“Look on this picture, and on that,” laughed Julia, “and then say, Miss Heriton, which strikes you most forcibly. Both are colored with truth, but I think mine is according to the rule, and Susan’s forms the exception.”
“If I were embarking in this new undertaking solely on my own account,” Florence replied, after a few minutes’ consideration, “I think your sketch of its difficulties would frighten me. But it is for papa; and however toilsome or wearying the day might prove, I should be able to return to him at night, should I not?”
Susan Denham pressed the hand Florence had laid on hers, as she instinctively turned to read encouragement in those soft brown eyes.
“You will succeed, I think. A work begun in a right spirit rarely fails. Now tell us what we can do to help you.”
“Yes, speak openly,” added Julia. “If it is a decided thing, I withdraw my opposition, and will do my best to get you pupils. Shall you teach under your own name?”
Florence’s face flushed this time with a little pride.
“I had not thought of that. Perhaps papa would not approve of it, and yet I should not like to assume a false one.
“No slurs upon me, if you please,” cried Julia gayly. “But that surprised look proclaims your innocence. Know, then, that although at home I am simply Julia Denham, at the houses of my pupils I am La Demoiselle Julie, and my French is far more correct than my English. Susan shakes her head at me, but ladies will have foreign governesses if they can get them, and they pay them much more liberally than their own countrywomen. The substitution of Mademoiselle for plain Miss pays for my kid gloves and collars.”
“Miss Heriton, I fancy, will be content with her own English appellation,” said Susan, who never approved of anything that savored of trickery. And she began to question and counsel Florence with as much tact as kindness.
It was then arranged that she should study assiduously those subjects in which she knew herself deficient, and avail herself of the cousins’ piano to get up her long-neglected music. While Susan went in search of a manual which she thought would prove useful, Julia carelessly observed: