asked one girl , deeply impressed by the impending honour . ` It would be courteous . ' ` Shall we shake hands ? ' ` No , I 'll present you en masse , and your pleasant faces will be introduction enough . ' ' I wish I 'd worn my best dress . Ought to have told us , ' whispered Sally . ` Wo n't my folks be surprised when I tell them we have had a real lady to call on us ? ' said another . ` Do n't look as if you 'd never seen a gentlewoman before , Milly . We are not all fresh from the wilderness , ' added the stately damsel who , having Mayflower ancestors , felt that she was the equal of all the crowned heads of Europe . ` Hush , she 's coming ! Oh , my heart , what a bonnet ! ' cried the gay girl in a stage whisper ; and every eye was demurely fixed upon the busy hands as the door opened to admit Mrs Laurence and her guest . It was rather a shock to find , after the general introduction was over , that this daughter of a hundred earls was a stout lady in a plain gown , and a rather weather-beaten bonnet , with a bag of papers in one hand and a note-book in the other . But the face was full of benevolence , the sonorous voice very kind , the genial manners very winning , and about the whole person an indescribable air of high breeding which made beauty of no consequence , costume soon forgotten , and the moment memorable to the keen-eyed girls whom nothing escaped . A little chat about the rise , growth , and success of this particular class , and then Mrs Jo led the conversation to the English lady 's work , anxious to show her pupils how rank dignifies labour , and charity blesses wealth . It was good for these girls to hear of the evening-schools supported and taught by women whom they knew and honoured ; of Miss Cobbe 's eloquent protest winning the protection of the law for abused wives ; Mrs Butler saving the lost ; Mrs Taylor , who devoted one room in her historic house to a library for the servants ; Lord Shaftesbury , busy with his new tenement-houses in the slums of London ; of prison reforms ; and all the brave work being done in God 's name by the rich and great for the humble and the poor . It impressed them more than many quiet home lectures would have done , and roused an ambition to help when their time should come , well knowing that even in glorious America there is still plenty to be done before she is what she should be -- truly just , and free , and great . They were also quick to see that Lady Abercrombie treated all there as her equals , from stately Mrs Laurence , to little Josie , taking notes of everything and privately resolving to have some thick-soled English boots as soon as possible . No one would have guessed that she had a big house in London , a castle in Wales , and a grand country seat in Scotland , as she spoke of Parnassus with admiration , Plumfield as a ` dear old home ' , and the college as an honour to all concerned in it .
At that , of course , every head went up a little , and when my lady left , every hand was ready for the hearty shake the noble Englishwoman gave them , with words they long remembered : ' I am very pleased to see this much-neglected branch of a woman 's education so well conducted here , and I have to thank my friend Mrs Laurence for one of the most charming pictures I 've seen in XXXXX -- Penelope among her maids . '
America Europe Jo Josie Mayflower Parnassus Taylor Wales gentlewoman tenement-houses