"Brown,.Mary.-.Unicorn's.Ring.4.-.1999.-.Dragonne's.Eg" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brown Mary)

adding the simplest of numbers and writing their own names, but there were
exceptions, like Jude and June, half-caste brother and sister who held the
glimmerings of something better. These two now presented me with "The Cat sat on
the Mat" and "The Cat in the Hat" respectively. Next term I would recommend them
to Miss Hardcastle's Middle Class, who were now monotonously reciting their
seven times table.
Having all three classes in the same room was difficult at the best of times,
but usually two were either writing or listening so we teachers didn't have the
added strain of shouting above each other.
Of course there were always more girls than boys. As soon as they were old
enough the latter were out on the streets for their parents, thieving, running
errands or, if they were lucky, 'prenticed out to coal merchants, chimney
sweeps, dockers, lightermen or costers. The girls, if they were presentable,
usually ended up on the streets at puberty or helping out in laundries or
cookshops. We did have some successes: some of the children had been properly
placed, boys to printing presses and the retail trade, even one to the Christian
Church; the girls out as milliners, seamstresses, nursery governesses or placed
in respectable households. But these alas, were few and far between.
I had been here in London for three years now. My parents had died within a week
of each other of a low fever while I was still at boarding school. We had never
been well-off—it was said my mother had married beneath her to a humble
watch-maker and repairer—but they hadn't stinted on my education, more than they
could have afforded; but once all debts had been paid and most of the furniture
sold from our rented cottage, I found all I had was enough to keep myself for
six months, a few sticks of furniture and fond memories of a pretty, merry
mother who was a hopeless housewife, and a gentle, retiring father who waited
for work rather than seeking it out.
So, Miss Sophronisbe Lee would have to find a situation, fast, but for an
unattached girl of nineteen with no special skills and only the recommendation
of her headmistress to back her applications it wasn't easy. At first I was
picky, answering only those advertisements that appealed to me, but as time
passed I grew more desperate as most of my applications were either unanswered
or were curt rejections, the general consensus being that I was both too young
and too inexperienced.
So I no longer applied to those advertisements for a "genteel children's
governess," or "Lady F. requires experienced ladies-maid," rather was I driven
to replying to seekers of companions for the elderly, or housekeeper in a "large
and boisterous household." These came to nothing as well, if you discount an
interview I actually undertook with hope concerning a "disabled gentleman"
requiring a young lady for reading aloud, writing letters and other "light
duties." Unfortunately he was not too disabled to chase me all over his study
and he made it very clear what the "light duties" would entail. . . .
This went on for nearly three months until I had almost decided to apply for a
straightforward domestic post, when I had an unexpected bonus. One of our
neighbours had paid a visit to an aunt in London, and brought back a morning
paper which contained ten suitable posts. Although the paper was a few days old
I answered all the advertisements eagerly, then sat back and waited. And waited.
Of the ten, four never answered, and I had five replies turning me down, but the
last letter was different. This was from the headmistress of a Charity School
offering a teaching post. "Young person, male or female, to teach class of five-