3-052-655 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Then she packed up such few things as she wanted, and kissed her father, with her prim little black silk bonnet on, ready to start", 1880. Illustration to a short story: "The Governess". '...the family continued to grow poorer and poorer. There were nine mouths to feed - eight human beings who felt hungry two or three times every day; and it is the absolute necessaries of life which cost money nowadays. A rich man can cut down his expenses; a poor man cannot. Luxuries may be suppressed, but not appetite. Rosamond, as might have been expected, was the first to take a common-sense view of the awkward position in which they were placed when the coal-dealer's bill had remained six weeks unpaid one severe winter. She did not say anything, save to her mother, with whom she took quiet counsel; but she answered an advertisement for a governess, and engaged herself for sixty pounds a year to teach all she knew. Then she packed up such few things as she wanted in an old box, which she managed to make look presentable, and kissed her father, with her prim little black silk bonnet on, ready to start'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.