Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-04-11
George Eliot a. a Housekeeper.

True to her woman nature, George Eliot did
not allow her almost unrivaled genius to curb
or destroy the feminine instincts for home
making. In Mathde Blinds interesting biog-
raphy she gives US this pen picture Of George
Eliot's girlhood:
At very early age Mary Ann and her brother
were sent to the village free school at Cotton,
In the parish Of Grff, a not unusual custom in
thOse days, when the means of tuition for little
children were much more difficult to procure
than now. There are still old men living who
used to sit on the same form with little Mary
Ann Evans learning her A. B. G., and O certain
William Jacques the original of the delight
fully comic Bob Jakins of fiction) remembers
carrying her pick-a- back on the lawn in front OF
her fathers house.
When she was IL years old, being then, in the
words of neighbOr who occasionally called at
Grif house, "a queer, three-cornered, awkward
girl. who sat in corners and shyly watched her
elders elders. she was placed as boarder with tie
Misses Franklin at Coventry. This school, then
In high repute throughout the neighborhood,
was kept by two sisters of whom the younger.
Miss Rebecca Franklin, was woman of I'M
usual attainments and lady-like culture, al
though not without q certain faint of John
sonian affectation. She seems to have thor
0ughly grounded Miss Evans in sound Eng
fish education, laying great stress in particular
on the propriety OF precise and careful manner
OF speaking and reading.
AS A SCHOOL GIRL.
Mary Ann, or Marian, as she came afterward
to be called remained about three wears with
the Misses Franklin She stood aloof from the
other pupils, and one of her school fellows.
Miss Bradley jenkins, says that she was quite as
remarkable in those days as after she had
acquired fame. She seems to have strangely
impressed the Imagination OF the latter, who,
nguratlveiy speaking, looked up at her as at
a
school girl about Miss Evans for even at that
early age she had the manners and apDearance
of grave, staid woman; SO much SO that a
stranger. happening to call one day, mistook
Franklin, who were then middle-aged
women. In this also there Is certain re-
semblance to Maggie Tulllver, who. at the
age OF thirteen, is described as looking already
like woman. English composition, French
and German, were some of the studies to which
much time and attention were devoted. Being
greatly In advance Of the other pupils in the
knowledge of French, Miss Evans and Miss
jenkins were tai ken out Of the general class
and set to study it together, but though the
two girls were thus associated in closer fell
!owship, no real intimacy apparently followed
from it.. The latter watched the future George
Eliot with Intense interest, but always felt as il
IN the presence of a superior, though socially
thelr positions were much on par This
haunting sense of superiority precluded the
6Ao".h VA VlOScl between the
two fellow pupils. All the more startling was
1t to the admiring schoolgirl when one day on
using Marian Evans German dictionary. she
saw scrubbed on its blank page some verses
evidently original, expressing rather senti-
mently yearning for love and sympathy. I'm
der this granite-like exterior, then, there was
beating heart that passionately craved for
human tenderness and companionship!
HOUSEKEEPER,
About the age of Is Marian Evans left the
Misses Franklin, and soon afterward she had
the misfortune of losing her mother, who died
in her forty-ninth year. For several years after
this Miss Evans and her father remained alone
together at Griff House. He offered to get
housekeeper. as not the house only. but farm
matters had to be looked after, and he was
always tenderly considerate Of 1.-The little
wench, as he called her. But his daughter
preferred taking the whole management
OF the place in her own hands, and
she was as conscientious and dill
gent In the discharge of her domes.
tic duties as in the prOsection of the studies
she carried on at the same time One of her
chief beauties was In her large, finely shaped
feminine hands-hands which she has indeed
described as characteristic of several of her
herOines; but she once pointed out to a friend
at Foleshill that one was broader across than
the other. saying, with some pride, that it was
Que 10 the quality OF butter and cheese she had
made during her housekeeping days at Griff.
1t will be remembered that this is a character
ist1c attributed to the exemplary Nancy Lam
meter, whose person gave one the idea of "per-
feet, unvarying neatness, as the body of a little
Bird" only her hands ''bearing the traces of
butter-makng. cheese-crushing. and even still
coarser work."