THE MANSE AND ITS INMATES. 



Fortunately it was a fine day, and Sheerness itself looked pleasant, 

 while the bold sea-view to the Nore the very name of which calls 

 up associations so interesting to all who love the naval glory of Bri- 

 tain was never seen in greater beauty. It can scarcely be necessary 

 to state that Mrs. Hurst did not quit Rochester without visiting the 

 castle, the cathedral, and the oyster-beds. 



At Gravesend and Greenhithe they tried to find something re- 

 markable, but were not very successful. At Erith they were more 

 fortunate: Lord Eardley's fine seat occupied them two hours. They 

 gave a passing notice to the church and the steeple at Dartford, vi- 

 sited the model of Sevemdroog, or, as the people in the neighbour- 

 hood somewhat irreverently termed it, " Lady James's Folly, " 

 on Shooters' Hill, went through the whole of the arsenal at Wool- 

 wich (it was with some difficulty that Mrs. Hurst was dissuaded 

 from visiting the convict ship, as she was informed that it was com- 

 manded by a captain of the navy whose family resided on board 

 with him), dined at the Green Man at Blackheath, and reached 

 Lincoln's Inn Fields at a late hour on a fine evening in October. 



Kind as were Mrs. Somerive's intentions, and excellent as was her 

 judgment, she had, in sending Ruth to Mrs. Hurst, placed her in a 

 situation of great danger. It is true that to a disposition like hers, 

 quiet, serious, and reflective, such a course of life was naturally div- 

 tasteful ; but she was also timid in the extreme, accustomed all her 

 life to pay implicit obedience, grateful for kindness, and unwilling to 

 give pain, with good dispositions to influence rather than fixed prin- 

 ciples to guide her. Such being the case, had she remained in this 

 family three or four years she would probably have fallen into 

 their habits, and lost all taste or inclination for better things, or have 

 become nervous, sullen, and discontented. 



As it was, she was for a considerable time stupefied and bewil- 

 dered ; she felt herself under a yoke which it was impossible to shake 

 off or even to question. Her mind was equally a stranger to exer- 

 tion or repose. She felt herself becoming a mere machine; things 

 were done because they must not be left undone, and, perfectly mis- 

 tress of all she had engaged to teach, the business of instruction was 

 performed with the most mechanical regularity. She wished to 

 think, but she had neither time nor power ; and often at night, when 

 she stretched her exhausted frame on the bed and laid her wearied 

 head upon her pillow, while readv tears flowed from her eyes, "at 

 least I was thankful for my blessings while I had them," was all of 

 complaint or consolation that her lips could utter before lips and eyes 

 were equally closed in the heavy slumber of over-exerted powers. 



She had been about three months in Lincoln's Inn Fields when a 

 Scotch baronet, for whom Mr. Hurst had been professionally em- 

 ployed, paid a visit to London, for the purpose of closing the pro- 

 ceedings of a successful, and not unreasonably long, suit in Chancery. 

 The solicitor was in high favour, the client in high good humour, 

 and Mr. Hurst honourably seized the occasion to acquit himself of 

 his promise to Mrs. Somerive. 



Sir Kenneth Maitland had two little daughters, then under the care 

 of a respectable preparatory governess ; but as he resided constantly 



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