Chapter 13 Before Mary and Susan...
Just before Mary and Susan's school life began, the Antwerp finally returned from overseas.
“Mary, Susan, look what I brought you!” Mary felt a surge of warmth when William’s familiar voice rang out at the Price’s door. She ran to the door to greet her brother.
William was holding a large bag of beautiful seashells and conches: rose-colored whelks, cherry blossom pink coral shells, colorful abalone shells, and pure white pearl shells... His two younger sisters were absolutely enamored with these beautiful things.
“These are all carefully selected from a pile of seashells. Other sailors don’t want these little things, but I guess you’ll like them. They look quite different from the seashells here.”
William could only stay in Portsmouth for two or three days this time. The past six months at sea had tanned the handsome young man's skin. Under Captain Marshall's guidance, he had learned a great deal about navigation, astronomy, mathematics, and other fields, and had also accumulated considerable nautical experience and combat skills through his own hard work. Although his body had become much thinner, his spirit had become even more vibrant.
Aside from these beautiful seashells, he didn't bring back much money. As an ordinary sailor and a child laborer who had just boarded the ship, William received very little in spoils. Apart from his own necessary expenses, he saved fifteen pounds by being frugal. This was only because the other sailors, seeing that he was valued by the captain, did not bully him in the distribution of spoils.
Fortunately, with General Maxwell's recommendation, he will be able to become an officer cadet at the Royal Naval School in Portsmouth in about a year, at which point he will be able to share one-eighth of the spoils with the junior officers on board.
William was overjoyed to learn that Mary and Susan would be attending Mrs. Johnson's girls' school. He took out all his money and prepared to give it to Mrs. Price and his sister Mary, hoping to supplement their household expenses.
“William, you can’t leave yourself with no money at all. You don’t need to worry about Susan and my school fees.” Mary waved her hand, not taking the money from William’s hand.
“Yes, William, General Maxwell has already paid for Mary and Susan’s tuition and books, so don’t worry about it. My dear, you’ve gotten so dark and thin; it’s heartbreaking.” Mrs. Price’s eyes were fixed on William’s thin body, and she wanted to touch her son’s face.
William didn't care about any of that. He considered himself a capable young man. He deftly dodged Mrs. Price's touch and insisted, "Oh, Mother, you don't understand. I heard Lucy from the Gregory family mention that girls' schools charge a monthly fee for meals, and that they provide light meals and afternoon tea. Father certainly wouldn't want to pay for it, so of course, I, as the older brother, have to bear the cost."
He insisted on handing the money to Mary, and seeing William's insistence, Mary couldn't refuse and took six pounds: "This is enough for the two of us to eat for a year. You can keep the rest for yourself." After saying that, she hugged her brother whom she hadn't seen for a long time, and Susan also shyly kissed her brother's cheek to express her gratitude.
Then William began to recount his life at sea, how terrible the storms he encountered in the Caribbean were, and how he was only able to escape danger thanks to the captain's familiarity with the route; how easily the natives he encountered on the islands in the Indian Ocean were defeated... Mrs. Price and Susan were frightened by these thrilling adventures, and they coaxed the children to go to their rooms to rest.
John and Richard, however, were drawn to their brother's adventurous and masculine spirit. At this time, Mary truly felt that she was living in an era that was gradually moving towards modern civilization while simultaneously becoming increasingly barbaric and expansionist. In William, Mary saw no trace of the refined elegance championed by the upper classes of the Regency era; the grand, impassioned imperialism of the Victorian era had quietly begun.
How much meaning did her previous fears about Richard potentially engaging in colonial trade hold? As William recounted his fantastical adventures, she found herself irresistibly drawn in, and as long as she disregarded that powerful Eastern nation, her moral compass didn't seem as high as she had imagined.
When William went to sea again, the Price family's life became mundane and uneventful once more. Fortunately, Mary and Susan were finally going to school. Mrs. Johnson's Girls' School was located in another middle-class neighborhood, an elegant environment surrounded by businessmen, lawyers, and the like who would send their daughters to school.
In the office of Ms. Abbott, who managed Mrs. Johnson's Girls' School, Mary and Susan took a simple entrance test: simply having them read some articles and write some English words.
Seeing that both girls could answer fluently, clearly indicating they had received a good family education, Ms. Abbott remained expressionless but inwardly quite satisfied. She instructed Miss Williams to take the two girls to their second-grade classroom. The current primary education system was not standardized; some schools had five-year programs, while others had six.
Mrs. Johnson's School for Girls is a five-year school with only one class per grade. Children aged six to seven are in Grade 1, seven to eight in Grade 2, eight to nine in Grade 3, nine to ten in Grade 4, and ten to eleven in Grade 5. The school currently has only forty-seven students, so it wasn't surprising that when Mary and Susan arrived at the classroom, they found only nine students including themselves—Grade 2 had become the largest grade!
According to the curriculum, first-grade students only need to learn simple spelling, recitation, and sewing; second-grade students are taught singing and musical instruments, and history and arithmetic classes are added; third-grade students need to practice embroidery and painting; fourth-grade students begin to learn French, and interested students can learn Latin from Ms. Abbott; fifth-grade students are said to be taught dance every two weeks, which is very rare in primary schools, and we must thank Mrs. Johnson for her kindness.
Compared to boys' schools, the curriculum completely lacked subjects like geography and natural history, let alone any exposure to the latest physics and chemistry. Even with such a meager curriculum, it was considered quite rich among primary education schools for girls at the time. Just as Mary had learned before, all the courses had only one purpose: to cultivate a qualified "lady" or, in other words, a "wife."
At that time, societal norms held that nothing brought a woman more joy and comfort to her family than music. Almost every girl in the United Kingdom could sing, and if given the opportunity, they would certainly learn a musical instrument. Therefore, in the first lesson of the new semester, Miss Williams had her students choose between the piano and the harp.
The pianos in the school were the most popular square pianos of the time. Their rectangular shape somewhat resembled the old-fashioned harpsichords, with a simpler internal structure and a much smaller size than the once-popular harpsichords, saving costs. They were among the most popular home instruments for the middle class. As for the harp, it had always been considered an instrument that embodied feminine elegance. Countless painters depicted goddesses, fairies, or noble ladies playing solo at the harp, making it widely beloved by young women.
Five girls in the class chose the harp, and four chose the piano. Mary, who had practiced the piano at General Maxwell's mansion, continued to choose it. Susan, however, did not make the same choice as her sister; she chose the harp, like most of the other girls.
The school environment was quite relaxed. Teachers didn't place much emphasis on grades, and even if one or two students performed poorly, no teacher would criticize them. The school focused more on cultivating students' manners and etiquette. Mary easily became the top student in the class, and Susan's grades were also quite good; by today's standards, they should have been popular. However, as Miss Gregory had said, almost everyone in the school was a snob.
The sisters' family situation was quickly learned by their classmates, who found them to be among the poorer families in the school.
Lower-middle-class families with an annual income of around £150 to £250 rarely send their daughters to such schools. They usually let their daughters be educated at home by their mothers, unless they have few children and love their daughters very much, in which case they might send them to school.
Most students come from families with an annual income of three hundred to eight hundred pounds, which is the average middle-class income. It's well known that the Price family belongs to the very bottom of this class, and they have too many children, so the resources available to each child are extremely limited. As for upper-middle-class families with an income exceeding one thousand pounds, they can easily afford private tutors and don't need to be in primary schools. In this society where everyone is money-oriented, most teachers naturally give more respect to children from wealthy families and are more amiable and approachable.
Before Mary arrived, the most dazzling girl in the class was Elizabeth Wesley. Miss Wesley's father was not originally a member of the upper class; he was initially just a lawyer, but later he was fortunate enough to inherit a distant relative's estate, earning an annual income of eight hundred pounds. He then left that profession and enjoyed the airs of a country gentleman. Because there were only two children in the family, and as the only daughter, Elizabeth was spoiled by her parents from a young age, and they did their best to groom her for a higher social status.
This young lady had a dowry of about five thousand pounds and always considered herself a gentleman's daughter, which fostered a haughty and arrogant temperament. She was able to be quite amiable towards those of higher social standing than Miss Wesley, but her attitude towards others was quite different.
When Mary arrived, her stunning beauty displeased Miss Wesley. Once she learned that Mr. Price was merely an unemployed Marine lieutenant, and that even if her godfather was General Maxwell, so what? Without a dowry, who knew what fate awaited Mary Price!
When Mary Price was the first to finish the math problems, and the teacher praised Mary's exquisite handiwork in sewing class, where the stitches were invisible, and encouraged everyone to study hard, Miss Wesley became even more unhappy.
After class, seeing several girls sitting around Mary asking her how to sew, Elizabeth Wesley loudly said to Catherine Green sitting next to her, "To be so skilled in a craft, it seems some people know what they're doing and have made ample preparations for their future. My mother always said that the women of the Wesley family never need to do housework."
“That’s right, only poor girls need to sew clothes every day. We’re not here to learn how to be a maid,” Miss Green agreed.
“Oh, don’t say that, Catherine. Aren’t you hurting poor Miss Price? Miss Price, neither of us meant anything by you. If you’re unhappy, then I’m sorry.” As she said this, Elizabeth glanced at Mary and raised an eyebrow, clearly showing no sincerity.
A note from the author:
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Chapter thirteen has already been released. First of all, thank you to all the readers for your support. I am truly grateful to receive encouragement from several familiar readers for this niche subject matter. I can guarantee that this book will be completed, and I will guarantee daily updates after it becomes a VIP book. Currently, I will update according to the rankings, but I will not deliberately suppress updates. I still hope that all readers will add it to their collections.
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