A Struggle for a Ring — page 184: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

180 MADAME ROUBART’S PUPIL. aged after this fashion: One child required a boot-lace —two dozen were purchased, amounting to sixpence— ‘‘boot-laces, one shilling,” went at once into the bill of every young lady in the school. ‘Three cabs would be chartered on a rainy Sunday to take so many young ladies, contract price, to church—‘‘cab to church and back, five shillings,” would be the next item. Assistant mistresses and masters looked upon Madame Roubart with wonder; those items were something marvelous, and they all mye her facility for inventing them. Some of Madame Roubart’s pupils had married well, and it was to this fact that most of her success was to be attributed. It was just possible that some of the pupils brought up entirely on her system might make a trifling mistake in spelling; but on points of etiquette, of grace- ful manner, of a thorough knowledge of all the ways and forms of society, Madame Roubart’s pupils were unsur- passed. It was quite sufficient at any time to say thata young lady had been finished at her establishment to insure her a certain amount of success. Pretty girls were sent to Madame Roubart’s that their beauty might be made the most of, plain ones that they might lack nothing but beauty. Lady Ada Stenforth, a few months after she left Madame Roubart’s, captivated the young Marquis of Rea- meaton by her graceful dancing and finished manner Miss Clayton charmed the Marquis de Alcone, the rich and handsome cousin of the French ambassador, by the per- fect manner in which she spoke. French; Miss Langdale had married the Duke of Portcastle, who declared her to be the best bred girl he had ever met; so that Madame Roubart’s fame had increased considerably. She had had some thought of increasing her terms, say to three hun- dred instead of two, but she was advised not to attempt it. a} cComichoo (€(0)