LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1856, 3 February 1880, Page 3

LITERATURE.

MISS BRIQHTER'S ACADEMY. A TALE OF A WEST END FIKISHISf; SCHOOL. Chapter I. It was a finishing one in every sense of ths word ; for it finished of the finances as well ss the accomplishments ; it tnrned out the pockets as fast ss the prodigies. A good deal of salid gold passed into the hands of the lady principal, and was paid back by her in a gloss which might last through a season of folly and fashion, and perchance lead to enamelling later. Still Missßrighter's academy had touched up some 'gems of girls,' and manufactnred. once in a way, a 'jewel of a wife; so it is not for us to decry the polishing process. .As a rule Belgr»v'an mothers found it to their fanoy. Their daughters came back to them drilled and dutiful, with that inane expression of ser*ni y which is indispensable in high life. They were guiltless of a tinge of the vulgar blue, but were supposed to have imbibed delicately of the pink of perfection. The figure was studied, if figures were not; a certain art was acquired, if the arts hung behind; and the girls were trained to draw lovers, if not landscapes. It was to this graceful seminary that Lady Carinthia Wildleigh confided her hopeless daughter Rosalina. She was very pretty, very winning, but very wilful; and the defect was one quite inadmissible in the select circle fcr which she was intended. ' Make her,' said Lady Carinthia, in transferring her to Miss Brighter's hands. — 'make her calm, stolid, stupid—anything but demonstrative. I don't know where she came from ; I think she is a changeling. But however that may be, she must be changed now ;' and with as much emphasis as her aristocratic lips would allow, she swept fr-.ru the scene with these impressive words. Miss Brighter smiled benignly. This was something quite in her line, and she rather liked it. If there was a good deal of responsibility, the credit would be all the greater, the profit the higher, and she preferred risk to limHed liability. Possibly she was a little adventurous ; but her system had stood well as yet; there was no reason to pressage its downfall because of this new investment. As Lady Carinthia glided off to her carriage, Miss Brighter threw a quiet calculating glance on the young lady who was left What she saw there did not tend to reassure her. But before proceeding to her impressions, we must give some idea of the lady principal herself. In person she was stately, erect, elegant; her attire silken, and her speech smooth. She had very small eyes, but they were as bright as beads; and there was a certain amount of force in the thin lines of her lips and the clearly cut teeth within. She verged on her fiftieth year, but scarcely looked so muoh; for her complexion, habitually pale, and her skin, of a certain parchment texture, had the less to lose by the ravages of time. Her hair, once fair, might have been touched with grey had it not been for the judicious application of some 5' restorer,' which imparted to it a yellow tinge, with a slight admixture of green beneath the shadow of her cap. When she walked, her tread was firm but iviseless, and except for the soft rustle of her dress, her movements would have been almost too cat-like.

Th. 9 longer she looked now at Roaalina, the lesa oomfortable she felt. The joang lady was tall—that was against h<r to begin with. Miss Brighter was only conversant with the small type of merry mischievous maidens. This was something quite abnormal, a new specimen which would require special manipulation. Furthermore, she had dark, dangerous eves—not the light laughing orbs associated with pranks and gaiety and a Bupei cilious little nose. Her hair was raven black ; her features were small but selfasserting, and lips, of the most daring Vermillion, parted in a sort of fmile when she spoke which had more defiance in it than a scowl. She had been chattering even while her aristocratic mother was speaking, chattering lightly to a green and grey parrot, which eyed her dubioua'y from between the bars of his cage. Miss Brighter found it necessary to overawe her with a certain sternness of manner, which she did not generally adopt in the opening stages of acquaintanceship. 'Allow me, Miss Wildleigh, to conduct you to the classroom,' she said solemnly, and moved towards the door.' 'You will be under the spec'al care of Fraulein Leidher; she will show you your apartment.' Rosauna said nothing; she only smiled, but that was enough Miss Brighter felt a sort of thrill pais through her. But she thought of Lady Oarinttua of her confidence and her own credit, and her courage was up again Fraulein Liedher was an aotive p l ea?ant little body, not young, but with a juvenile manner and bright air. Roaalina wai led up to her in the schoolroom, and passed over promptly to her keeping. ' Pray show Miss Wildleigh her room, Fraulein,' said the lady principal, after a few words of introduction ; ' the one you occupy.' ' 1 am to have a bedroom to myself,' interposed Rosalinda smartly. ' That was arranged for.' 'Certainly. There is no other young lady put with you ; but a governess is always in each apartment' ' O, she counts for nobody, is that it ? ' said Roaalina, and with one of her sweetest smiles she was marched off. It was not her way to argue and contend, but simply to render every arrangement which did not suit herself utterly untenable. 'J hat poor Fraulein had a sad time of it. She watched MiBS Wildleigh narrowly and oeaslessly, as it seemed to her; but the young lady had a figure lithe as a serpent's, and quite a Maskelyne adroitness in her powers of disappearance and emancipation. The pupils were never »llowed out but in a close column of profession, with governesses inlaid at intervals ; no seivant of the establishment was permitted to exchange speech with them, or minister to their suireptitious need* Yet at right, when the gas was extinguished, and Fraulein and her companion were laid securely in their iron safes at opposite ends of the room, the governess's ear, riain? watchfully from the pillow, caught Bounds of orange peelings, and c uachings of something uncommonly like toffy and hardbake. Beginning so l e remonstrance, Rosalina's head w uld pop up at once. ' 0, did you hear anything, Fraulein ?' she would exclaim. ' A mouse was it ? I am dreadfully afraid of them. Djn't rouse me again, or I shan't sleep a wink the whole night.' ' If you have the fear of them, mademoiselle, why you go let the crumbs fall about, and keep the sweetie} under your head ?' said Fraulein sternly. Bub ere the question was propounded, there was a gentle sigh from the opposite couch, and Rosulina was supposed to have dropped off into the sleep of innocence. The governess was trying this business on her own acoount, when some change in the atmosphere and illumination of the room would rouse her anew. A slight scratchißg sound, an indubitable scent of a perfumed vesta, and opening her eyes she would behold Rosalina's dark head hanging over the bedside, a lighted candle on the adjacent chair, and a green-and-yellow-backed book clasped close in an extended hand. The first time of this occurrence she felt impelled to action. With an exclamation she leaped right out of bed, and bounding forwards, made a wild dive at the culprit in the distance. ' O you bad girl I ' she cried. ' Just let me catch you and your vicked book, and you shall be handid up, de both of you, to Miss Brighter in de morning !' But at the word a sudden blackness fell on her. The light was gone, and she herself, stumbling against the washhand-stand, knocked over the ware thereon, and came with a shriek to the ground. The door was opened in the same instant by a sort of female patrol, who paraded the corridors till the hour of ten. She found the hapless Fraulein almost swimming in the fljed with which she had encompassed herself ; the overturned basin on her head, and the water-jug emptying its laßt contents down her neck. After this escapade Fraulein Liedher thought it safest to keep to her own quarters at night, and content herself with hurling threats and warnings at the head of her cunning companion. Morning arrived, she would begin her programme of vengeance by attempting a oonfL oil ion of the various contraband anioles that had been espied ov>r night. But whether Rosalina. was a siren, a sorceress, or a spiritualist, all had vanished f rem the soeue: the book, the matches, the comestibles, evan the eandlestiok! Bi ffl d thus, she found that a conviction of her own

(incompetency was the most lively impression made on the lady-principal by her representations. Miss Brighter very possibly discredited there in no way, but being of a peculiarly practical turn of mind she naturally insisied oc the production or some tangible proof. This the £o73rness laboured in vain to bring forth, Bosalina grew sharper and etealtbior; no one could watch her. And at last, bereft of sleep, and startled each instant b 7 Bounds or the semblance of them, the poor Fraalain fell really ill, and escaped to the infirmary for a week's rest. This brought matters to a crisis. There was an awful duenna on the premises who overlooked the linen-room, a terrible old woman, only resorted to on extraordinary occasions. Miss Brighter held her in reserve as tbe la3t appliance for refractory pupils. She was called up now from her underground «phere, and established in Miss Wildleigh's room. On the announcement of this change to the young lady in question, she was seen to smile more sweetly than ever, though her companions gave an instinctive shudder. They were all ford of Bosalina, for she was not by any means selfish in the enjoyment of her secret stores. In the daytime she imparted cakes and candies to others with as much magical adroitness as she exercised in her own behalf at night. ' Poor little Bosy!' said Adeline Archer, one of the eldest of the Bchool. " Don't I pity you ! Mrs Grabbet has a g'asp like iron, and is a complete) cat in the dark. Lk'ht or not, she'll have you by the hair of your head before you know where you are.' ' I scarcely think you'll find me losing my head like that;' and Bosalina gave a saucy toss to the article in question. • I said your hair.' 'And I say my head, for it must look after the locks.' ' Rosy, you ars a duck !' ' Because I can dive, eh ?' asked the young lady. ' But I don't take to the water like poor Fraulein, for all that;' and she laughed. Upon this there waß a general titter; for the governess's feat, with some witty embellishments, had flown pretty quickly round the school circle. ' I must be off to my room now, and reconnoitre,' said R"salina. ' It's forbidden, yon know. What fun to have rules ! How ever should we do without them? There would be nothing to break then but the crockery.' 'Bosy,'paid her friend Adeline, catching her playfully round the waist as she 'was gliding off, 'you are up to some mischief, I'm certain Tell us what it is 1 There's something in your head.' ' I hope so, sinoe M. Douceronx comes today.' • Ah, yes, you are his pet, and well you know it. Rut do you know too th&t this is hiß last lesson V (To be continued.')