Page:Traits and Trials.pdf/202

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196
FRANCES BEAUMONT.


It was war-time, and one vessel after another was intercepted: a year had elapsed, and Mrs. Cameron’s "little account" as she always called it, was still unsettled. She was too humane a woman to make any alteration in the treatment of her pupil; moreover she did not dislike talking about "the interest she took in the unfortunate child, whose destitute situation was such an appeal to her feelings." But in the school, Miss Elphinstone's position was wholly changed, she had no longer any pocket-money, and, with that, disappeared all the consideration and indulgences it had procured. Obliged to go on wearing her dresses, which she was daily outgrowing, their alteration and repairs were a perpetual source of discontent to the teachers, and of this discontent Emmeline soon felt the effects. Her slow progress in her studies became matter of constant complaint, and even Mrs. Cameron became more severe, for she felt she could not justify to herself any neglect of an education that might hereafter be its possessor's sole resource. A miserable child was Emmeline Elphin-