IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 203 



think you can endure perfect discipline and 

 incessant plain speaking go to him, Esmeralda. 



If you cannot, take the other alternative, the 

 American or the English master, but remember 

 that it is only by absolute submission that you 

 will obtain the best instruction which he is ca- 

 pable of giving. If you do not compel him to 

 tax his mind with remembering all your foibles 

 and weaknesses, you may, thanks to race sym- 

 pathy, learn more rapidly at first from him than 

 from a foreigner, and, unless you are rude and 

 insubordinate to the point of insolence, you 

 may depend upon receiving no actual harshness 

 from him, although he will refuse to flatter you, 

 and will repeat his warnings against faults, 

 quite as persistently as any foreigner. 



A very little observation of your fellow pupils 

 will show you that presumption upon his good 

 nature is wofully common, and that his Ameri- 

 can inability to forget that a woman is a woman, 

 even when she conducts herself as if her name 

 were Ursa or Jenny, often subjects him to stu- 

 pendous impertinence, which he receives with 

 calm and silent contempt. You will find that 

 his instruction follows the same lines as that of 



