n answer her) about England and Englishwomen,
and the reason for what she was pleased to term their superior
intelligence, and, more real and reliable probity. Very good sense she
often showed; very sound opinions she often broached: she seemed to know
that keeping girls in distrustful restraint, in blind ignorance, and
under a surveillance that left them no moment and no corner for
retirement, was not the best way to make them grow up honest and modest
women; but she averred that ruinous consequences would ensue if any
other method were tried with Continental children--they were so
accustomed to restraint that relaxation, however guarded, would be
misunderstood and fatally presumed on: she was sick, she would declare,
of the means she had to use, but use them she must; and after
discoursing, often with dignity and delicacy, to me, she would move away
on her "souliers de silence," and glide ghost-like through the house,
watching and spying everywhere, peering through every key-hole,
listening behind every door.

After all, madame's system was not bad--let me do her justice. Nothing
could be better than all her arrangements for the physical well-being of
her scholars. No minds were overtasked; the lessons were well
distributed and made incomparably easy to the learner; there was a
liberty of amusement and a provision for exercise which kept the girls
healthy; the food was abundant and good: neither pale nor puny faces
were anywhere to be seen in the Rue Fossette. She never grudged a
holiday; she allowed plenty of time for sleeping, dressing, washing,
eating: her method in all these matters was easy, liberal, salutary, and
rational; many an austere English schoolmistress would do vastly well to
imitate it--and I believe many would be glad to do so, if exacting
English parents would let them.

As Madame Beck ruled by espionage, she of course had her staff of spies;
she perfectly knew the quality of the tools she used, and while she
would not scruple to handle the dirtiest for a dirty occasion--flinging
this sort from her like refuse rind? after the orange has been duly
squeezed--I have known her fastidious in seeking pure metal for clean
uses; and when once a bloodless and rustless instrument was found, she
was careful of the prize, keeping it in silk and cotton-wool. Yet woe be
to the man or woman who relied on her one inch beyond the point where it
was her interest to be trustworthy; interest was the master-key of
mada