My father's reluctant consent was next obtained, and then, though Mary still sighed her disapproval, my dear, kind mother began to look out for a situation for me.

She wrote to my father's relations, and consulted the newspaper advertisements--her own relations she had long dropped all communication with: a formal interchange of occasional letters was all she had ever had since her marriage, and she would not at any time have applied to them in a case of this nature.

But so long and so entire had been my parents' seclusion from the world, that many weeks elapsed before a suitable situation could be procured.

At last, to my great joy, it was decreed that I should take charge of the young family of a certain Mrs.
Bloomfield; whom my kind, prim aunt Grey had known in her youth, and asserted to be a very nice woman.

Her husband was a retired tradesman, who had realized a very comfortable fortune; but could not be prevailed upon to give a greater salary than twenty-five pounds to the instructress of his children.