"Seventy! I hope you will make it do, Ailie. It would be a great

relief."

"And spare your brains not a little. Yes, I do trust to keeping it, for

Lady Temple is delightful; and as to the boys, I fancy it is only taming

they want. The danger is, as Miss Rachel told me, whether she can bear

the sight of the process. I imagine Miss Rachel herself has tried it,

and failed."

"Part amateur work," said Ermine, smiling. "It really is lucky you

had to turn governess, Ailie, or there would have been a talent thrown

away."

"Stay till I have tried," said Alison, who had, however, had experience

enough not to be much alarmed at the prospect. Order was wont to come

with her presence, and she hardly knew the aspect of tumultuous idleness

or insubordination to unenforced authority; for her eye and voice in

themselves brought cheerful discipline without constraint, and upheld

by few punishments, for the strong influence took away the spirit of

rebellion.

After her first morning's work she came home full of good auguries; the

boys had been very pleasant with her after the first ten minutes, and

Conrade had gained her heart by his attention to his mother. He had,

however, examined her minutely whether she had any connexion with

the army, and looked grave on her disavowal of any relationship with

soldiers; Hubert adding, "You see, Aunt Rachel is only a civilian, and

she hasn't any sense at all." And when Francis had been reduced to the

much disliked process of spelling unknown words, he had muttered under

his breath, "She was only a civilian." To which she had rejoined

that "At least she knew thus much, that the first military duty was

obedience," and Francis's instant submission proved that she had made a

good shot. Of the Major she had heard much more. Everything was referred

to him, both by mother and children, and Alison was the more puzzled as

to his exact connexion with them. "I sometimes suspect," she said, "that

he may have felt the influence of those winsome brown eyes and caressing

manner, as I know I should if I were a man. I wonder how long the old

general has been dead? No, Ermine, you need not shake your head at me.

I don't mean even to let Miss Curtis tell me if she would. I know

confidences from partisan relations are the most mischief-making things

in the world."

In pursuance of this principle Alison, or Miss Williams, as she was

called in her vocation, was always reserved and discreet, and though

ready to talk in due measure, Rachel always felt that it was the upper,

not the under current that was proffered. The brow and eyes, the whole

spirit of the face, betokened reflection and acuteness, and Rachel

wanted to attain to her opinions; but beyond a certain depth there

was no reaching. Her ways of thinking, her views of the children's

characters, her estimate of Mr. Touchett--nay, even her tastes as to the

Invalid's letters in the "Traveller's Review," remained only partially

revealed, in spite of Rachel's best efforts at fishing, and attempting

to set the example.




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