who always kept watchful guard over his own honour and good name. Being a conscientious official, he devoted all his faculties, and nearly all his time, to the duties of his office; but he also tried faithfully to take good care of his numerous family. As a practical man he tried in the first place to provide for his children’s future. The cares of the household he gave over to his sister, an old maiden lady of a very managing disposition who was a good housekeeper, and kept his home in the very best order; but her rather rough nature was not capable of gaining the love and confidence of her brother’s children.
At school Jenny displayed cleverness and ability, and as her practical father thought that to look for a good match for a portionless girl in these days was even more uncertain than to expect to draw a prize in the lottery he decided to spend as much as was possible on his daughter’s education, so that she might acquire all the accomplishments necessary to fit her for earning her bread independently as a governess in a wealthy family. He explained all this thoroughly to the sensible girl of fourteen, before he sent her to Prague, to one of his cousins, in whose house she was to prepare herself for her life’s task.
Jenny was glad to get away from home, where, under the hard rule of her aunt, she did not feel particularly happy.
Her Prague aunt—as she called her father’s cousin was the wife of a railway official, and was an energetic practical woman, but entirely devoid of all the feminine gentleness, so beautiful in every woman who possesses it and by which she can radiate so much happiness around her.
