Yet there was something galling in the idea of being under the roof of a man and woman of that class, in some sort in their power and under their control.  The low, vulgar cunning of their nature appeared more clearly to me.  There was no chance of success in any contest with them, for they were too boorish to be reached by any weapon I could use.  All I could do was to keep as far aloof from them as possible.

This was not difficult to do, for neither of them interfered with the affairs of the school, and we saw them only at meal times, when they watched every mouthful we ate with keen eyes.

I found that I had no duties to perform as a teacher, for none of the three French pupils desired to learn English.  English girls, who had been decoyed into the same snare by the same false photograph and prospectus which had entrapped me, were all of families too poor to be able to forfeit the money which had been paid in advance for their French education.  Two of them, however, completed their term at Christmas, and returned home weak and ill; the third was to leave in the spring.  I did not hear that any more pupils were expected, and why Madame Perrier should have engaged any English teacher became a problem to me.  The premium I had paid was too small to cover my expenses for a year, though we were living at so scanty a cost.  It was not long before I understood my engagement better.

I studied the language diligently.  I felt myself among foreigners and foes, and I was helpless till I could comprehend what they were saying in my presence.  Having no other occupation, I made rapid progress, though Mademoiselle Morel, the head governess, gave me very little assistance.

She was a dull, heavy, yet crafty-looking woman, who had taken a first-class diploma as a teacher; yet, as far as I could judge, knew very much less than most English governesses who are uncertificated.  So far from there being any professors attending the school, I could not discover that there were any in the town.  It was a cotton-manufacturing town, with a population of six thousand, most of them hand-loom weavers.  There were three or four small factories, built on the banks of the river, where the hands were at work from six in the morning till ten at night, Sundays included.  There was not much intellectual life here; a professor would have little chance of making a living.

At first Minima, and I took long walks together into the country surrounding Noireau, a beautiful country, even in November.  Once out of the vapor lying in the valley, at the bottom of which the town was built, the atmosphere showed itself as exquisitely clear, with no smoke in it, except the fine blue smoke of wood-fire.  We could distinguish the shapes of trees standing out against the horizon, miles and miles away; while between us and it lay slopes of brown woodland and green pastures, with long rows of slim poplars, the yellow leaves clinging to them still, and winding round them, like garlands on a May-pole.  But this pleasure was a costly one, for it awoke pangs of hunger, which I was compelled to appease by drawing upon my rapidly-emptying purse.  We learned that it was necessary to stay in-doors, and cultivate a small appetite.