She needed the services of a superintendent and teacher, and considered herself fortunate when the trustees of the institution recommended to her a young woman whose tact, knowledge, perfect manners, and general fitness for the position they extolled in the highest terms.

The young woman was invited by the founder of the school to call on her at once.

Apparently she possessed all the required qualifications; and yet, without assigning any reason, Mrs.V.
absolutely refused to give her a trial.

Long afterward, when questioned by a friend as to the cause of her seemingly inexplicable conduct in refusing to engage so competent a teacher, she replied: "It was a trifle, but a trifle in which, as in an Egyptian hieroglyphic, lay a volume of meaning.

The young woman came to me fashionably and expensively dressed, but with torn and soiled gloves, and half of the buttons off her shoes.