of school education, that upon
the whole she would prefer keeping Pauline at home. A governess, under
her own eye, would do her greater justice and bring her on faster;
and, above all, she would escape the contamination of indiscriminate
contact with children of whose tempers and characters Mrs. Grey knew
nothing.

She need not have said half as much to convince Mr. Grey, for he was
tired out with the subject, and ready to yield before she was one
third through; but she was talking as much to satisfy herself that
what she did was the result of mature reflection, and not to gratify,
or rather pacify Pauline, as to convince Mr. Grey. Whether she was
able to attain this point is somewhat doubtful, although the capacity
people have for self deception is amazing. And to what perfection Mrs.
Grey may have reached in the happy art, we are not able exactly to
say.

But the governess was engaged, (a day governess, for neither Mr. Grey
nor Pauline could have borne the constant presence of even so
necessary an evil,) and under her tuition Pauline made rapid progress
in her studies. Miss Burton soon finding that the moral education of
her little pupil was quite beyond her reach, Mrs. Grey generally
evading any disputed point between them, and gently waiving what
authority should have settled, very wisely confined herself to the
task Mrs. Grey set before her, which was to give Pauline as much
instruction and as little contradiction as could be combined.

But spite of some drawbacks Pauline made wonderful progress. She was,
in fact, a child of uncommon abilities, and every thing she applied
herself to, she mastered almost at once. Her understanding rapidly
developed, and springing into girlhood while others are yet looked
upon almost as children, she was a daughter any parents might justly
be proud of. She was singularly beautiful, too, and no eye could rest
upon her girlish form and speaking face, her brilliant eye and glowing
cheek, other than with delight. That Mr. and Mrs. Grey watched her
with looks of something hardly short of adoration, is scarce to be
wondered at. She was so animated, so joyous, so radiant with youth,
health and beauty. There seemed such affluence of all life's best
gifts, which she scattered so lavishly around her, that the very air
seemed to grow brighter from her presence, and no one who came within
the sphere of her influence, could escape the spell of her joyous
power.

To say that as her mind and