18 A FLAT IRON FOR A FARTHING. —

Nurse. How do you, Regie? All right
this morning? Bless me, there’s that dog!
What an extraordinary affair it is! Mr.
Ascott says he shall send it to the ‘ Gentle-
man’s Magazine.’ Well, he can’t be sent
back now, so I suppose he'll have to stop.
And you must keep him out of mischief,
Regie. Remember, he’s not to come into
the drawing-room. Mrs. Bundle, will you
see to that? Miss Blomfield, will you
kindly speak to Signor Rigi when he comes
to-morrow Kee

“ Certainly, Mrs. Ascott,” interposed the
governess.
about that piece of Maria’s? She
doesn’t seem to get on with it a bit.”

“ No, Mrs. Ascott.”

“And I’m sure she’s been practising it
for a long time.”

“ Yes, Mrs. Ascott.”

“ Mr. Ascott says it makes his hand quite
unsteady when he’s shaving in the morning,
to hear her always break off at one place.”

The lines of harass on Miss Blomfield’s
countenance deepened visibly, and her
crochet-needle trembled in her hand,
whilst a despondent stolidity settled on
Matria’s face.

fe ‘Certainly, Mrs. Ascott. I’m very glad
you've spoken. Thank you for mentioning
it, Mrs. Ascott. It has distressed me very
greatly, and been a great trouble on my
mind forsome time. I spoke very seriously
to Maria last Sabbath on the subject”
(symptoms of sniffling on poor Maria’s
part). ‘I believe she wishes to do her
duty, and I may say I am anxious to do
mine, in my position. Of course, Mrs.
Ascott, I know you've a right to expect an
improvement, and I shall be most happy
to rise half an hour earlier, so as to give
her a longer practice than the other young
ladies, and only consider it my duty as
your governess, Mrs. Ascott. I’ve felt it
a great trouble, for I cannot imagine how
it is that Maria does not improve in her

 

 

-strides.

music as Jane does, and I give them equai
attention exactly ; and what makes it more
singular still is that Maria is very good-at
her sums—lI have no fault to find whatever.
But I regret to say it is not the case with
Jane. I told her on Wednesday that I did
not wish to make any complaint; but I
feel it a duty, Mrs. Ascott, to let you know
that her marks for arithmetic are not what
you have a right to expect.”

Here Miss Blomfield paused and wiped
her eyes. Not that she was weeping, but
over and above her short-sightedness she
was troubled with a dimness of vision,

which afflicted her more at some times

than others. As she was in the habit of
endeavouring to counteract the evils of a
too constantly laborious and sedentary
life, and of an anxious and desponding
temperament, by large doses of calomel,
her malady increased with painfully rapid.
On this particular morning she
had been busy since five o’clock, and
neither she nor the girls (who rose at six)
had had anything to eat, and they were
all somewhat faint for want of a breakfast
which was cooling on the table. Mean-
while a “‘ humming in the head,” to which
she was subject, rendered Maria mercifully
indifferent to the proposal to add an extra
half-hour to her distasteful labours; and
Miss Blomfield corrugated her eyebrows,
and was conscientiously distressed and
really puzzled that Mother Nature should
give different gifts to her children, when
their mother and teachers according to the
flesh were so particular to afford them an
equality of ‘‘advantages.”

“Signor Rigi told me that Maria has
not got so good an ear as Jane,” said Mrs.
Ascott. ‘However, perhaps it will be
well to let Maria practise half an hour,
and Jane do half an hour at her arithmetic
on Saturday afternoons.”

“Certainly, Mrs. Ascott.”

“ And now,” said my aunt, “I must in-_