be for me out of that dull hackneyed round of daily duties which
makes up the sum of a governess's life?

'I am obliged to do something for my living,' I said; 'my father is
very poor. I hope I may be able to help him a little by and by.'

'And my father is so ridiculously rich. He is a great ironmaster,
and has wharves and warehouses, and goodness knows what, at North
Shields. How hard it seems!'

'What seems hard?' I asked absently.

'That money should be so unequally divided. Do you know, I don't
think I should much mind going out as a governess: it would be a way
of seeing life. One must meet with all sorts of adventures, going
among strangers like that.'

I looked at her as she smiled at me, with a smile that gave an
indescribable brightness to her face, and I fancied that for her
indeed there could be no form of life so dull that would not hold
some triumph, some success. She seemed a creature born to extract
brightness out of the commonest things, a creature to be only
admired and caressed, go where she might.

'You a governess!' I said, a little scornfully; 'you are not of the
clay that makes governesses.'

'Why not?'

'You are much too pretty and too fascinating.'