Good ministers will tell you they have parishioners who beat them in the practice of the virtues.
A great establishment, got up on commercial principles, like the Apollinean Institute, might yet be well carried on, if it happened to get good teachers.

And when Master Langdon came to see its management, he recognized that there must be fidelity and intelligence somewhere among the instructors.

It was only necessary to look for a moment at the fair, open forehead, the still, tranquil eye of gentle, habitual authority, the sweet gravity that lay upon the lips, to hear the clear answers to the pupils' questions, to notice how every request had the force without the form of a command, and the young man could not doubt that the good genius of the school stood before him in the person of Helen barley.
It was the old story.

A poor country-clergyman dies, and leaves a widow and a daughter.

In Old England the daughter would have eaten the bitter bread of a governess in some rich family.