“And what branches are taught in that school?” demanded I, with an ill-suppressed feeling of curiosity.
“I don’t remember all the hard names, sir,” replied the old lady, somewhat embarrassed. “Susan, my child, tell the gentleman all you have learnt at the Misses ***.”
“We had reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, grammar, geography, history, maps, the globe, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, astronomy, natural philosophy, chemistry, botany, physiology, mineralogy, geology, and zoology in the morning; and dancing, drawing, painting, French, Italian, Spanish, and German in the afternoon. Greek, and the higher branches of mathematics, were only studied by the tall girls.”
“And how many masters were there for teaching all that?” demanded I, astonished with the volubility of the young lady’s tongue.
“The Misses *** teach everything,” replied the girl. “They wouldn’t allow a gentleman to enter the house.”
“I know this to be a fact,” interrupted the mother; “and that’s the reason their school is so popular. It is principally on the score of morality I sent Susan there. They have always as many girls as they want, and from the first families too;—isn’t it so, my dear?”
“Just so, Ma,” replied the young lady. “The first girls in New York are educated there; they don’t take everybody.”
“I told you so,” said the old lady. “It’s a great thing to send a girl there; and an expensive one too, I can assure you.”
“And what is the usual age of the young ladies?” demanded I.
“They take them from the age of five to the age of eighteen,” she replied; “it is only a month ago I left it myself.”