Chronicles of Dustypore

d, 'A love

was nev

I to myself

e mine, and

of my

before, in a rash moment of benevolence, he had consented to become guardian and trustee, had been suddenly thrown upon his hands. She was no longer a remote anxiety which could be disposed of by cheques, letters to governesses, and instructions to solicitors, but an immediate, living reality, with a highly effective pair of eyes, good looks-as to which women might cavil, but every man would be a firm believer-the manner of an eager child

to a solemn little chamber and administer the most awful lectures on her sins of commission and omission, and the disgrace and suffering which they would justly entail. These interviews were generally tearful and tender; for Miss Goodenough, to whom Maud had been consigned as a child on her first arrival from India, loved her with a sort of rapture which made itself felt amid all the vehement fault-finding which Maud's delinquencies necessitated. Maud had always regarded the old lady in something of a maternal light, and never could be brought to abandon the familiar abbreviation of 'Goody,' by which she had been allowed, as a child, to address her instructress. She accepted her instructress's sentences acco

d commiseration, 'if you could see how you look, with one shoulder

erly that her form was unromantically plump, and not at

n her eyes; 'I wish they were both at Jericho. I am

try all the more to remedy natural defects; at any rate, you might know

ah! They made Israel to sin, they make me to sin, indeed they do. Jehoshaphat, Jeho

er know what every well-educated young lady, what every mere school

. Darling Goody, let me learn texts, hymns, all the Sermon on the Mount, as much poetry as you please, only not those dreadful Chronicles!' Maud used on these occasions t

cies of character to be aimed at. Maud looked into herself, and felt, with agonies of self-reproach, that in every particular she fell miserably short; that she was the very reverse of calm; the least thing

l, which had somehow or other passed scatheless through the rigid blockade which Miss Goodenough established around her young ladies, had filled her with a sort of ecstacy of excitement; and no amount of poetry-no such amount, at any rate, as came within the narrow limits of her mistress's literary horizon-seemed capable of fatiguing or even of satisfying her. Displaying the most complete in

as generally subordinate to those of history, geography, arithmetic, and various other branches of useful and ornamental learning,

t as the Service was over, and the two Misses Goodenough had already turned their backs to lead the way out, and the young ladies were preparing to follow, a little missive came fluttering down and fell almost into Maud's hands; at any

d in an instant, and

' said Mademoi

rendered the question useless, and made all evasion im

de Vert that further attempts at coercion would be labour th

, an explanation to be had with Miss Goodenough, who professed herself,

lprit had on more than one occasion let each other's eyes meet, had in fact exchanged looks, an

; 'it was nothing wrong; it was onl

in horror at each new revelation,

disgrace into which it had got her; 'really pretty verses. Here it is!' And th

ou wert a

rd to hove

dawn to eve

only, 'I a

Do you know that that vulgar rubbish is the sort of odious impertinence that shop-boys send to their sweethearts, b

tood ruefully by, watching the conflagration of the silver Cupid, mourning over Miss Goodenough's ha

Felicia to remove you. What

t of such an exposure; 'do not, at any rate, tell her about the valentin

more masterful guidance than her own. The result was that in the following November Maud was a passenger on the P. & O. steamshi

Maud, in fact, had gone down to her cabin on more occasions than one during the voyage and shed some tears at the approaching separation from friends, whom even those few weeks of chance companionship had carried close to her heart. It had been in truth a happy time. The captain, to whose special care she was committed, had watched over her with a more than paternal interest. The doctor insisted on her having champagne. The purser set all his occult influences at work to increase her comfort. The stewards conspired to spoil her. Maud

and who lost no time in becoming confidential. It was very pleasant to sit on deck through long lazy mornings and play bésique with Mr. Mowbray; and pleasant too, when the day was done, to sit with him in the moonlight and watch the Southern Cross slowly wheeling up and

then, by some happy fatality, Mr. Mowbray would also have a headache that very afternoon, and nothing but dining on deck would do for him; and so there would be a very pleasant little repast going on over the heads of the hot, noisy crowd who were gobbling up their food below; and the two invalids would forget their maladies,