Governess

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"A governess is a female employee of a family who teaches children within their home. In contrast to a nanny, formerly called a nurse, or a babysitter, she concentrates on teaching children, not their physical needs. Thus her charges are of school age, not babies."

"According to the novelists, daughters of ruined gentlemen commonly became govemesses, tragic figures who strived to preserve their independence against all the odds, odd women out, neither fish nor fowl. The situation of the governess was most pathetic because she had not been brought up to expect to find herself in such sorry straights. Her wages could be as low as eight pounds a year; in her last situation as a governess, for instance. Charlotte Bronte received twenty pounds a year, actually only sixteen, since washing expenses were deducted at the source."

"However, with a breath of warmth in the March breeze and the sun brilliant on the green lawns and a lively al fresco party before her view, the sharp longing in her chest would not stay boxed in its tight compartment. It wormed its way out and crept up to her throat, winding up to her travel-weary mind like some clever, intimate serpent. And, as did the serpent in Eve's garden, it whispered insidious thoughts to her."

"The authorial story is just as intriguing. Helen Beatrix Potter was born at Kensington London in 1866. She was a typical middle class Victorian girl, educated at home by a governess. She kept a menagerie of pets and taught herself to draw and paint by watching her animals."