A few minutes’ walk brought them to Miss Pillbody’s private schoolhouse.  A pull at the bell summoned a stout, red-faced servant girl to the door.  To the question, if Miss Pillbody was in, she said, “Yaas, sir, ef yer plaze” (Miss P. had vainly endeavored to correct her English), and ushered her visitors into the reception parlor, or schoolroom.

A pleasant place it was, and nicely warmed with a smouldering coal fire, the coziness and comfort of which, were fitly reflected from the red carpet, and red curtains, and red plush covered furniture.  The grand piano, hired for use, gave the room that completely furnished appearance that nothing but a piano can give.  A book of instruction, open at a passage which strongly resembled a rail fence through a rolling country, showed that inexperienced hands had recently been pounding the instrument.  There was no sign of a school or any side, excepting a small blackboard, which had been hastily thrust into a corner, and which bore, faintly traced in chalk, a sum in simple division.

The visitors sat down in the warm red chairs, and looked around the room but a moment, when Miss Pillbody entered by a door connecting with the rear parlor.  She bowed gracefully to Mr. Wilkeson, and was by him introduced to his two companions.  To the father she was profoundly respectful, and to the daughter tender and affectionate, grasping her hand closely, and smiling a welcome upon her.

Pet was instantly fascinated with her future teacher.  There was something lovable not only in her intelligent face, pale with the protracted labors of her daily life, but in the infirmity of her eyes, for she was shortsighted, and could see objects distinctly only by nearly closing the lids.  This peculiarity, not disagreeable in itself, won upon Pet’s compassion, and made her feel more at home in the strange lady’s presence than if she were conscious that a pair of full-sighted orbs were looking at her, and accurately noting her defects.

Miss Pillbody’s occupation, for some weeks past, had given her a new idea of the value of time, and she proceeded at once to business, without wasting a single word upon the weather.  In less than five minutes, she had, by artful inquiries and a winning voice, found out the exact range and extent of Miss Minford’s acquirements, and agreed with the father that a further education in the English branches was unnecessary at that time (with the exception, perhaps, of an occasional exercise in reading), and that his daughter might devote twenty-four lessons to French and the piano, with hopes of success, provided she could study and practise several hours a day at her own home.

Mr. Minford replied, that she could study French at home to her heart’s content, but he had no piano.  Whereupon Mr. Wilkeson took the liberty of suggesting that it might be possible to borrow one, at a moderate rate, by the month, and set it up in their front room.  Miss Pillbody applauded this idea, and it was instantly agreed to.