Miss Ashton

“ So now all Miss Ashton had to do was to tell Marion how satisfied she was both with her and the arrangement, and Marion to tell her kind teacher of her delight in remaining.
Gladys was to return with her father after a pleasant summer spent at Rock Cove, and to her, Miss Ashton had much wise advice to give regarding her future. A motherless child, an indulgent, though wise father, no brothers or sisters, only a crowd of worshipping dependents; probably not to another girl in the whole school was there to come years which would test the character as hers was to be tested. ”

“ A woman of the world, with her weapons ready, might have dismissed him either with hauteur, badinage, or cool indifference; but to Augusta Ashton, almost a child in years, it was bewildering and disconcerting.
Her eyes fell—her colour rose. She stood silent, abashed, and confused. Native modesty took alarm.
Jabez came to her relief.
“Miss Ashton is under my protection, sir; she requires no other escort.” ”

“ It speaks well for Miss Ashton’s influence over her school that there was not a pupil there who was not moved by what she had said.
To be sure, its effect was not equally apparent. There were some who had scant minds to fix, and what nature had been niggardly in bestowing, they had frittered away in a trifling life; but for the earnest girls, those who truly longed to make the most of themselves and to be able to do a worthy work in the life before them, such advice became at once a help. ”

“ I shall not sleep a wink unless it’s settled. Life is short; death may come at any unexpected moment. I should not like to have my Judge ask why I had not done my duty, when, perchance, I, even I, might have been a poor, 226 weak instrument, but still an instrument, in saving a soul.”
In this spirit Marion went to Miss Ashton’s room, quite forgetting the lateness of the hour, and knocked timidly at the door.
Miss Ashton, wearied by her day’s anxieties, did not approve of these late calls, and only answered them for fear of sickness, so it was some time before she said, “Come in.” ”

“ I’ll never make fun, no, not even of myself,” burst out Kate, “though now I’m dying to get before a mirror and see how I must have looked when you thought me so thoughtful. Was it so, Miss Ashton?” and Kate made up a face which a sterner rebuker than her teacher could not have seen without a smile. ”

“ I was afraid you wouldn’t like it, and I’d much rather lose a ride any time than displease you;” and Susan, as she said this, looked bravely in Miss Ashton’s face. 134
“That’s all,” the principal said gravely, and Susan, with a lighter heart than that with which she had entered, left the room; but Miss Ashton thought, as she watched the forced smile on the girl’s face, “There’s one that can’t be trusted; what a pity, for she is not without ability!” ”

“ Don’t say another word please, Miss Ashton.”
“I am sure, Marion, in the future you will be more careful. It is such an easy thing to wound and worry those about whom we should always be thoughtful. If I were you, I would not let a mail go out without carrying a note to your aunt, telling her of your safe arrival here, and of your regrets for what has happened. It’s always a noble thing to say ‘I’m sorry,’ when one has done wrong.” ”

“ Miss Ashton, I was glad to note, as we proceeded downtown, fell more and more into the spirit of the adventure.
High up in the League headquarters in the tower, when we arrived, it was almost like a newspaper office, to me. A corps of clerks was tabulating returns, comparing official and semi-official reports. As first the city swung one way, then another, our hopes rose and fell.
I could not help noticing, however, after a while that Miss Ashton seemed cold and ill at ease. There was such a crowd there of Leaguers and their friends that it was easily possible for her not to meet Carton. ”

“ Then she found the piece, and laid it on the table.
“Myra,” she said, after looking at the girl kindly for a moment, “is this like your dress? Tell me truly; it is much the best thing for you to do.”
Myra gazed at the cloth for a moment, then burst into a flood of tears.
“So you were one of the sleighing-party?” said Miss Ashton quietly. “Will you tell me who were with you?”
If Myra had not been taken so entirely by surprise, she might, probably would, have refused to answer, for honor is as dear to girls as to boys; but she sobbed out one name after another, until the six stood confessed. ”

“ Miss Ashton’s talk had an excellent influence upon the school. Even the wealthy girls felt there was something worth living for but society and fashion. A large proportion of the pupils were from families in moderate circumstances; to them avenues of access to power and influence were opened. To the poor, of whom there were not a few, help in its best sense was offered in ways that faithful diligence would make their own.
In just so far as Miss Ashton had made these two things, faithfulness and diligence, the ground-work of all success, she had given the true character to her school ”

“ Susan Downer’s examination had proved so far satisfactory to Miss Ashton, that it had shown her there had been a sleigh-ride given by the Atherton boys; and she said reluctantly to herself, “I am afraid the reliable-looking young man, Jerry Downer, had a hand in it. How strange it is that we can trust young people so little!” ”

“ But I have no engagement with Sir William and Lady Ashton. It is with Miss Ashton alone that I have entered upon the subject, and my conduct in the matter shall be entirely ruled by hers. If she continues to prefer me in my poverty to the wealthier suitors whom her friends recommend, I may well make some sacrifice to her sincere affection: I may well surrender to her the less tangible and less palpable advantages of birth, and the deep-rooted prejudices of family hatred. ”

“ While Miss Ashton made all inquiries in her power 129 to prevent any undesirable girls from joining her school, she was often imposed upon, sometimes by concealments, and not unseldom by positive falsehoods, but oftener by the parental fondness which could see nothing but good in a spoilt, darling child. ”

“ The whole school gathered in the hall. Miss Ashton had requested that the notices should be handed in to her a few days previous. Now she said, “Young ladies, I am both surprised and pleased at the readiness and faithfulness with which you have responded to my request. I have here,” lifting a pretty, ribbon-tied basket, “at least one hundred different notices! Just think! one hundred instances in which women have tried, and have succeeded in earning not only a respectable, but a successful livelihood. ”

“ How little did he divine that the letter of the doctor was called forth by a communication from the countess-dowager. An artful communication, with a charming candour lying on its surface. She asked—she actually asked that Dr. Ashton would allow "fair play;" she said the "deepest affection" had grown up between Lord Hartledon and Lady Maude; and she only craved that the young man might not be coerced either way, but might be allowed to choose between them. The field after Miss Ashton's return would be open to the two, and ought to be left so. ”

“ Ashton, “she will want her food before the food wants her; and a little wholesome solitude is good for reflection. She will change her mind before the day closes.”
This was at mid-day; but night came, and another noon, yet there was no sign of Miss Ashton’s appearance; and Mrs. Ashton had made no overtures to her refractory daughter. The tender-hearted father was in a pitiable state of perturbation. In and out the warehouse he was twenty times in the day—as Kezia observed, “For a’ th’ world like a hen on a hot griddle;” and his snuff-box was hardly ever out of his hand. ”

“ By this time the tumbler touched my lips, and, girls, I was so sure that she would take me down to Miss Ashton,—and there is no such thing as keeping anything away from her, for you know how she hates what she calls a ‘prevarication,’—that I just had my choice, to drink that nasty stuff, or to betray the Demosthenic Club, or to tell a fib, and have my walking-ticket given me, so I opened my mouth wide, and swallowed one swallow, then was going to turn away my head, but Miss Palmer held the tumbler tight to my lips, as I have seen people do to children when they were giving castor oil. ”

“ Nothing could have made a more fitting ending to the home-life of the busy year; so many kindly, cheering words spoken, so much of hearty encouragement for the coming year.
Pupils and teachers, some of them together for the last time, but hardly among them an exception to the tender affection which bound them together.
Susan Downer had been graduated. She held her diploma in her hand as she went off the stage with the others, but she was far from happy. “Miss Ashton is glad to have me go,” she thought. “She neither respects nor loves me.” ”

“ Before she had time to finish the answer, Miss Ashton had said emphatically, “not; I know the 248 truth, Susan! I want to spare you the falsehood I see you are about to tell.”
“I am not going to ask you where you found the story; I only want you to see, and see so plainly that you can never forget it, how small and mean a thing such a deceit, or any deceit, is, and how sure in the end to turn to the injury of the one who commits it. Of all the class that are to leave me, you, Susan Downer, carry away with you my greatest anxiety for your future. ”

“ Miss Ashton, welcoming the coming groups, called it a “Thanksgiving Pandemonium;” but she enjoyed it quite as much as any of the rioters. In the evening, when they were all together in the large parlor, she turned the gathering into a pleasant party, helped to fill it with fun and frolic, and sent even the most homesick to their rooms with smiles instead of tears.
Not a word had been said of Nellie Blair’s sickness. There is no place where a panic is more easily started and harder to control than in a girls’ school; nor is there any cause that will so surely awaken it as a case of diphtheria. ”

“ Our Parsonage; How Ben Fought a Prairie Fire; The Sorrows of Mrs. McCarthy.
“These are all,” and Miss Ashton laughed a merry 96 laugh as she turned over the pile. “I am much obliged to you for your ready and full answer to my proposal. If I am a little disappointed at the literary character of some of the work, I am, as I have said, pleased by your ready response. If I should attempt to read them all, we should be here at a late hour, and lose our spread, so I will give you the poems, as I promised, and as many of the essays and stories as I can crowd into the time previous to nine o’clock.” ”

“ Her eyes tell true tales.”
“She can,” said Gladys instantly. “She can room with me. I am the only girl in school who hasn’t a room-mate. You wait”—and Gladys, without another word, hurried out of the room. She very well knew that after nine Miss Ashton disliked a call unless there was some imperative necessity for it, so she knocked so gently on the closed door that she was hardly heard; and when at last Miss Ashton appeared, she looked so tired, and her smile was so wan, that Gladys, eager as she was, wished she had been more thoughtful ”

“ Dear Miss Ashton,—I have a daughter Marion, now sixteen years old. Developing at this age what we think rather an unusual amount of talent, we are desirous to send her to a good school at the East.
We have been at the West twenty years as Home Missionaries. When I tell you that, I need not add that we have been made very happy by being able to save money enough to give Marion at least a year under your kind care, if you can receive her into your school. ”

“ So Miss Ashton was quite prepared to be admired and play the heroine prematurely; but she had been reared in the same house with Jabez, had been caressed and waited upon by him as a child, and anything so absurd as her father’s apprentice falling in love with her had never dawned upon her apprehension. Then not even his wounded arm could make him handsome enough for a hero, so she plunged through the “Battle of Prague,” and “Lodoiska,” and glided into the “Copenhagen151 Waltz,” with no suspicion of a listener more than ordinary. ”

“ This Eastern world was so different from the whole-hearted, kindly one she had left behind her, that instead of wonting to it, she grew timid, diffident of herself, even among the girls, and shy about venturing abroad. So she made her mind up bravely to stay where she was, and spend her vacation in study.
Miss Ashton fully approved; for since Marion’s sickness with her cold, she had shown an inclination to cough, and was often hoarse in the morning. A stay by the seaside in winter would be to run a risk. ”

“ This seemed to Miss Ashton one of the most prosperous and successful fall terms she had ever known; she congratulated herself constantly on its benign influences, and often said, “I have fewer black sheep in my flock than I have ever gathered together before.”
There was one reason for this prosperity which she fully realized. Thanksgiving was not far distant, 106 and on that happy New England festival, the school had a holiday of three or four days. ”

“ The restless dowager—in a nondescript head-dress this morning, adorned with an upright tuft of red feathers and voluminous skirts of brown net, a jacket and flounces to match—betook herself to the side of Lord Hartledon.
"Where d'you get the boats?" she asked.
"They are kept lower down, at the boat-house," he replied, puffing at his cigar. "You can't see it from here; it's beyond Dr. Ashton's; lots of 'em; any number to be had for the hiring. Talking of Dr. Ashton, they will dine here to-day, ma'am."
"Who will?" asked Lady Kirton.
"The doctor, Mrs. Ashton—if she's well enough—and Miss Ashton." ”