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402 GOING A GOVERNESSING.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
> H Conscience As A Right To Whispers , ...
daily journies tliitlier—sometimes from Holloway , at others from Clapton—did not cost more than those other offices of which I have
spoken . But perhaps I was singularly unfortunate . I know I out-stayed every other governess who frequented the place , but
whether they all obtained engagements or not I am unprepared to say . Of one thing I am certain : there is a very good rule for the
employees , to the effect that if they do not acquaint the " lady resident" with the fact of their obtaining a situation , their names
are erased from the books , never to be admitted there again ; and equally certain that some such rule should be made for the
employers . Often and often has it been my lot to find on reaching a lad ' s residence that she has been a long time " suited . " One
word y more to the young governess about Scholastic Agents . One of the most respectable once sent me the address of a certain
Monsieur A , residing at Chalk Farm . A beloved and tender elder brother accompanied me to the place , where we saw a person
styling herself " the housekeeper , " and who informed us that her master was not at home ; but in answer to our enquiries said , that
monsieur had a boys' school , and kept an English teacher for the girls ; that the two establishments were under one roof , that the lady lived
there , and did just as she liked ; that monsieur went into the girls ' school dailto teach Frenchthat he had no other female living
there , besides y the governess and , herself , ( the housekeeper , ) that she did not know if he was married or not , but he was a fine
handsome agreeable man , and she ( the speaker ) should think an agreeable companion for any young lady . Now , so young
and inexperienced was I at that time , ( and doubtless there are many like me , ) that had I been left to act entirely alone , I should
have taken that situation without one moment's hesitation , and I found out afterwards that I should have been urged to do so , for I
had two applications from monsieur . Nor let my reader suppose that this was long ago , and things have changed since then . They may
have changed , I pray to God they have . But it is only _& ve years since I was seeking an _engagement in the modern Babylon , month
after month : though so heavily has trailed the garment of sorrow around those years , that old Time has seemed to relax his pace , and
I feel to have lived a life-time . But to conclude my adventures , the clerk of a well known Clerical
and Scholastic Agent , by far the most respectable I have ever knownwrote to inform me that Captain —— , of Woolwich
re-, quired a governess . _. The name was one of world-wide fame , and the captain , whose father
was descended from their great namesake , seemed to inherit all that hero's noble qualities . I had known his mother when I was a child ,
and brightening with hope , instantly wrote to him ; a speedy answer appointed an hour for me to call at his residence . How vividly
that journey comes before me ! It was Shrove Tuesday , cold and
_raw . Cold enough in a first-class railway carriage ; ' colder still whoa
402 Going A Governessing.
402 GOING A GOVERNESSING .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Aug. 1, 1858, page 402, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01081858/page/42/
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