people and servants, and has a liberal supply of pocket-money, is often better off than the mistress of a home. The poor lady perhaps finds that she is paying for services which do not have the real value which they promised, and that she is really saddled with the extra care of a girl who requires as much supervision as a grown-up daughter of her own, one who perhaps flirts with her visitors and makes eyes at her sons.

Of course it would be very easy to put the converse case, and that under very strong colouring; but this case has so often been put by the novelists that perhaps the opposition case is now most to be kept in mind in discussing the subject. Very often there is a young lady, of gentle birth and true culture, who is thrown into a position of inferiority in a household of mere vulgar wealth. We know cases in which vulgar wealth has given the heartiest of welcomes to such a girl, and has surrounded her with substantial benefits. On the other hand, she has perhaps been keenly made to feel the inferiority of her position. Sometimes, too, when a governess has served in a situation for many years, she is tranquilly dismissed as if she were a mere chattel. I know a case in which the footman of a family 'resigned' his situation rather than hand round the vegetables to the governess at lunch. It may be said, too, that the ladies have only to test the acquirements of their governesses. This is by no

means, however, so easy a matter.

It is necessary that

ladies should know something of the subjects in which they propose to exercise their examining functions. And even if they could examine, young ladies are not always prepared to submit to an examination, even if they are competent to pass it. Very young girls might submit to it, but not those who have acquired a little experience of the world. There was a clever lady who skilfully cross-examined a clever girl, who went through the manipulation in brilliant style. But when the process was completed, the clever girl informed her ladyship that she was not a person under whom she would care to take a situation. At the same time, the ladies are at times very adroitly examined by the governesses. They want to know the kind of establishment they are going to, something about the climate and the scenery and the society of the neighbourhood. I know of one young lady who refused a good situation because the lady's views were of too pronounced an evangelical type, and I have no doubt that the not keeping a close carriage has repeatedly been a most serious obstacle.

There is, of course, a kind of fashion in governesses as in other things. The governess most in demand, and whom it is difficult to get at, is the finishing governess. The finishing German governess is the one who is most in vogue at the present day, and apparently for very good reasons. There are two kinds of German

governesses. There are a vulgar lot, daughters of shopkeepers and peasants, who come over for what they can get, who accept a trifling salary, and yet are hardly worth it. On the other hand, there are ladies of the highest culture, and belonging to the best families, who often come over to England and are paid the highest stipends ever given in England to governesses. This kind of governess knows English almost as perfectly as her own language; her French and Italian are fluent and pure; she has an enthusiasm for art; she is born musician, and her manners are of the most ladylike and attractive kind. This kind of rare maiden has never long to wait for a situation. She might be engaged half-a-dozen deep at any time. A thorough governess can always command her eighty or hundred guineas a year, often they have their hundred and twenty or a hundred and fifty. We have only heard of one stipend of a hundred and sixty guineas, and that was in the family of a Duchess. English governesses, however good, do not seem to attain to the high stipends given to German finishing governesses.

If, however, they have undergone a careful and judicious training, they can always make their way and find themselves appreciated. It has been said by a writer in the Saturday Review that the best governesses are ladies who, having been brought up as people of independence, find themselves compelled, through untoward circumstances, to accept such a

situation. If the lady has tact, good sense, and true culture in every way, she 'accepts' the situation, and makes the best of it. But it is not given to everyone to endure such reverses in such a way. Such people will sometimes act rather curiously. A lady had an excellent position to offer, and among an immense number of other applications was one from a lady, saying that she thought Miss M, if the matter were properly put to her, might be induced to make an application. There must be mental resources and a moral discipline of a high character before the model governess is developed out of such materials. The great body of young ladies who form the mass of governesses, who take to that vocation through stress of circumstances, through the increasing narrowness of a home income or the dropping of a valuable life, are for the most part half-educated, and show a deplorable lack of thoroughness. It is now generally understood that a certain general course must be gone through by those who would wish to graduate as governess. Every accomplishment, so to speak, is a marketable commodity, and has a value which does not much vary. Every young lady who wishes to belong to the higher order of governesses must go through a certain course and prepare herself on a fixed plan. She must lay firm and deep the foundations of that solid English education which is assumed as a matter of course, but which is exceedingly rare as a matter of fact. There

must be a residence in Paris for the French accent, and, beyond that, a residence in Italy or Germany. Music and singing or drawing must be learned under the best and most expensive masters. All this represents a long graduated probation, in one stage or another of which girls are very apt to break down. The English may be sufficient, the languages or accomplishments may break down; there may be a partial or a total fiasco of the whole scheme of life. The lady who ably and courageously works her way will settle down into as honourable a position as any femme seule can occupy in England.

Those, then, who have been trained with a single eye to their future vocation, and have been true to a well-considered and determinate plan, will, we believe, make the best and the happiest governesses. Practically, we believe, this is acknowledged to be the case; and those who have been educated at the Clergy Daughters' School, the Home and Colonial, or at the best private establishments, with the special view to their future plans, if they have fully availed themselves of their proffered advantages, are eagerly sought for as governesses, are well treated and well remunerated. It would be for the real good of many sentimental young ladies if they would look the facts of existence fairly in the face. Marriage is, of course, the first aim both in the romance and in the business of. womankind. But in a country like England, where the number of