Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-02-27
MY ONE GEEAM or ROMANCE.

That only the chtidreu eau see him So
Mrs. 4. u. T. WhitHcg.
MY ONE CLEAN or ROMANCE
| am afraid that l am only prosaic sort of
being Now and then the young ladies whom
| meet in society think me unromantic and
perhaps uninteresting. The gay hues of
morning become lost in that light of COM
mon day" which belongs to the afternoon of
| life For me it is quiet cheerful, happy
afternoon; with the music of the voices that
| love, the fragrance Of the flowers | tend.
know, too, that for me the bracing evening
breezes will rise, and the evening skies be
| flushed with immortal hopes. Once | had n
| CLEAN of romance, which grew, indeed, into
a steady radiance and plain and prosaic as
| | am uow--and it is mainly the ordinary cpl
| sodc of woman's life-I think it perhaps
more romantic than happens to most young
ladies' of the period, and l hope that they,
too, may have CLEAN equally propitious.
We were the six daughters of a country
vicar we lived four miles from the county
| town which was also the cathedral city We
were a very happy nest of girls, save for GER
tain uupTopitious love affairs, which, how
ever, came all right before the end of the
| third volume. Our Squire's son was very at
| tentive to my older sister, and our Squire,
| though very civil to us WAS not supposed to
| like it, for he had trottod of his son for n
long tour, and nobody knew for how long it
might be. My second sister was engaged to
my fathers curate helplcssly hopelessly en-
| gagged. He had only hundred year. and
was not to think of marrying until he had
another hundred. | came third. The rest of
| my younger sisters have become engaged to
| the series of subsequent curates My father
| could not afford to send us to school. but we
| grew up somehow and. like flowers, we
| grew up toward the sunlight. The educa-
ton our good mother gave us was something
| like shakespeare taste, and the musical
| glasses :" but our father added robuster
| fibre. H. considered that boys and girls
ought, to certain extent, to have the same
education. Like Shakespeare aforesaid, We
| had a little Latin and less Greek. As far rs
Greek goes | never got beyond the irregular
verbs-those rocks which have Ghipwrecked
many young scholar-but in Latin read
| several of the easier classics. did not COM
| pose any Latin verses, because my father
very properly said that young ladies should
not write verses, but have verses written to
them. had done the first three books of
Euclid and in algebra had gone as far as
quadratic equations, but not into them.
| do not mention these humble attainments
boastfully but because it will be soon seen
that they have something to do with my lit
tie story.
My father was able to give us good home
| but then knew it was not home that would
| last always. | did not see that there was any
necessity in the nature of things that we six
maidens should always be living together. OF
| course, it is necessary that one or two girls
should always be at home looking after the
| father and mother, but half dozen We're re-
| ally more than sufficient | made up my
mind that should like to 60 out as gov
| f.tI. fl,-- 4 1t Nn11
like the notion. The living was a fairly
| good one, and the notion had never entered
their heads; but it had fairly taken posses
sion of mine. l was naturally fond of teach
| ing, and had done even more than my share
| in teaching the younger ones Moreover l
should like TO see n bigger world than that
| which our village made up except that on
| Saturday we went to the neighboring city,
where we did some shopping aud marketing,
walked about, and went to hear the anthem
in the cathedral. One day l saw an adyer-
tisement which seemed to suit me precisely.
governess was desired by country gentle
man in the Midlands, to teach three little
| boys. Now it was that my boyish education
| came in excellenty. These lads were in
tended to go to Rugby, andi was discovered,
after some little correspondence and compar
ing of notes, that | should be able to educate
them up to the point of entering Rugby
even my father said SO, and my father was
man who was sternly Just and particular in
these things, and would not for worlds let
any of his children fly false colors Then
this gentleman and lady wanted my photo
graph, and Twas rather ashamed to send it, for
was only poor small brown little creature.
| Those who loved me said that had loving
eyes, just like our dog Pompey,. who, | am
sure had eyes that were simply magnificent,
only eyes do not come out very well i'll pho
tographs. However, the matter was ulti-
| mately arranged between my father and
these people l suppose few young ladies
made so good a start first off in the governess
world as did at nineteen, and all because
was able to teach the boys Latin and mathe-
matics was to have fifty guineas year,
| with laundress and travelling expense, so
that ! really should not have to pay away
anything out of my salary. In fact, the Rev
| erend James, who was engaged to my sister
| Fanny, told me that was a great deal better
| off than he was When he had paid all his
expenses he was hardly fifty shillings to the
| good. If it had been guineas instead of shil-
lings he thought he might be tempted to
perpetrate matrimony on the strength of it,
In order to get to my place, as We laugh
ingly called it, down in the shires, it was nee
essary that 1 should go up from our cathe-
| dral city to London, and then go down into
the country by another line, bennington
was a very long way from the railway. At
this time our railway system was still young,
but even at the present time, though there
are four or five railways in this neighborhood,
| none come within four or five miles of Dom
nington. l was to go down to Manningham
Road Station, which was 10 miles from the
market town of Manningham itself, and then
the village of bennington was five miles on
the other side of Manningham.
1t was late in September afternoon when
l came to Manningham Road Station. The
station itself was in little village, but it am
bitously perferred taking its title from the
market town, which was many miles of. The
arrangement was that should be met by one
of the Wilmslows in their trap, which should
take me and my belongings over to Donning-
ton. Everything was taken out but unfort-
unately, the Wilmslows' conveyance had not
arrived, The porter knew them very well,
and said that they were sure to be there be-
fore very long. 1t was a long way to come,
and they might have business at Manning