Katerina Ivanovna, who certainly was upset and very tired, as well as heartily sick of the dinner, at once cut short Amalia Ivanovna, saying "she knew nothing about it and was talking nonsense, that it was the business of the laundry maid, and not of the directress of a high- class
boarding-school to look after /die Wasche/, and as for novel- reading, that was simply rudeness, and she begged her to be silent." Amalia Ivanovna fired up and getting angry observed that she only "meant her good," and that "she had meant her very good," and that "it was long since she had paid her /gold/ for the lodgings."
Phellion, who delighted in his neat hand-writing, and was full of compassion for the fellow, read him lectures on the duty of giving lessons in penmanship,--an honorable career, he said, which would ameliorate existence and even render it agreeable; he promised him a situation in a young ladies'
boarding-school. But Vimeux's head was so full of his own idea that no human being could prevent him from having faith in his star.
Julia was, consequently, entrusted to the government of a select
boarding-school; and, as even the morals of the day were, in some degree, tinctured with the existing fashions, her mind as well as her manners were absolutely submitted to the discretion of an hireling.
"He set up fur a gentleman, this Compeyson, and he'd been to a public
boarding-school and had learning.
