At the high-class academy where her education was finished the same process went on.  The other girls quickly made her thoroughly understand (a bitter knowledge) that the great people in the little market town, the very richest of them, were but poor in comparison with their papas.  Their papas were in the ‘City,’ or on ‘’Change,’ and had as many thousands a year as the largest farmer she knew could reckon hundreds.  Georgie felt ashamed of her papa, recollecting his crumpled old hat, and his scrubby chin.  Being really a nice girl, under the veneer that was so industriously placed upon her, she made friends among her fellow scholars, and was invited to more than one of their grand homes in Kensington and the suburbs of London.  There she learned all the pomp of villa life, which put into the shade the small incomes which displayed their miserable vanities in the petty market town.  Footmen, butlers, late dinners, wines, carriages, the ceaseless gossip of ‘Society’ were enough to dazzle the eyes of a girl born so near the cowshed.  The dresses she had to wear to mix with these grand friends cost a good deal—­her parents sacrificing their own comforts for her advantage—­and yet, in comparison with the beautiful costumes she saw, they seemed shabby.

Georgie was so far fortunate as to make friends of some of the elder people, and when she had passed her examinations, and obtained the diplomas and certificates which are now all essential, through their interest she obtained at starting a very high salary.  It was not long before she received as much as sixty or seventy pounds a year.  It was not only that she really was a clever and accomplished girl, but her recommendations were influential.  She was employed by wealthy people, who really did not care what they paid so long as their children were in good hands.  Now to the old folk at home, and to the neighbours, this seemed an immense salary for a girl, especially when the carriage, the footmen, the wines, and late dinners, and so on, were taken into consideration.  The money, however, was of very little use to her.  She found it necessary to dress equal to her place.  She had to have several dresses to wear, according to the time of day, and she had to have new ones very often, or she might be told petulantly and pointedly by her mistress that ’one gets so weary of seeing the same dresses every day.’  Instead of the high salary leaving a handsome profit, her father had occasionally to pay a stiff bill for her.  But then the ’position’—­look at the ‘position’ and the society.

Georgie, in process of time, went to Scotland, to Paris, the South of France, to Rome, and Naples.  Being a discreet girl, and having a winning manner, she became as much a companion to her mistress as governess, and thus saw and heard more of the world than she would otherwise have done.  She saw some very grand people indeed occasionally.  After this, after the Continent, and, above all, London in the season, the annual visit to the old farmhouse came to be a bitter time of trial.  Georgie had come home now for a few days only, to ask for money, and already before she had scarcely spoken had rushed upstairs to hide her feeling of repulsion in the privacy of her room.