THE MANSE AND ITS INMATES. 521 



nothing to expect further from them, — that, however, she was her own 

 mistress, too icise, of course, in her own conceit to take the opinion 

 or advice of her father and mother, who had slaved night and day for 

 her, — that ihei/ would never interfere one way or other; only this 

 they must tell her, that she might not say she was not forewarned, 

 that if she did not g-o to the lawyer's she need not come near them 

 again, — that they washed their hands of her, — that " as she brewed 

 so she must bake," as " she made her bed so she must lie on it.'' 

 They only wished poor dear Isabella could meet with such good 

 luck, she would be more thankful ; but some folks were born with 

 a silver spoon in their mouths, and some with a horn ladle. Every 

 thing went by luck in this world, and the worst got all the best. 



Poor Ruth could not but painfully feel the cruelty and injustice 

 of these reproaches. Grateful she truly was for all the education she 

 had received ; and well had she proved her gratitude by her un- 

 wearied endeavours to improve. Since eighteen, till now that she 

 was six months past two and twenty, she had never been any expense 

 to her parents, and never resided at home excepting during the va- 

 cations — often indeed not even then. She knew this had not been the 

 case with Isabella; but she did not know, though her mother did, 

 that Isabella had not been from home more than a third of her time, 

 and had never half defrayed the expenses of her clothes. 



The die however was cast, and, with a heavy heart, she exchanged 

 the airy apartments and familiar faces of Erlsburgh House for Mr. 

 Hurst's mansion in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where her school-room was 

 a tolerably large back garret, looking upon the red-tiled roofs and 

 receiving the smoke and blacks from the chimneys of a mean and not 

 very reputable back street, and her sole sleeping accommodation a 

 space to hold a small bedstead, partitioned off with boards, and into 

 which neither light nor air penetrated, excepting when the door was 

 open. The larger of two front garrets was appropriated to Miss 

 Harriet and Miss Charlotte, while the smaller was occupied bv the 

 women-servants. 



Mrs. Hurst offered no apology to Ruth for the limited accommo- 

 dation afforded her, simply because she had no idea of its being de- 

 fective ; but the next morning she unintentionally made a most suf- 

 ficient one bv showings that it could not have been otherwise. She 

 conducted her through the premises, and she would have done the 

 same had the house been five times as large, with extensive grounds 

 and offices numerous and involved as a small town. Sunk story, 

 kitchen and offices for the clerks; ground floor, dining-room and 

 offices; first floor, drawing-rooms; second floor, Mr. and Mrs. 

 Hurst's sleeping and dressing accommodations and a spare bed-room; 

 attics, as already described. 



Mrs. Hurst wished and intended to make every one dependent on 

 her happy ; but she had no suspicion that any one's ideas of happi- 

 ness (that is to say, if they were sensible and rational people) could 

 differ from her own ; and she would have resented as the extremity 

 of ill temper and ingratitude any indication of not being happy in 

 those wliom she endeavoured to render so. She was also fond of 

 order, regularity, and method ; but she had not the most distant idea 



