Milly Darrell and Other Tales | Page 4

that I would not
trouble her with a journey to the cook. I was faint and worn-out with
my day's pilgrimage, and had eaten very little since morning; but the
most epicurean repast ever prepared by a French chef would have
seemed so much dust and ashes to me that night; so I sat down meekly
to my supper of bread and meat, and listened to Milly Darrell's chatter
as I ate it.
Of course she told me all about the school, Miss Bagshot, and Miss
Susan Bagshot. The elder of these two ladies was her favourite. Miss
Susan had, in the remote period of her youth, been the victim of some
unhappy love-affair, which had soured her disposition, and inclined her
to look on the joys and follies of girlhood with a jaundiced eye. It was
easy enough to please Miss Bagshot, who had a genial matronly way,
and took real delight in her pupils; but it was almost impossible to
satisfy Miss Susan.
'And I am sorry to say that you will be a good deal with her,' Miss
Darrell said, shaking her head gravely; 'for you are to take the second
English class under her--I heard them say so at dinner to-day-- and I am
afraid she will fidget you almost out of your life; but you must try to
keep your temper, and take things as quietly as you can, and I daresay
in time you will be able to get on with her.'
'I'm sure I hope so,' I answered rather sadly; and then Miss Darrell
asked me how long I was to be at Albury Lodge.
'Three years,' I told her; 'and after that, Miss Bagshot is to place me
somewhere as a governess.'
'You are going to be a governess always?'
'I suppose so,' I answered. The word 'always' struck me with a little
sharp pain, almost like a wound. Yes, I supposed it would be always. I
was neither pretty nor attractive. What issue could there be for me out

of that dull hackneyed round of daily duties which makes up the sum of
a governess's life?
'I am obliged to do something for my living,' I said; 'my father is very
poor. I hope I may be able to help him a little by and by.'
'And my father is so ridiculously rich. He is a great ironmaster, and has
wharves and warehouses, and goodness knows what, at North Shields.
How hard it seems!'
'What seems hard?' I asked absently.
'That money should be so unequally divided. Do you know, I don't
think I should much mind going out as a governess: it would be a way
of seeing life. One must meet with all sorts of adventures, going among
strangers like that.'
I looked at her as she smiled at me, with a smile that gave an
indescribable brightness to her face, and I fancied that for her indeed
there could be no form of life so dull that would not hold some triumph,
some success. She seemed a creature born to extract brightness out of
the commonest things, a creature to be only admired and caressed, go
where she might.
'You a governess!' I said, a little scornfully; 'you are not of the clay that
makes governesses.'
'Why not?'
'You are much too pretty and too fascinating.'
'O, Mary Crofton, Mary Crofton--may I call you Mary, please? we are
going to be such friends--if you begin by flattering me like that, how
am I ever to trust you and lean upon you? I want some one with a
stronger mind than my own, you know, dear, to lead me right; for I'm
the weakest, vainest creature in the world, I believe. Papa has spoiled
me so.'

'If you are always like what you are to-night, I don't think the spoiling
has done much mischief,' I said.
'O, I am always amiable enough, so long as I have my own way. And
now tell me all about your home.'
I gave her a faithful account of my brothers and my sister, and a brief
description of the dear old-fashioned cottage, with its white- plaster
walls crossed with great black beams, its many gables and quaint
latticed windows. I told her how happy and united we had always been
at home, and how this made my separation from those I loved so much
the harder to bear; to all of which Milly Darrell listened with most
unaffected sympathy.
Early the next day my new life began in real earnest. Miss Susan
Bagshot did not allow me to waste my time in idleness until the arrival
of my pupils. She gave me a pile of exercises to correct, and some
difficult needlework to finish; and I found I had indeed a sharp
taskmistress in