You never
saw such a sight. The great long nose and hollow cheeks of her, and oogh!
such a mouth! I felt a'most like little Red Riding-Hood--I did, Miss.'
Here honest Mary Quince, who enjoyed Mrs. Rusk's satire, a weapon in which
she was not herself strong, laughed outright.
'Turn down the bed, Mary. She's very agreeable--she is, just now--all
new-comers is; but she did not get many compliments from me, Miss--no,
I rayther think not. I wonder why honest English girls won't answer the
gentry for governesses, instead of them gaping, scheming, wicked furriners?
Lord forgi' me, I think they're all alike.'
Next morning I made acquaintance with Madame de la Rougierre. She was tall,
masculine, a little ghastly perhaps, and draped in purple silk, with a
lace cap, and great bands of black hair, too thick and black, perhaps, to
correspond quite naturally with her bleached and sallow skin, her hollow
jaws, and the fine but grim wrinkles traced about her brows and eyelids.
She smiled, she nodded, and then for a good while she scanned me in silence
with a steady cunning eye, and a stern smile.
'And how is she named--what is Mademoiselle's name?' said the tall
stranger.
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