 tall aukward thing about seventeen: she was

an heiress; and being taught to believe that riches give birth, beauty, wit, and every desirable quality, she held every one in contempt who was not possessed of this advantage, and because she had it herself, she supposed she had all the others.


Whatever documents were given her, they were always introduced with—Consider, miss, what a fortune you are— a young lady of your fortune.— How was it possible for a girl thus tutored, not to derive insolence from the consideration of her fortune?


The governess, who had the care of this young lady, was not very likely to enlarge her notions— Her only recommendation for such a trust was, that she could jabber corrupted French without either sense or grammar, and miss was taught to parler françoise in a broad provincial dialect; for this governess had never seen Paris, and perhaps had never been out of the little village where she was born and bred, and conversed only with peasants, till she came to England to teach language and fine breeding to a great heiress. It was very natural for lady Manning to make such a choice, who doubtless thought it a great distinction to have a foreigner for governess to her daughter.


"Nay, my dear," interrupted miss Woodby,
lady Manning in this particular does not differ from many persons of the first quality, who commit the education of their daughters to low vulgar creatures, merely because they are French; creatures that in Paris, or in any of the chief cities in the provinces, would not be thought qualified for a chamber-maid to a woman of any fashion, yet when driven into England on account of their religion, as they all pretend, though perhaps it is for want of bread in their own country, derive such distinction from their flimsy sacks, their powdered hair, and their speaking French, that they are thought the fittest persons in the world to form the manners of young girls of quality. How absurd should we think it in a French woman of quality to entertain an aukward Yorkshire girl with a coarse clownish accent, as English governess to her daughter, to teach her the language, and correct her pronunciation? and yet not one in twenty of the Mademoiselles in the houses of our nobility and our French boarding-schools, are better qualified for such an office.—But I beg pardon, my dear, for interrupting you so long: I long to hear what sort of a life you lived in this rich despicable family.


"Truly," said miss Courteney,
it was not very agreeable, when
