education and the highest moral and religious principles. Both Walworth and Mildred had been left much in her care, when they were children, and it was to her, I afterwards learned, they owed the high notions of honor which influenced their conduct in a remarkable degree. They bore a strong attachment to her, and Mildred especially took every opportunity of manifesting her affection, and I observed that to Mrs. Grey her mere presence was a delight. For Walworth, Nurse Matty entertained a respectful regard, but to " Miss Milly," as she named her, she gave the fondness and love of a mother. With her Mildred might be as exacting as she pleased; it was a joy to wait upon her darling, and although she came almost daily to Glen-Beck, she was never so happy as when Mildred spent some hours of an afternoon with her at the farm. After a time, when we became better acquainted, Mrs. Grey talked to me sadly about Walworth. His melancholy and restlessness, with the great change in his habits, she averred, puzzled and distressed her. "He used to be the gayest lad," she said; "and when he sobered + down after coming from Europe, he was yet joyous-like and kindly; but now there was a great change. A sore trouble weighed upon him," she feared. "How long has he been so altered?" I inquired. "For the past four or five months," she answered. "Oh! Miss Bessie," she added, you should have seen him, when the house at Glen-Beck was building. He managed, he directed everything, and somehow there was no trouble; all seemed to go right. His father never interfered with his plans, for not a soul at Glen-Beck thinks Mr. Walworth can do wrong, and his mother drove out from town, every week, to see how the work progressed. Mr. Walworth lived at the farmthen, in order that he might be on the spot with the masters and workmen, and Miss Milly came and spent some weeks with me: It was a pleasant summer for us all, but now Mr. Walworth is very unlike his own old self;" and she sighed in a kind of sorrowful perplexity. "If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces."-SHAKESPEARE. Pro.-"Why use me thus now, Yet am I king o'er my self's rule, The torturing and conflicting throes within, SHELLEY. FTER a fortnight spent in the schoolroom with my three pupils, I discov ered that the office of their instructress was no sinecure. Mrs. Marchmont, my predecessor, had been a hard, stern monitress, who enforced many and stringent rules, with severe penalties. The children were constantly coming to me SEYTOUN. 65 GOVERNESS LIFE-MRS. SEYTOUN. with, "Miss Wilmerton, Frank has broken such a rule. Must he stand?" Or, "Miss Wilmerton, must Tommy lean on my chair ?" Or, "Lillian went out of the room without permission, Miss Wilmerton." Endless were the tiresome repetitions of similar complaints, until I discountenanced tale-bearing, by taking no notice of the offenders. The habit, I saw, had a most pernicious effect upon the dispositions of the children, making them unkind and disputatious, and very often unreasonable and unjust. There were other faults, the result of Mrs. Marchmont's harsh discipline, which yielded in time to quiet surveillance on my part, and perhaps a gentler government. One benefit resulted from her teaching, however, which I could not but acknowledge. The lessons were admirably learned and well recited. From the first, I was not a little surprised at my pupils' acquirements, which were far beyond most children of their age. They were gifted also to a certain extent, for each of the three possessed great skill and taste in drawing. Even Tommy, who was matter-of-fact 66 GOVERNESS LIFE-MRS. SEYTOUN. and prosaic in many respects, displayed an ardor for improving himself in this accomplishment, unusual in a boy of his years. The frequent presence of their brother Walworth, during the hour for drawing, was, it is probable, a great inducement for the children to do well. His instructions were useful and welltimed, and he possessed, in a rare degree, the genius to be obeyed. The idol of his parents, there was not one in all the household who did not hold him in the highest esteem, and by his brothers and sisters he was regarded with a half-reverent and unquestioning affec-tion. When he condescended, therefore, to show a persevering interest in any one pursuit of theirs, it is not strange that my pupils should be ambitious to merit from him words of encouragement and approbation. With the exception of drawing, however, no one interfered with my instruction of the children. They were never withdrawn from their lessons on any pretext, and their moral training was left entirely in my hands. At first, I could not but shrink from the responsibility this involved; I was weighed down with it; but + |