ten, who touched his cap in salutation. Who were they who had
designed all these pleasant conceits, and what fate had fallen on their
descendants, we know not. At the time we speak of, the chateau was a
select Pensionnat for ten young ladies, presided over by Madame Godarde,
"of whom all particulars might be learned at Cadel's Library, Old
Bond Street, or by personal application to the Rev. Pierre Faucher,
Evangelical Minister, Adam Street, Strand, London." It was, as we have
said, select,--the most select of Pensionnats. The ten young ladies were
chosen after investigations the most scrutinizing; the conditions of the
admission verged on the impossible. The mistress realized in her person
all the rare attributes of an elevated rank and a rigid Protestantism,
while the educational programme was little short of a fellowship course.
Just as being a guardsman is supposed to confer a certain credit over
a man's outset in life, it was meant that being an _eleve_ of Madame
Godarde should enter the world with a due and becoming _prestige_; for
while the range of acquirements included something at least from every
branch of human science, the real superiority and strength of the
establishment lay in the moral culture observed there; and as the female
teachers were selected from amongst the models of the sex, the male
instructors were warranted as having triumphed over temptations
not inferior to St. Anthony's. The ritual of the establishment well
responded to all the difficulties of admission. It was almost conventual
in strictness; and even to the uniform dress worn by the pupils there
was much that recalled the nunnery. The quiet uniformity of an unbroken
existence, the changeless fashion of each day's life, impressed even
young and buoyant hearts, and toned down to seriousness spirits that
nature had formed to be light and joyous. One by one, they who had
entered there underwent this change; a little longer might be the
struggle with some, the end was alike to all; nay, not to all! there was
one whose temperament resisted to the last, and who, after three years
of the durance, was just as unbroken in spirit, just as high in heart,
just as gay, as when she first crossed the threshold. Gifted with one
of those elastic natures which rise against every pressure, she accepted
every hardship as the occasion for fresh resource, and met each new
infliction, whether it were a severe task, or even punishment, with
a high-hearted resolve