ll called theirs, and
loved with the pride of property; but, indeed, the bright carpeting of
the whole garden was something especially their own, rejoicing their
eyes, and unvalued by the rest of the house. On the like liberal scale
were the salaries of the educators. Governesses were judged according to
their demands; and the highest bidder was supposed to understand her own
claims best. Miss Fennimore was a finishing governess of the highest
order, thinking it an insult to be offered a pupil below her teens, or to
lose one till nearly beyond them; nor was she far from being the treasure
that Mrs. Fulmort pronounced her, in gratitude for the absence of all the
explosions produced by the various imperfections of her predecessors.

A highly able woman, and perfectly sincere, she possessed the qualities
of a ruler, and had long experience in the art. Her discipline was
perfect in machinery, and her instructions admirably complete. No one
could look at her keen, sensible, self-possessed countenance, her decided
mouth, ever busy hands, and unpretending but well-chosen style of dress,
without seeing that her energy and intelligence were of a high order; and
there was principle likewise, though no one ever quite penetrated to the
foundation of it. Certainly she was not an irreligious person; she
conformed, as she said, to the habits of each family she lived with, and
she highly estimated moral perfections. Now and then a degree of scorn,
for the narrowness of dogma, would appear in reading history, but in
general she was understood to have opinions which she did not obtrude.

As a teacher she was excellent; but her own strong conformation prevented
her from understanding that young girls were incapable of such tension of
intellect as an enthusiastic scholar of forty-two, and that what was
sport to her was toil to a mind unaccustomed to constant attention.
Change of labour is not rest, unless it be through gratification of the
will. Her very best pupil she had killed. Finding a very sharp sword,
in a very frail scabbard, she had whetted the one and worn down the
other, by every stimulus in her power, till a jury of physicians might
have found her guilty of manslaughter; but perfectly unconscious of her
own agency in causing the atrophy, her dear Anna Webster lived foremost
in her affections, the model for every subsequent pupil. She seldom
remained more than two years in a family. Sometimes the young brains
were ove