it, they should lose all originality of thought and expression.
She would have entered into an argument on the subject, but for this, M.
Heger had no time. Charlotte then spoke; she also doubted the success of
the plan; but she would follow out M. Heger's advice, because she was
bound to obey him while she was his pupil. Before speaking of the
results, it may be desirable to give an extract from one of her letters,
which shows some of her first impressions of her new life.

"Brussels, 1842 (May?).

"I was twenty-six years old a week or two since; and at this ripe time of
life I am a school-girl, and, on the whole, very happy in that capacity.
It felt very strange at first to submit to authority instead of
exercising it--to obey orders instead of giving them; but I like that
state of things. I returned to it with the same avidity that a cow, that
has long been kept on dry hay, returns to fresh grass. Don't laugh at my
simile. It is natural to me to submit, and very unnatural to command.

"This is a large school, in which there are about forty externes, or day
pupils, and twelve pensionnaires, or boarders. Madame Heger, the head,
is a lady of precisely the same cast of mind, degree of cultivation, and
quality of intellect as Miss ---. I think the severe points are a little
softened, because she has not been disappointed, and consequently soured.
In a word, she is a married instead of a maiden lady. There are three
teachers in the school--Mademoiselle Blanche, Mademoiselle Sophie, and
Mademoiselle Marie. The two first have no particular character. One is
an old maid, and the other will be one. Mademoiselle Marie is talented
and original, but of repulsive and arbitrary manners, which have made the
whole school, except myself and Emily, her bitter enemies. No less than
seven masters attend, to teach the different branches of
education--French, Drawing, Music, Singing, Writing, Arithmetic, and
German. All in the house are Catholics except ourselves, one other girl,
and the gouvernante of Madame's children, an Englishwoman, in rank
something between a lady's maid and a nursery governess. The difference
in country and religion makes a broad line of demarcation between us and
all the rest. We are completely isolated in the midst of numbers. Yet I
think I am never unhappy; my present life is so delightful, so congenial
to my own nature, compared to that of a governess. My time, constantly
occupied, passes too ra