8 Villette By Charlotte Brontë - Read By Stephanie Poppins

Villette is a 1853 novel written by English author Charlotte Brontë. After an unspecified family disaster, the protagonist Lucy Snowe travels from her native England to the fictional Continental city of Villette to teach at a girls' school, where she is drawn into adventure and romance.

In this new episode, Lucy Snowe makes her mark in the classroom.

Performed by Stephanie Poppins
Music by Jean-Miles Carter
Published by Neworld Books

Transcript

Being delivered into the charge of the maitresse I was led through a long narrow passage into a foreign kitchen very clean but very strange it seemed to contain no means of cooking neither fireplace nor oven I did not understand that the great black furnace which filled one corner was an efficient substitute for these surely pride was not already beginning its whispers in my heart yet I felt a sense of relief when instead of being left in the kitchen as I half anticipated I was led forward to a small inner room termed a cabinet a cook in a jacket a short petticoat and sabbats brought my supper to wit some meat nature unknown served in an odd and acid but pleasant sauce some chopped potatoes made savory with I know not what vinegar and sugar I think a tartine or slice of bread and butter and a half-baked pear being hungry I ate and I was grateful after the prière du soir madame herself came to have another look at me she desired me to follow her upstairs through a series of the queerest little dormitories which I heard afterwards had once been nuns cells for the premises were in part of ancient date and through the oratory a long low gloomy room where a crucifix hung pale against the wall and two tapers kept dim vigils she conducted me to an apartment where three children were asleep in three tiny beds a heated stove made the air of this room oppressive and to mend matters it was scented with an odor rather strong and delicate a perfume indeed although surprising and unexpected being like the combination of smoke with some spiritus essence a smell in short of whiskey beside a table on which flared the remnant of a candle guttering to waste in the socket a coarse woman heterogeneously clad in a broad striped showy silk dress and a stuffed apron sat in a chair fast asleep to complete the picture and leave no doubt as to the state of matters a bottle and an empty glass stood at the sleeping beauty's elbow madame contemplated this remarkable tableau with great calm she neither smiled nor scowled no impressive anger disgust or surprise ruffled the equality of her grave aspect she did not even wake the woman serenely pointing to a fourth bed she intimated it was to be mine then having extinguished the candle and substituted for it a night lamp she glided through an inner door which he left ajar the entrance to her own chamber a large well-furnished apartment as was discernible through the aperture my devotions that night were all thanksgiving strangely had I been led since morning unexpectedly had I been provided for scarcely could I believe not 48 hours had elapsed since I left London under no other guardianship than that which protects the passenger bird with no prospect but the dubious cloud tracery of hope I was a light sleeper in the dead of night I suddenly awoke all was hushed but a white figure stood in the room madame in her nightdress moving without perceptible sound she visited the three children in the three beds she approached me I faint sleep and she studied me long a small pantomime ensued curious enough I dare say she sat a quarter of an hour on the edge of my bed gazing at my face she then drew nearer bent close over me slightly raised my cap and turned back the board as so as to expose my hair she looked at my hand lying on the bedclothes this done she turned to the chair where my clothes lay it was at the foot of the bed hearing her touch and lift them I opened my eyes with precaution for I own I felt curious to see how far her tasteful research would lead her it led her a good way every article did she inspect I divide her motive for this proceeding is the wish to form from the garments a judgment respecting the wearer her station her means and neatness etc the end was not bad but the means were hardly fair or justifiable in my dress was a pocket she fairly turned it inside out she counted the money in my purse she opened a little memorandum book coolly perused its contents and took from between the leaves a small plaited lock of Miss Marchmont's gray hair to a bunch of three keys being those of my trunk desk and workbox she had called his special attention with these indeed she withdrew a moment to her own I softly rose in my bed and followed her with my eye these keys reader were not brought back until they had left on the toilet of the adjoining room the impress of their wards in wax all being done thus decently and in order my property was returned to its place my clothes were carefully refolded of what nature were the conclusions deduced from this scrutiny were they favorable or otherwise vain question madame's face of stone for a stone in its present night aspect it looked it had been human and as I said before motherly in the salon betrayed no response her duty done I felt that in her eyes this business was a duty she rose noiseless as a shadow she moved towards her own chamber at the door she turned fixing her eye on the heroine of the bottle who still slept and loudly snored this I presume was mrs. Finey and all this was very un-english truly I was in a foreign land the made me further acquainted with mrs. Sweeney it seems she'd introduced herself to her present employer as an English lady in reduced circumstances a native indeed of Middlesex professing to speak the English tongue with a purist metropolitan accent but I'm reliant on her own infallible expedience for finding out the truth had a singular intrepidity in hiring service offhand she received mrs. Sweeney as nursery governess to her three children I need hardly explain to the reader this lady was in effect a native of Ireland her station I do not pretend to fix she boldly declared she had the upbringing of the son and daughter of a Marquess I think myself she might possibly have been a hanger-on nurse fosterer or washerwoman in some Irish family she smoked a smothered tongue curiously overlaid with mincing cockney infections by some means or other she had acquired now held in possession a wardrobe of rather suspicious splendor gowns of stiff and costly silk fitting her indifferently and apparently made for other proportions than those they now adorned and so long as her broad shoulders wore the folds of that majestic drapery she struck a certain all throughout the household I feel quite sure that without this she would not have kept her footing in the pension hat for two days by virtue of it and it only she maintained the same a month but when mrs. Sweeney knew I was come to fill her shoes then it was that she declared herself then did she rise on Madame Beck in her full power then come down on me with her concentrated weight Madame bore this revelation and visitation so well so stoically I for very shame could not support it otherwise than with composure for one little moment Madame Beck absented her from the room ten minutes after an agent of the police stood in the midst of us mrs. Sweeney and her effects were removed madame's brow had not been ruffled during the scene her lips had not dropped one sharply accented word this brisk little affair of the dismissal was all settled before breakfast and about noon I was summoned to dress madame it appeared my place was to be a hybrid between governor and ladies made until noon she haunted the house in her wrapping gown sure and sounder slippers but when it tired Madame Beck appeared a personage of a figure rather short and stout yet still graceful in its own peculiar way that is with a grace resulting from proportion of parts her complexion was fresh and sanguine her eye blue and serene her dark silk dress fitted her as a French semptress alone can make a dress fit she looked well though a little bourgeoisie as bourgeoisie indeed she was I know not what of harmony pervaded her whole person and yet her face offered contrast its features were by no means such as usually seen in conjunction with a complexion of such blended freshness and repose their outline was stern the forehead was high but narrow it expressed capacity and some benevolence but no expanse nor did her peaceful yet watchful eye ever know the fire which is kindled in the heart her mouth was hard it could be a little grim her lips were thin still madam knew what honesty was and she liked it when it did not obtrude its clumsy scruples in the way of her will and interest she had a respect for Angleterre and as to Les Anglaises she would have the women of no other country about her own children if she could help it she had a power of a particular kind not my kind of power neither sympathy nor congeniality nor submission were the emotions it awakened one morning coming on me abruptly and with the semblance of hurry she said she found herself placed in a little dilemma Mr Wilson the English master had failed to come at his hour she feared he was ill the pupils were waiting in class there was no one to give a lesson should I for once object to giving a short dictation exercise just that the pupils might not have it to say they'd missed their English lesson in class madam I asked yes in class in the second division where there are 60 pupils said I for I knew the number and with my usual base habit of cowardice I shrank into my sloth like a snail into its shell and alleged incapacity and impracticability as a pretext to escape action come said madam as I stooped more busily than ever over the cutting out of a child's pinafore leave that work you need to teach as madam Beck did really want and was resolved to have me she had long been dissatisfied with the English master she did not lack resolution and practical activity whether I like them or not without more ado she made me relinquish thimble and needle my hand was taken into hers and I was conducted downstairs I was flushed and tremulous from head to foot I believe I was crying in fact the difficulties before me were far from being wholly imaginary some of them were real enough and not the least substantial lay in my want of mastery over the medium through which I should be obliged to teach I had indeed studied French closely since my arrival in Villette but I was far from yet being able to trust my powers of correct oral expression will you go backward or forward she said indicating with her hand I speak French with far too much hesitation I said too little accuracy to be able to command the respect I shall make blunders that will lay me open to the scorn of the most ignorant still I mean to give the lesson they always throw over timid teachers said she I know that too madame I've heard how they rebelled against and persecuted Miss Turner Miss Turner was a poor friendless English teacher whom madame had employed and likely discarded and to whose pities history I was no stranger c'est vrai she said coolly Miss Turner had no more command over them than a servant from the kitchen she was weak and wavering I made no reply but advanced to the closed school door you will not accept aid from me or anyone said madame that would at once set you down as incompetent for your office I then opened the door let her pass with courtesy and followed her in there were three school rooms all large that dedicated to the second division where I was to figure was considerably the largest it was accommodated by an assemblage more numerous more turbulent and infinitely more manageable than the other two in after days when I knew the ground better I used to think sometimes if such a comparison may be permitted that the quiet polished tame first division was to the robust riotous demonstrative second division what the English house of lords is to the English house of commons the first glance informed me many of the pupils were more than girls quite young women some of them were of noble family and I was well convinced that not one amongst them was ignorant of my position in madame's household as I mounted the estrade where stood the teacher's chair and desk I beheld opposite to me a row of eyes and brows that threatened stormy weather eyes full an insolent light and brows hard and unblushing as marble the continental female is quite a different being to the insular female of the same age and class I never saw such eyes and brows in England I shall never forget that first lesson nor all the undercurrent of life and character it opened up to me I did rightly begin to see the wide difference that lies between the novelists and poets thy ideal jeune fille and the said jeune fille as she really is it seemed the three title bells in the front row had sat down predetermined that a bon enfant should not give them lessons in English they knew they had succeeded in expelling obnoxious teachers before now they knew madame would at any time throw overboard a professor or maitresse who became unpopular and if she had not the strength to fight or tact to win her way down she would go could I have but spoken in my own tongue I felt as if I might have gained a hearing but I knew I looked a poor creature and in many respects actually I was so yet nature had given me a voice that could make itself heard but now all I could do was to walk up to Blanche, Mlle de Melcy, A young baron the eldest tallest handsomest and most vicious girl stand before her desk take from her under her hand her exercise book remount the estrade deliberately read the composition which I found very stupid and just as deliberately and in the face of the whole school tear the blotted page in two this action availed to draw attention and noise one girl alone quite in the background persevered in the riot with undiminished energy I looked at her attentively she had a pale face hair like night broad strong eyebrows decided features and a dark mutinous sinister eye I noticed she sat close by a little door this opened into a small closet where books were kept I measured her stature and calculated her strength she seemed both tall and wiry but so the conflict were brief and the attack unexpected I thought I might manage her advancing up the room looking as cool and careless as I possibly could I slightly pushed the door and found it was ajar in an instant and with sharpness I turned on her in another instance she occupied the closet the door was shut and the key was put into my pocket it just so happened that this girl Delores by name and a Catalonian by race was the sort of character at once dreaded and hated by all her associates the act of summary justice above noted proved popular there was not one present but in her heart that liked to see it done they were stilled for a moment and then between the class came a smile passing from desk to desk and when I had gravely and tranquilly returned to the estrade the pens traveled peacefully over the pages and the remainder of the lesson passed in order Sibyane said Madame Beck when I came out of class hot and a little exhausted she had been peeping through a spyhole the whole time from that day I ceased to be a nursery governess and became English teacher Madame raised my salary but she got thrice the work out of me she had extracted from Mr Wilson at half the expense