“We will not talk of public examinations, my dear, until we have tried our own abilities at teaching. But I must caution you never to criticize letters from parents or friends; nor look upon a teacher as a solitary being, without friends and without feelings.”
“I hope you do not think I would exact too much, or be unreasonable in any command to a teacher,” said Elizabeth.
“I do not say that you will do so; I only wish to remind you, that we should have due consideration for those persons who are dependent upon us. And now I have only to observe, that we must not think entirely of the time our pupils are to be with us, but extend our thoughts to the period when they will be enabled to judge by what spirit we were actuated. In teaching, punishing, or rewarding, let us always consider whether the means we then pursue will be useful to the young lady in future life.”
CHAPTER III.
Elizabeth with some degree of impatience stood at the drawing-room window, looking for their first pupil, on the morning the school was opened. At length a carriage drove hastily to the door, and she returned to her seat.
With a flushed and agitated countenance she had now to welcome one of her mother’s earliest friends. Colonel Vincent advanced into the room with two daughters, and in a cheerful tone exclaimed, “I hope, my dear Miss Adair, we are your first scholars; we have strained every nerve to surprise you with an early visit, and an auspicious one I hope it will prove.”
“I hope so too, Sir,” said Elizabeth quickly; “but I thought we should have had the pleasure of seeing Mrs. Vincent.”
“She was obliged to go down into the country to visit her father,” returned the Colonel, “and deputed me to act for her. I have to beg that you will treat our children as the children of strangers: reward them with favour when they are good, and punish them when they are otherwise. We have confidence in our friends, therefore shall never listen to any idle tales; but my little girl,” he continued, as he fondly stroked the hair from the forehead of his youngest daughter, “will I know be tractable and very good.”