'A pretty ground-work for my labours!' thought I.
The altercation was carried on long and briskly, mingled with occasional appeals to me. 'Miss Percy, did you ever see such a child?'
'Oh yes, madam,—a great many such.'
'She has, to be sure, such an unmanageable temper! But then' (in a half whisper), 'the wonderfullest clever little creature! Now, do, Jessie, go out of the room when you are bid.'
At last, command and stratagem being found equally unavailing, Mrs Boswell was obliged to take the course which many people would have preferred from the first; and proceeded to her business in spite of the presence of Miss Jessie.
'Can you teach the piano?'
'I believe I understand music tolerably well; and though I am a very inexperienced teacher, I would endeavour to show no want of patience or assiduity.'
'And singing?' said Mrs Boswell, yawning.
'I have been taught to sing.'
'And French, and geography, and all the rest of it?'