was fanned at finding herself in her present position as irresistible as
ever, and his eagerness to obtain a smile or word from her was such an
agreeable titillation, that everything else became flat, and her hours in
the schoolroom an imprisonment. Sarah's methodical earnestness in study
bored her, and she was sick of restraint and application. Nor was this
likely to be merely a passing evil, for Francis's parents were in India,
and Southminster was his only English home. Nay, even when he had
returned to his tutor, Lucilla was not restored to her better self. Her
craving for excitement had been awakened, and her repugnance to mental
exertion had been yielded to. The routine of lessons had become bondage,
and she sought every occasion of variety, seeking to outshine and dazzle
the ladies of Southminster, playing off Castle Blanch fascinations on
curates and minor canons, and sometimes flying at higher game, even
beguiling the Dean himself into turning over her music when she sang.

She had at first, by the use of all her full-grown faculties, been just
able to keep sufficiently ahead of her pupil; but her growing indolence
soon caused her to slip back, and not only did she let Sarah shoot ahead
of her, but she became impatient of the girl's habits of accuracy and
research; she would give careless and vexatious answers, insist
petulantly on correcting by the ear, make light of Sarah and her grammar,
and hastily reject or hurry from the maps, dictionaries, and cyclopaedias
with which Sarah's training had taught her to read and learn. But her
dislike of trouble in supporting an opinion did not make her the less
pertinacious in upholding it, and there were times when she was wrathful
and petulant at Sarah's presumption in maintaining the contrary, even
with all the authorities in the bookshelves to back her.

Sarah's temper was not her prime quality, and altercations began to run
high. Each dispute that took place only prepared the way for another,
and Mrs. Prendergast, having taken a governess chiefly to save her
daughter from being fretted by interruptions, found that her annoyances
were tenfold increased, and irritations were almost habitual. They were
the more disappointing because the girl preserved through them all such a
passionate admiration for her beautiful and charming little governess,
that, except in the very height of a squabble, she still believed her
perfection, and was her most vehement partisan,