Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 124: what you’re looking at

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

LADY BESS’S HISTORY 107 pected there was some strange mystery connected with us, but they evidently were not acquainted with it, or at least not in all its particulars, for Mrs. Jennings frequently ques- tioned me in respect to my former reminiscences. I used to answer her with frankness, in the hope that she would per- haps be led to tell me something. But she never did. ‘“T must here observe that amongst the female scholars at this school there was one named Catherine Marshall. She was four years younger than myself, a fine, tall, well- made, and beautiful creature as ever I beheld. She was possessed of a merry and joyous disposition, innocently mischievous, if I may use the term, and full of frohcsome gaiety. My spirits were naturally good, notwithstanding the many depressing circumstances by which I was sur- rounded. Kate and I soon formed a sincere friendship for each other. When the school walked out we were always together. We sat together in the schoolroom, and as she was somewhat idle and disliked learning, I was wont to assist her with her lessons. She was a kind-hearted, gener- ous-minded girl, and I loved her dearly. I must add that her father, Mr. Marshall, kept a tavern at Dover, but being well off, he was enabled to give his daughters a good education. For Kate had two sisters younger than herself, and they were at school, I believe, at Dover, the mother not liking to have them all sent away from home. ““T have said that I was sixteen when my brother came to this school. About a year afterward Mrs. Jennings told me that I was no longer to consider myself a scholar, but was to occupy the place of junior teacher, with the ultimate view of qualifying myself as a governess, by which pro- fession I was to earn my bread. Thus time passed on, and when I was twenty, Mrs. Jennings informed me that I was to make my preparations to enter, in the above capacity, a family that was about to visit the Continent. Kate Mar- shall at that time, she being sixteen, left the school. We exchanged some little mementos of our friendship, and she made me promise that if ever I had an opportunity I would pay her a visit at Dover. But the most anguished separation was Irom my dear brother Frank, and when the moment for parting came, we embraced again and again, unable to tear ourselves away from each other’s arms. At length we did separate, and never shall I forget the excruciating GOMIIGDOOkKS (C(O)