MILLY DARRELL -- PAGE 1

OLD RUDDERFORD HALL -- PAGE 179

THE SPLENDID STRANGER -- PAGE 235




MILLY DARRELL


CHAPTER I.


I BEGIN LIFE.


I was just nineteen years of age when I began my career as articled
pupil with the Miss Bagshots of Albury Lodge, Fendale, Yorkshire. My
father was a country curate, with a delicate wife and four children,
of whom I was the eldest; and I had known from my childhood that the
day must come in which I should have to get my own living in almost
the only vocation open to a poor gentleman's daughter. I had been
fairly educated near home, and the first opportunity that arose for
placing me out in the world had been gladly seized upon by my poor
father, who consented to pay the modest premium required by the Miss
Bagshots, in order that I might be taught the duties of a governess,
and essay my powers of tuition upon the younger pupils at Albury
Lodge.