To Mrs. Jerningham she made no piteous confession of her own sadness. It was agreed between them that she was to be a governess. Mrs. Jerningham’s influence would be invaluable in procuring her a situation; and all she had to do was to make herself mistress of the accomplishments which that lady assured her were indispensable. Some of these accomplishments she had already mastered; of others she had a superficial knowledge. Nothing was required but a little patient drudgery; two or three hours a day devoted to the piano, an hour or so to her German grammar. And in the evening she could read _I Promessi Sposi_ to her kind patroness, by way of polishing her Italian. “You shall stay with us till we have made you a perfect treasure in the way of governesses,” Emily said, kindly, “and then Auntie and I will take pains to get you a situation with nice people, who will give you seventy or eighty pounds a year, and with whom you may be as happy as the day is long; and I am sure that will be better than your dreadful country theatres. Lucy assented to this proposition; but she thought, with a sigh, of Market Deeping, and her brief triumphs as Pauline. Yes, the dramatic profession was no doubt a hard one, but she had been happy at Market Deeping; and that one night of glory, when she had been called before the curtain after her performance of Pauline, had been a dazzling glimpse of brightness which shone back upon her through the mists of the past with supernal radiance. And instead of such bright brief successes, she was to teach those hideous German declensions, and read _I Promessi Sposi_, and superintend the performance of Cramer’s Exercises, for ever and ever. For ever and ever! She was but just nineteen, and the long blank life before her looked like an eternity. Her chief consolation daring the patient, laborious days was the thought that Mr. Desmond would approve her efforts; her secondary motive was the desire to be duly grateful for Mrs. Jerningham’s kindness. Nor were her days all drudgery. Her patroness was too kind to allow this. There were long drives through the bright pastoral landscape that lies around sleepy, river-side Hampton; a little, very little, quiet society; an occasional novel; and a rare--ah, too rare--visit from the editor of the _Areopagus_. The relations existing between that gentleman and Mrs. Jerningham were quite beyond poor inexperienced Lucy’s comprehension, and they formed the subject of her wondering meditations.