of her discretion as of her accomplishments.

One great difficulty which I have generally experienced with governesses has been that of inducing them to take sufficient out-door exercise with their pupils. It has been an especial aim with me to bring up my girls with active, hardy habits, to which their instructresses have generally manifested a very decided aversion.

Two things prepossessed me from the first in Miss Morton's favourher predilection for cold water and for country walks. When for any

1861.]

reason the children could not accompany her, she would go and loose Beppo, the great dog in the stable-yard, which had certain claims to be considered of St. Bernard extraction, and start with him over the downs towards Ayton, our little post-town, which was a general object for us all when in want of a walk. From such expeditions I have often watched her return, admiring as she came up the avenue her plain and appropriate dress, well slung up out of the dirt, of which she scarcely seemed to bring home a spot even on the strong boots which fitted so marvellously her well-shaped feet.

Things were in the position which I have attempted to describe, when my husband received an invitation to join an old friend in Scotland, who had taken a moor there for the

season.

'There is no chance,' he said, 'of my father's coming to us now before Christmas; so my staying at Ashfield on his account would be useless.'

Quite,' I replied. Not so much because I felt any particular certainty as to the movements of Sir Francis, as because I thought the change would do Arthur an infinite deal of good; and his mind was so bent on going that I did not like to place any obstacle to his doing so.

I may as well state briefly here that, though we lived at Ashfield, the family place of the Chesters, my husband's father was still alive. He had spent a good deal in his time, and the property was considerably embarrassed in consequence. By the present arrangement he gave up Ashfield, which he had always extremely disliked, to his son, with a certain allowance for managing the property, and towards keeping up the place. My own fortune, which had been considerable, assisted us to live in tolerable comfort, though even with its assistance we were compelled to cut ourselves off from all superfluous expenses. Sir Francis meanwhile passed his time in London, Brighton, Paris, some German watering-place, as the season or his fancy, which was somewhat discursive, inclined him.

239

On the day of my husband's departure, feeling somewhat dull and depressed, as I often do in his absence, I ordered the carriage to make a round of long-owed morning calls, having generally found the desperate energy required for the performance of so disagreeable a duty one of the best restoratives for the sort of low spirits under which I was then suffering. On this occasion, however, I was prevented from proving the value of my favourite remedy by one of those sudden and severe headaches to which I have been liable for years, and which make all exertion impossible while they last. But I would not countermand the carriage, and signified, through little Grace, to Mesdemoiselles Hoffman and Aubery that it was at their disposal if they had any shopping to do at our little country town, or would like a drive. To ask Miss Morton to join the party I knew would be gratuitous, as she and the foreign governesses were terms so distant that they never unnecessarily associated with one another.

on

The house was utterly still, therefore. No sound approached the sofa on which I lay in the drawingroom, but such as came through the open windows from the far distant voices of the village children; and that only contributed to induce the sleep which I longed for as the surest restorative from the pain under which I suffered.

I must have slept about half an hour, when I was awakened by the sound of voices in the garden beneath the window.

'I tell you it is no boy's love,' said one voice (it was Walter's) in loud and passionate tones. The voice which answered was soft and low. I could not distinguish the words; but the deep, rich notes could only come from one voice which I knew; they trembled with no passion, but seemed those of a person calmly resisting a demand importunately urged.

Impossible!-it is not impossible it shall not be impossible!' exclaimed the first voice, if I have only your permission

I heard no more. A sharp turn