o say ridiculous, at the present season: I thought I
was fully competent to the task of teaching him myself--for some years to
come, at least: the child's education was the only pleasure and business
of my life; and since he had deprived me of every other occupation, he
might surely leave me that.

He said I was not fit to teach children, or to be with them: I had
already reduced the boy to little better than an automaton; I had broken
his fine spirit with my rigid severity; and I should freeze all the
sunshine out of his heart, and make him as gloomy an ascetic as myself,
if I had the handling of him much longer. And poor Rachel, too, came in
for her share of abuse, as usual; he cannot endure Rachel, because he
knows she has a proper appreciation of him.

I calmly defended our several qualifications as nurse and governess, and
still resisted the proposed addition to our family; but he cut me short
by saying it was no use bothering about the matter, for he had engaged a
governess already, and she was coming next week; so that all I had to do
was to get things ready for her reception. This was a rather startling
piece of intelligence. I ventured to inquire her name and address, by
whom she had been recommended, or how he had been led to make choice of
her.

'She is a very estimable, pious young person,' said he; 'you needn't be
afraid. Her name is Myers, I believe; and she was recommended to me by a
respectable old dowager: a lady of high repute in the religious world. I
have not seen her myself, and therefore cannot give you a particular
account of her person and conversation, and so forth; but, if the old
lady's eulogies are correct, you will find her to possess all desirable
qualifications for her position: an inordinate love of children among the
rest.'

All this was gravely and quietly spoken, but there was a laughing demon
in his half-averted eye that boded no good, I imagined. However, I
thought of my asylum in --shire, and made no further objections.

When Miss Myers arrived, I was not prepared to give her a very cordial
reception. Her appearance was not particularly calculated to produce a
favourable impression at first sight, nor did her manners and subsequent
conduct, in any degree, remove the prejudice I had already conceived
against her. Her attainments were limited, her intellect noways above
mediocrity. She had a fine voice, and could sing like a nightingale, and
accompany herself sufficientl