THE GOVERNESS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 34, 25 August 1904, Page 23

THE GOVERNESS

' Unsuitable ? ' echoed Judge Wyckoff , leaping bacfy in his big armchair and thoughtfully stroking his chin. 1 Most unsuitable,' repeated Mrs. Colton Colville, most emphatically. 'In fact, Lenville, I will go further and say that as a governess I consider Miss Neville positively injurious to your motherless children.' 1 She brought the highest recommendation from the convent) where she was educated,' said the Judge, gravely. ' The children are devoted to her and mother loves her as if she were her own.'

' My dear Lenville '—there was a touch of impatience in the lady's tone—' mother is seventy. We cannot expect wibdom or judgment from her any longer. As for the children, Miss Neville spoils them completely.' 1 They are very young yet, Caroline.' 1 Young '. ' echoed Mrs. Coition Colville, who, -mtil her marriage two years ago, had been the mistress of her brother's widowed home, and was a power to be reckoned with, even when on a brief visit as at present. • i am surprised at a man of your intellect, Lenville being so out of date. As I proved in my paper read before the Congress of Mothers last year, education should begin the first month of the child's life. me brain cells should develop according to reg.ulax system There should be conservation of energy from the first Most women aTe absolute idiots on such matters Thfrik of the awful waste of infantile powers involved in learning sutfi things as " Baa, baa, black sheep, or " Ding-dong, dell ! " ' A faint smile trembled on the Judge's lips. He had learned a great deal of ' Mother Goose himself during the past winter. Miss Neville suggested that juvenile classic as suitable papering for the playroom walls. Mrs. Colton Colville continued : •Of pedagogy ?s the exact science it has become in our modern schools s\^r^riiSiet;Sd «;• inSTf.^ Wilfrid was the darling of his father's heart. ' Rocking is. as you know, condemned by all the HplS Neville has given them up, and instead sne v y a y To g unfan r d fU oh t eerfuTpe,haps,', intertuptod the lady, sharply ? but not thoughtless and untrained. Miss Nevme cannot be more than twenty. What can a gir cTwenU know of forming the characters ; or mind of your, children ? Absolutely nothing. Ihey are an run glance toward a group under one of the big, sprea ing ° ak And look-ing out, the Judge saw as pretty a picture as unscientific eyes could wish. His three fair little cirla dancing in glee about their governess, who had fust started to her feet m good humored dismay, as her klSS^l' suppose this is what Miss Neville calls a morning lpsson ' said Mrs. Colton Colville, sarcastically. ? So It seems,' the Judge answered in a low voice. 1 Is it little wonder the children 'are nvaking slow progress. Clearly it is your duty to speak to her in plain terms, Lenville.' < You think so ? ' asked the Judge, reflectively stroklng < Undoubtedly,* continued the lady, 'in justice to your motherless children.' 'If you put it in that light,' said the gentleman, with an odd smile.

' I do most assuredly,' his sister went on. ' The girl is we,ll lntentioned, no doubt, and, though unfitted, for a teacher— as you observed—' 1 Pardon me— as you observed, my dear Caroline,' corrected the Judge, quietly. lAs you please, then,' she continued. ' I was about to say, that, though unsuitable as a gpverness, there is no doubt some other position she could fill quite —quite acceptably.' ' I am sure of it,' was the quick reply. ' In— in fact, it is a matter 1 have been thinking o^ttf for some time, but — with a man's natural hesitation, I lacked courage to bnoac-h the subject to Miss .Neville.' 1 Then let me do it for you,' said his sister, eagerly. ' I can put the matter before her in a light to which no reasonable woman could object.'

1 Impossible, my dear Caroline— impossible ! ' And the speaker rose as if t>o terminate the interview. ' I will speak myself, and— and at once, I assure you. 1

' I don't believe it,' said the lady, as the Judge left the room. 'He will never get up courage to discharge the girl. Men are such fools on such subjects. But? if he won't settle the matter, I will ! ' And Mrs. Colton Colville pressed her thin lips together with the determination of a matron who, having lived in single blessedness for forty years, had learned to "have both her will and her way.

The spring twilight was falling over the paling rose of the hillc, the air was filled with the breath of lilies, and a pair of mating birds in the tree tihat brushed the library window were twittering their evening song. Judge Wyckoff sat in his armchair, his eyes fixed upon the one white star trembling in the glow of the West, lie was dreaming as he had not dreamed for years ; a tender smile played upon his usually grave 'lips, and the serious face relaxed into almost the gladness -of youth - t for the Judge had just reduced a mathematical problem that had been troubling him all the winter to very simple terms. Twenty and forty — not an impossible equation in Love's count. Twenty and forty — nothing to hearts that beat as one. Twenty and forty— only the sunlit, flowery stretch 'twixt the budding leaf and the sheltering bough. Twenty and forty — he would settle matters tins very night.

So absorbed was the Judge in his calculation that he was unconscious of the soft tap at his library door until it suddenly opened and his children's governess stood before him.

She was in walkvng-dress. 'Usually she wore white on these balmy evenings when her day's work was done, and seated at the piano in the drawing-room, she sang for his mother the sweet old conwent hymns they both lovqd.

' I beg nardon,' she began. ' I knocked several times and thought perhaps you were out in the garden. May I speak to you for a few moments ? '

' Certainly,' he said, startled into anxiety by sortiething sharp and strange in her tone. ' There is nothing wron^, I hope, with Wilfrid— with the children ? '

' Nothing,' she answered. ' Thank *God, I leave them all well, perfectly well ! I— l— had written a formal resignation — '

' Resignation ' ' gasped the Judge

' But, after all your kindness and consideration for the past ton months, I felt something moie was due to you— and— to myself,' she added, with quiet dignity. ' It was only a few hours ago that I learned from your sister, Mrs. Colville, that you— you were dissatisfied with my methods and wished to make a change '

' Dissatisfied ' Make a change ' ' For a moment the Judge stood bewildered, and then his conversation with Mrs. Colton Colville flashed into his mind Though not a piotane man, he had to bite back from his lips. ' She — she told you, then—'

' All,' was the answer, in a tone bravely steadied into calm. ' That I have not been exacting, or exact, I Know. But may I explain that, when I first came here, Dr Dent, your childrcn't physician, had a serious comersation with me. He told mo, in plainer terms than he lilted to use to you, that they had inherited frail constitutions and extreme nervous excitability ; that they must not be forced, or even stimulated, to study ; that, pardon me if I now in my own defence repeat his blunt words, they had been most foolishly mismanaged in the past ; and their health, perhaps even their lives, depended upon an entire change of influence. He asked me to be less a teacher than an older sister— a lovine; playmate — a watchful friend. Had I known that this would have been objectionable to you—'

' Objectionable ' Great heavens ' Objectionable ! ' interposed the Judge, unable to shape the emotions overmastering him into words.

1 I might have used other methods,' continued Miss Neville, her voice a little tremulous. ' But now— now it is too late. The children have learned to love me —

and I-MiO love them. I cannot change. I can only—go —and—'

4 One, moment,' int«rrup±ed the judge, desperately. • Let me explain for one moment. You are wrong— all mistaken—'

'•Oh, no, no, no !' The sweet voice was broken unmistakably now. ' You are kind and pitiful, I know, and you wish to spare me, as your sister said. She toUd me you had bcetn wishing to speak to me for months, and could not find courage.' 1 Which is God's truth »' burst forth the judge, finding passionate, eager speech at last. ' I had not the courage to tell what I feared would drive joy and love, hope and happiness, from my life, my home, forever. Nbrine, Norine » do you not understand that for the last ten months you have been the light, the joy, -the angel of this home ? When my sister came to me this morning witai cold words of criticism, my heart was throbbing— with love too deep for her eyes to see, her thoughts to reach. And so, to hide my sweet secret, I answered with foolish evasion. When she pointed 'to you with my boy in your arms, I agreed with her that that was your morning lesson, and blessed God that my child was learning such joyful trust and love. When she told me I should speak plainly to you, for my children's sake, I said truly, I would do so when I found couragecourage to plead with you for them and for myself. When she said there was another position you could fill more acceptably, my heart leaped with the sweet, wild hoipe that there was indeed another place— a dearer, higher, holier, waiting for you here. Will you take it, Ntarine ? Will you be queen and mistress of my home, mother of my motherless children, my guiding angel— my wife ?'

' Your wife !' gasped Mrs. Colton Colville, when the judge gently broke the news to her the next morning. 1 Miss Neville is to be your wife ' Lenville, you must be mad. After ail you said to me yesterday morning-

1 And after all you said to her yesterday afternoon,' added the judge, dryly. ' But halppily, it is all settled. I have spoken to her, as I promised you, m the interests of my children, and she has consented to accept another position, as you suggested— one more suited to her capacity as teacher of that sweet, old-fashioned inexact science— Love.'— Exchange.