Governesses -- Fiction; Love stories; New England -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
In all her preconceived ideas of this examination, she had never dreamed
of being _catechised_, and with a feeling of terror as she thought of
that long answer to the question, “What is thy duty to thy neighbor?”
and doubted her ability to repeat it, she said, “My sponsors, in
baptism, gave me the first name of Madeline Amelia, sir,” adding, as she
caught and misconstrued the strange gleam in the dark eyes bent upon
her, “I am afraid I have forgotten some of the catechism; I knew it
once, but I did not know it was necessary in order to teach school.”
“Certainly, no; I do not think it is. I beg your pardon,” were Guy
Remington’s ejaculatory replies, as he glanced from Madeline to the open
door of the adjoining room, where was visible a _slate_, on which, in
large letters, the amused doctor had written “Blockhead.”
There was something in Madeline’s quiet, womanly, earnest manner which
commanded Guy’s respect, or he would have given vent to the laughter
which was choking him, and thrown off his disguise. But he could not
bear now to undeceive her, and resolutely turning his back upon the
doctor, he sat down by the pile of books and commenced the examination
in earnest, asking first her age.
“Going on fifteen,” sounded older to Madeline than “fourteen and a
half,” so “Going on fifteen,” was her reply, to which Guy responded,
“That is very young, Miss Clyde.”
“Yes, but Mr. Green did not mind. He’s the committee-man. He knew how
young I was. He did not care,” Madeline said, eagerly, her great brown
eyes growing large with the look of fear which came so suddenly into
them.
Guy noticed the eyes then, and thought them very bright and handsome for
brown, but not as handsome as if they had been blue, for Lucy
Atherstone’s were blue; and as he thought of her he was glad she was not
obliged to sit there in that doctor’s office, and be questioned by him
or any other man. “Of course, of course,” he said, “if your employers
are satisfied it is nothing to me, only I had associated teaching with
women much older than yourself. What is logic, Miss Clyde?”
The abruptness with which he put the question startled Madeline to such
a degree that she could not positively tell whether she had ever heard
that word before, much less could she recall its meaning, and so she
answered frankly, “I don’t know.”
A girl who did not know what logic was did not know much, in Guy’s
estimation, but it would not do to stop here, and so he asked her next
how many cases there were in Latin!
Maddy felt the hot blood tingling to her very finger tips, for the
examination had taken a course widely different from her ideas of what
it would probably be. She had never looked inside a Latin grammar, and
again her truthful “I don’t know, sir,” fell on Guy’s ear, but this time
there was a half despairing tone in the young voice, usually so hopeful.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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