The people about her felt an uneasy perception of something secret, ominously secret, in the nature of the governess which defied detection.

If Inquisitive Science, vowed to medical research, could dissect firmness of will, working at its steadiest repressive action--then, the mystery of Miss Minerva's inner nature might possibly have been revealed.

As it was, nothing more remarkable exposed itself to view than an irritable temper; serving perhaps as safety-valve to an underlying explosive force, which (with strong enough temptation and sufficient opportunity) might yet break out.
"Gently, Mr.Le Frank! The tea is hot--you may burn your mouth.

How am I to tell you what has happened ?" Miss Minerva dropped the playfully provocative tone, with infinite tact, exactly at the right moment.

"Just imagine," she resumed, "a scene on the stage, occurring in private life.
The lady who fainted at your concert, turns out to be no less a person that Mrs.Gallilee's niece!" The general folly which reads a prospectus and blindly speculates in shares, is matched by the equally diffused stupidity, which is incapable of discovering that there can be any possible relation between fiction and truth.