Chapter 3 #2
As the music for the quadrille ended, Miss Caruthers stepped forward but then paused as Lady Charlotte was approached by another young gentleman for the next dance. She nodded back as the young lady looked over for her chaperone’s approval.
Lady Charlotte’s previous partner was not put out by this defection, turning swiftly to Jane on his other side and offering her his arm. After only a brief hesitation, Jane accepted, and with the introductory bars of the next measure, the dancing began again.
“How satisfying it must be to earn one’s own living,” Elizabeth remarked, sighing slightly as they both settled back against the wall again. “It must be highly gratifying to know that one has the knowledge and skills to be independent and make one’s own way in the world.”
“Anyone with quick wit and self-discipline may educate themselves,” advised Miss Caruthers, “especially if they have access to books, as you evidently do. I was lucky enough to be able to continue my own education in the libraries of some of the greatest houses in England while I worked with the young people of these families.”
“You are right,” Elizabeth had to acknowledge.
“My own lack of application is as much a reason for my lack of Latin as my father’s loss of interest, for example.
All the books are there for my taking. I must remind myself of this more often and not always choose less serious volumes to while away the time. ”
“Do you not then prefer balls to books?” asked Miss Caruthers with mild curiosity. “That is often the way with young ladies and gentlemen. I cannot blame them, for they are encouraged in little else by their families or society at large.”
Elizabeth shook her head.
“I like both books and balls, but must be in the right mood and company for each,” she admitted.
“Tonight, I fear I am not in the right mind for dancing, but it would be disrespectful to the relatives who brought me here not to participate. I would far rather talk of books, or languages, or travel. Have you travelled a great deal, Miss Caruthers?”
“Not as much as I should like to, but more than most ladies, I suspect. It was my good fortune to visit France and Italy several times with my employers, and I went to Spain and the Low Countries once each. I enjoyed the hiking and climbing in Switzerland and Austria, although Bavaria disappointed me a little. I did not take to Prussia at all.”
“Oh my! You have certainly travelled more than any lady of my acquaintance, or gentleman, come to that,” Elizabeth said. “Do tell me more of your travels in Italy. Then I shall have some real life colour to call on when I read my father’s book about the Italian countryside.”
Miss Caruthers complied, painting a vivid picture of Italy, its language, people, and culture.
This lady was evidently in command of modern as well as ancient languages, speaking both French and Italian with ease.
Having a good knowledge of French, even if mainly in written rather than spoken form, Elizabeth replied appropriately to a question put to her in this language, earning a nod of approbation from the older lady.
“I know my French pronunciation leaves much to be desired,” Elizabeth admitted after this exchange, but Miss Caruthers smiled kindly on her.
“Until one has lived in a country, or at least conversed regularly with natives in a particular tongue, one cannot expect to perfect an accent. My Italian was probably no better than your French is at present until the summer I spent at Lake Como with the Duke of Elford’s family.
His two daughters’ command of the language improved vastly out there too. They applied themselves admirably.”
“I hope I will not offend you, Miss Caruthers, if I say that your account of life as a governess is very far from the wretched notion my mother and many others always push,” Elizabeth observed, rather taken with the notion of perfecting a language while living in a beautiful lakeside house and tutoring the well-behaved young ladies of noble families.
“It is not a life for everyone,” answered the governess meditatively.
“It likely would not do for your sister over there, for example. She is far too pretty to be out alone in the world. Nor would it do for Lady Charlotte, where any paid employment would be a disgrace to her rank and name. For me, however, my work has made me far happier than a husband ever could.”
“Truly?” asked Elizabeth, struck both by this radical assertion and the quiet confidence with which it was spoken.
“Truly,” Miss Caruthers replied without doubt or hesitation. “I have more freedom, money, and access to learning than any other woman I know, and those things matter to me.”
“You certainly have more than I presently possess, as a relatively uneducated young lady without fortune,” Elizabeth thought aloud with more than a touch of dismay.
“I have long suspected that being considered ‘marriageable’ is not necessarily the advantage I was raised to believe. Having met you, Miss Caruthers, I know it.”
“You are young yet, Miss Bennet, are you not? You need not reach any definite conclusions on the direction of your own life.”
“I shall be one-and-twenty before this year is out,” Elizabeth replied. “It is quite old enough to be married and settled, in my mother’s eyes.”
“Those of us with strong minds make our own destinies,” Miss Caruthers pronounced as the music reached its conclusion once more.
“Still, sometimes our choices are not what either we or our mothers might have expected. Now, do excuse me. Lady Charlotte must visit the retiring rooms and fix her hair. It has been most refreshing to meet you, Miss Bennet. I wish you and your sister luck.”
Returning Miss Caruthers’s bow, Elizabeth smiled thoughtfully to herself and waited for Jane’s return. She had at least managed one worthwhile conversation tonight; she need not count the evening wasted after all.