ides. To
make matters worse, they were a poor family; the one rich relative being
a sister of the first wife, who disapproved of the widower marrying
again, and never entered the house afterwards. Well, the step-mother had
a sharp tongue, and Mellicent was the first person to feel the sting of
it. She was reproached with being an encumbrance on her father, when
she ought to be doing something for herself. There was no need to repeat
those harsh words. The next day she answered an advertisement. Before
the week was over, she was earning her bread as a daily governess."

Here Rufus stopped the narrative, having an interesting question to put.
"Might I inquire, sir, what her salary was?"

"Thirty pounds a year," Amelius replied. "She was out teaching from nine
o'clock to two--and then went home again."

"There seems to be nothing to complain of in that, as salaries go," Mr.
Hethcote remarked.

"She made no complaint," Amelius rejoined. "She was satisfied with her
salary; but she wasn't satisfied with her life. The meek little woman
grew downright angry when she spoke of it. 'I had no reason to complain
of my employers,' she said. 'I was civilly treated and punctually
paid; but I never made friends of them. I tried to make friends of the
children; and sometimes I thought I had succeeded--but, oh dear, when
they were idle, and I was obliged to keep them to their lessons, I soon
found how little hold I had on the love that I wanted them to give me.
We see children in books who are perfect little angels; never envious
or greedy or sulky or deceitful; always the same sweet, pious, tender,
grateful, innocent creatures--and it has been my misfortune never to
meet with them, go where I might! It is a hard world, Amelius, the
world that I have lived in. I don't think there are such miserable lives
anywhere as the lives led by the poor middle classes in England.
From year's end to year's end, the one dreadful struggle to keep up
appearances, and the heart-breaking monotony of an existence without
change. We lived in the back street of a cheap suburb. I declare to
you we had but one amusement in the whole long weary year--the annual
concert the clergyman got up, in aid of his schools. The rest of the
year it was all teaching for the first half of the day, and needlework
for the young family for the other half. My father had religious
scruples; he prohibited theatres, he prohibited dancing and light
reading; he even prohibited loo