The Triumph of Jill — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Triumph of Jill
John Stuart Mill · en
When she had arranged the room to her satisfaction she set about writing
out her advertisement, no very lengthy matter, for she had thought about
it so continually of late that she knew exactly how to word it. She had
come to the conclusion that it would be better not to let people know
that she was just starting, so expressed herself in a noncommittal sort
of way as follows:--"Miss Erskine's Art School will re-open on January
15th. Classes, Tuesdays and Fridays 9:30 to 12:30 p.m., and 2:30--4:30
p.m., Geometry Classes every Wednesday evening from 7:30 to 9 o'clock."
Then followed the address and date, and the advertisement was completed
and ready to appear. So far everything was easy, but Jill herself felt
by no means sanguine of results. For one thing the locality was not
very desirable, and the Art School commanded what many people in house
hunting insist upon, a lofty situation, but in the latter instance, of
course, it has nothing to do with stairs. Miss Erskine's establishment
was four storeys high, and the shape of the ceiling hinted unkindly at
being in close communication with the slates. Would anybody who was
able to pay for tuition be willing to climb those stairs twice a week,
narrow and steep, and dark enough to be dangerous, not to mention the
dust, which the obscurity hid, but which one's olfactory organ detected
unmistakably as one wended one's way wearily up or down? No, it did not
seem very probable, and yet it was just possible enough to leave a
margin of hope in her otherwise despondent reasoning.
The next day, Jill had the sorry satisfaction of seeing her
advertisement in print. It was stuck away in a corner of one of the
least important columns, and did not look very imposing, but it
occasioned her a little thrill of pride all the same, and gave her fresh
heart to return to work, though she had endeavoured to sell a small
canvas that morning for a proportionally small sum and had failed, a
fact, considering the state of her exchequer, not conducive to great
exhilaration.