tice, and irritate
Mervyn.

Honora Charlecote tried to give pleasure to the sisters by having them at
the Holt, and would fain have treated Bertha as one of the inherited
godchildren. But Bertha proved by reference to the brass tablet that she
_could_ not be godchild to a man who died three years before her birth,
and it was then perceived that his sponsorship had been to an elder
Bertha, who had died in infancy, of water on the head, and whom her
parents, in their impatience of sorrow, had absolutely caused to be
forgotten. Such a delusion in the exact Phoebe could only be accounted
for by her tenderness to Mr. Charlecote, and it gave Bertha a subject of
triumph of which she availed herself to the utmost. She had imbibed a
sovereign contempt for Miss Charlecote's capacity, and considered her as
embodying the passive individual who is to be instructed or confuted in a
scientific dialogue. So she lost no occasion of triumphantly denouncing
all 'cataclysms' of the globe, past or future, of resolving all nature
into gases, or arguing upon duality--a subject that fortunately usually
brought on her hesitation of speech, a misfortune of which Miss Fennimore
and Phoebe would unscrupulously avail themselves to change the
conversation. The bad taste and impertinence were quite as apparent to
the governess as to the sister, and though Bertha never admitted a doubt
of having carried the day against the old world prejudices, yet Miss
Fennimore perceived, not only that Miss Charlecote's notions were not of
the contracted and unreasonable order that had been ascribed to her, but
that liberality in her pupil was more uncandid, narrow, and
self-sufficient than was 'credulity' in Miss Charlecote. Honor was more
amused than annoyed at these discussions; she was sorry for the silly,
conceited girl, though not in the least offended nor disturbed, but
Phoebe and Miss Fennimore considered them such an exposure that they were
by no means willing to give Bertha the opportunity of launching herself
at her senior.

The state of the household likewise perplexed Phoebe. She had been bred
up to the sight of waste, ostentation, and extravagance, and they did not
distress her; but her partial authority revealed to her glimpses of
dishonesty; detected falsehoods destroyed her confidence in the
housekeeper; her attempts at charities to the poor were intercepted; her
visits to the hamlet disclosed to her some of the effects on the
villagers of