I did so to the best of my power: but she would not be amused against her will, and could not against her taste; and though I went beyond mere reminding, such gentle remonstrances as I could use were utterly ineffectual.
'_Dear_ Miss Grey! it is the _strangest_ thing.

I suppose you can't help it, if it's not in your nature--but I _wonder_ you can't win the confidence of that girl, and make your society at _least_ as agreeable to her as that of Robert or Joseph!' 'They can talk the best about the things in which she is most interested,' I replied.
'Well! that is a strange confession, _however_, to come from her _governess_! Who is to form a young lady's tastes, I wonder, if the governess doesn't do it?
I have known governesses who have so completely identified themselves with the reputation of their young ladies for elegance and propriety in mind and manners, that they would blush to speak a word against them; and to hear the slightest blame imputed to their pupils was worse than to be censured in their own persons--and I really think it very natural, for my part.' 'Do you, ma'am ?' 'Yes, of course: the young lady's proficiency and elegance is of more consequence to the governess than her own, as well as to the world.

If she wishes to prosper in her vocation she must devote all her energies to her business: all her ideas and all her ambition will tend to the accomplishment of that one object.

When we wish to decide upon the merits of a governess, we naturally look at the young ladies she professes to have educated, and judge accordingly.

The _judicious_ governess knows this: she knows that, while she lives in obscurity herself, her pupils' virtues and defects will be open to every eye; and that, unless she loses sight of herself in their cultivation, she need not hope for success.