"You told me before you wished to be a governess; but, my dear, if you remember, I did not encourage the idea. I have been a governess myself great part of my life. In Miss Keeldar's acquaintance I esteem myself most fortunate. Her talents and her really sweet disposition have rendered my office easy to me; but when I was young, before I married, my trials were severe, poignant. I should not like a---- I should not like you to endure similar ones. It was my lot to enter a family of considerable pretensions to good birth and mental superiority, and the members of which also believed that 'on them was perceptible' an unusual endowment of the 'Christian graces;' that all their hearts were regenerate, and their spirits in a peculiar state of discipline. I was early given to understand that 'as I was not their equal,' so I could not expect 'to have their sympathy.' It was in no sort concealed from me that I was held a 'burden and a restraint in society.' The gentlemen, I found, regarded me as a 'tabooed woman,' to whom 'they were interdicted from granting the usual privileges of the sex,' and yet 'who annoyed them by frequently crossing their path.' The ladies too made it plain that they thought me 'a bore.' 
"You told me before, you wished to be a governess; but, my dear, if you remember, I did not encourage the idea. I have been a governess myself for much of my life. I am most fortunate that Miss Keeldar's talents and her sweet disposition have made my position easy; but when I was young, before I married, my trials were severe. I should not like you to endure similar trials. I worked for a family of good birth, whose members believed that they were unusually good Christians; that all their hearts were reborn, and their spirits perfectly disciplined. I was early given to understand that 'as I was not their equal,' so I could not expect to have their sympathy. The gentlemen, I found, regarded me as a 'tabooed woman,' who annoyed them by crossing their path. The ladies made it plain that they thought me 'a bore