Miss
Minora, I know what I am saying when I affirm that there is nothing more
intolerable than to have to be polite, and even humble, to persons whose
weaknesses and follies are glaringly apparent in every word they utter,
and to be forced by the presence of children and employers to a dignity
of manner in no way corresponding to one's feelings. The grave father of
a family, who was probably one of the least respectable of bachelors, is
an interesting study at his own table, where he is constrained to assume
airs of infallibility merely because his children are looking at him.
The fact of his being a parent does not endow him with any supreme and
sudden virtue; and I can assure you that among the eyes fixed upon him,
not the least critical and amused are those of the humble person who
fills the post of governess."

"Oh, Miss Jones, how lovely!" we heard Minora say in accents of rapture,
while we sat transfixed with horror at these sentiments. "Do you mind if
I put that down in my book? You say it all so beautifully."

"Without a few hours of relaxation," continued Miss Jones, "of private
indemnification for the toilsome virtues displayed in public, who could
wade through days of correct behaviour? There would be no reaction, no
room for better impulses, no place for repentance. Parents, priests, and
governesses would be in the situation of a stout lady who never has a
quiet moment in which she can take off her corsets."

"My dear, what a firebrand!" whispered Irais. I got up and went in. They
were sitting on the sofa, Minora with clasped hands, gazing admiringly
into Miss Jones's face, which wore a very different expression from the
one of sour and unwilling propriety I have been used to seeing.

"May I ask you to come to tea?" I said to Minora. "And I should like to
have the children a little while."

She got up very reluctantly, but I waited with the door open until she
had gone in and the two babies had followed. They had been playing at
stuffing each other's ears with pieces of newspaper while Miss Jones
provided Minora with noble thoughts for her work, and had to be tortured
afterward with tweezers. I said nothing to Minora, but kept her with us
till dinner-time, and this morning we went for a long sleigh-drive. When
we came in to lunch there was no Miss Jones.

"Is Miss Jones ill?" asked Minora.

"She is gone," I said.

"Gone?"

"Did you never hear of such things as sick mothers?" asked Irais
blandly; a