such a bold hard stare, that was but a part of his indiscretion.
The good thing, after all, was that we should surely see
no more of him.

This was not so good a thing, I admit, as not to leave me to judge that what,
essentially, made nothing else much signify was simply my charming work.
My charming work was just my life with Miles and Flora, and through nothing
could I so like it as through feeling that I could throw myself into it
in trouble. The attraction of my small charges was a constant joy,
leading me to wonder afresh at the vanity of my original fears, the distaste
I had begun by entertaining for the probable gray prose of my office.
There was to be no gray prose, it appeared, and no long grind;
so how could work not be charming that presented itself as daily beauty?
It was all the romance of the nursery and the poetry of the schoolroom.
I don't mean by this, of course, that we studied only fiction
and verse; I mean I can express no otherwise the sort of interest
my companions inspired. How can I describe that except by saying that
instead of growing used to them--and it's a marvel for a governess:
I call the sisterhood to witness!--I made constant fresh discoveries.
There was one direction, assuredly, in which these discoveries stopped:
deep obscurity continued to cover the region of the boy's conduct at school.
It had been promptly given me, I have noted, to face that mystery without
a pang. Perhaps even it would be nearer the truth to say that--without
a word--he himself had cleared it up. He had made the whole charge absurd.
My conclusion bloomed there with the real rose flush of his innocence:
he was only too fine and fair for the little horrid, unclean school world,
and he had paid a price for it. I reflected acutely that the sense
of such differences, such superiorities of quality, always, on the part
of the majority--which could include even stupid, sordid headmasters--
turn infallibly to the vindictive.