And keen as was the internal conflict over this decision and this
resolve of mine, equally keen was the external contest which I had to
wage in entering on my new post.

There were, namely, two immutable conditions in our agreement. One was
that I should never be compelled to live in town with my pupils, and
that when I began my duties my pupils should be handed over entirely to
my care, without any restriction; that they should follow me into the
country, and there form a restricted and perfectly isolated circle, and
that when they returned to town life my duties as preceptor should be at
an end. The time for beginning my new career drew nigh. As the
stipulated dwelling for myself and my pupils was not yet ready, I was
expected to take up my abode, for a few days, with my pupils in their
town house. But I felt that it was clear that the least want of firmness
at the outset would endanger my whole educational plan; therefore, I
stood firm, and indeed gained my point, though at the price of being
called headstrong, self-willed, and stubborn. That my assumption of my
post was attended with a sharp contest was a very good and wholesome
discipline for me. It was the fitting inauguration of a position and a
sphere of work which was henceforth to be attended, for me, with
perpetual and never-ending strife.

But as to this family and all its members, my earnest unbending
maintenance of my resolve had a most wholesome effect upon them, even to
winning in the end their comprehension and approval, though this was
later and long after I had quitted the situation. It was ten or eleven
years afterwards--that is, four or five years after my departure--that
the mother of these lads expressed her entire approval of the adamantine
perseverance I had exhibited in my convictions.