'
'Oh, Emily! you never asked me,' said Lily.
'I knew you would not like it,' said Emily. 'No, it is not my way to
complain, people may see how to help me if they choose to do it.'
'Lily, Lily, take care,' said Claude, in a low voice; 'is not the
rule you admire, the rule of love of yourself?'
'Oh, Claude!' returned Lily, 'do not say so, you know it was Emily
that I called an example of it, not myself, and see how forbearing
she has been. Now I see that I am really wanted, I will help. It
must be love, not duty, that calls me to the schoolroom, for no one
ever said that was my province.'
'Poor duty! you give it a very narrow boundary.'
Lilias, who, to say the truth, had been made more careful of her own
conduct, by the wish to establish her principle, really betook
herself to the schoolroom for an hour every morning, with a desire to
be useful. She thought she did great things in undertaking those
tasks of Phyllis's which Emily most disliked. But Lilias was neither
patient nor humble enough to be a good teacher, though she could
explain difficult rules in a sensible way. She could not, or would
not, understand the difference between dulness and inattention; her
sharp hasty manner would frighten away all her pupil's powers of
comprehension; she sometimes fell into the great error of scolding,
when Phyllis was doing her best, and the poor child's tears flowed
more frequently than ever.
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