Hello everyone. I would like to know what "whilst Maud and Dora were still with their homely schoolmistress" means in the following sentences:
"Their life had a tone of melancholy, the painful reserve which characterises a certain clearly defined class in the present day. Had they been born twenty years earlier, the children of that veterinary surgeon would have grown up to a very different, and in all probability a much happier, existence, for their education would have been limited to the strictly needful, and—certainly in the case of the girls—nothing would have encouraged them to look beyond the simple life possible to a poor man’s offspring. But whilst Maud and Dora were still with their homely schoolmistress, Wattleborough saw fit to establish a Girls’ High School, and the moderateness of the fees enabled these sisters to receive an intellectual training wholly incompatible with the material conditions of their life. To the relatively poor (who are so much worse off than the poor absolutely) education is in most cases a mocking cruelty."
- George Gissing, New Grub Street, Chapter 3
In this novel which was published in 1891 in the United Kingdom, the two sisters of the Milvain family, Maud and Dora, were often told by their acquaintances that they were cold, and some people declared that their superior air was ridiculous and insufferable. The narrator is attributing their touch of pride to their poverty, and saying that if they had been born twenty years earlier, there would have been no Girls' High School, and they would have been much happier than now.
In this part, I would like to know what "whilst Maud and Dora were still with their homely schoolmistress" means.
Does it mean "while they were going to an elementary school"?
In which grade of school does a schoolmistress teach in the Victorian England? An elementary school...? Or a secondary school...?
I would very much appreciate your help.
"Their life had a tone of melancholy, the painful reserve which characterises a certain clearly defined class in the present day. Had they been born twenty years earlier, the children of that veterinary surgeon would have grown up to a very different, and in all probability a much happier, existence, for their education would have been limited to the strictly needful, and—certainly in the case of the girls—nothing would have encouraged them to look beyond the simple life possible to a poor man’s offspring. But whilst Maud and Dora were still with their homely schoolmistress, Wattleborough saw fit to establish a Girls’ High School, and the moderateness of the fees enabled these sisters to receive an intellectual training wholly incompatible with the material conditions of their life. To the relatively poor (who are so much worse off than the poor absolutely) education is in most cases a mocking cruelty."
- George Gissing, New Grub Street, Chapter 3
In this novel which was published in 1891 in the United Kingdom, the two sisters of the Milvain family, Maud and Dora, were often told by their acquaintances that they were cold, and some people declared that their superior air was ridiculous and insufferable. The narrator is attributing their touch of pride to their poverty, and saying that if they had been born twenty years earlier, there would have been no Girls' High School, and they would have been much happier than now.
In this part, I would like to know what "whilst Maud and Dora were still with their homely schoolmistress" means.
Does it mean "while they were going to an elementary school"?
In which grade of school does a schoolmistress teach in the Victorian England? An elementary school...? Or a secondary school...?
I would very much appreciate your help.
