“Ah! indeed! and only nineteen! Perhaps you are one of those reduced gentlewomen, who go out governessing, and pretend to know everything!” snapped the old woman, with a sneer.
Probably she had been taken in some time during her life by some such person as she described, which accounted for her scorn.
“No, madam; I pretend to nothing. I have a good education, therefore teach for a living, and am only a poor girl without home or friends.”
Brownie’s cheeks were very red now, but her dignity would have done credit to the highest lady in the land.
The strange woman chuckled audibly, nodded her head two or three times, as if much amused, and then went on with her catechising:
“Do you read French?”
“Yes, madam,” replied the young girl, inwardly resenting the woman’s brusque manner, yet feeling bound to reverence her gray head.
“And German.”
“Yes, madam.”
“Can you play the piano, and sing?”