He
sometimes, indeed, got her into trouble; but Hetty did not grudge any
little pain he cost her in return for the protection which he often so
frankly afforded her.
Not that anyone meant to be unkind to her. Mr. and Mrs. Enderby
continued to take a friendly interest in everything that concerned her,
though strictly following their well-meant plan of not showing her any
particular personal affection. "We must not bring her up in a hothouse,"
they said, "only to put her out in the cold afterwards." In this they
thought themselves exceptionally wise people; and who shall say whether
they were or not? It suited Phyllis admirably to follow in the footsteps
of her father and mother; but what was merely prudence on the part of
her elder benefactors often appeared something much more unamiable when
practised towards Hetty by a girl not many years her senior. Miss Davis,
who was a rigid disciplinarian and trusted as such by her employers,
thought chiefly of breaking down the pride and temper of the child, and
of bending her character so as to fit her for the hard life that was
before her; a life whose difficulties and trials had been bitterly
experienced, and not yet all conquered or outlived by the conscientious
governess herself.
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