Maud Ruthyn and Madame de la Rougierre

Maud Ruthyn and Madame de la Rougierre begin as pupil and governess, but their relationship becomes a sustained struggle over trust, movement, and authority. Madame’s appointment gives her a legitimate place in Maud’s household and daily life; Maud’s persistent fear, however, proves well founded as the governess’s apparent solicitude gives way to pressure and participation in a scheme that isolates her.

Appointment and First Impressions

Madame arrives at Knowl as Maud’s new governess, recommended to Austin Ruthyn as highly qualified. Maud’s response is not the curiosity or relief a new teacher might invite: she already dislikes, distrusts, and fears Madame, and the earlier image of the woman as a strange figure seen in moonlight remains fixed in her mind. This first impression makes the appointment feel ominous before their formal relationship has properly begun.

Madame’s manner adds to the unease. Her temper shifts between caressing attention and a more dangerous irritability, while she maintains a display of religious observance: the Bible is kept open beside her, she attends morning and evening services, and she asks to borrow translations of Swedenborg. The contrast between these outward signs of devotion and her treatment of Maud complicates the authority she claims as an educator and moral guide.

From Instruction to Intimidation

Madame’s interest soon turns from Maud’s lessons to the terms of her father’s will. She presses Maud to say whether a will exists, what it contains, and when it was written, presenting disclosure as something that would be to Maud’s advantage. When Maud says she knows nothing and asks to change the subject, Madame continues to insist that she must know more than she admits.

The questioning escalates into a threat: Madame says she will hurt Maud unless she tells her everything, then seizes and twists one of Maud’s fingers while laughing. The episode makes clear that the relationship is not simply marked by mutual dislike or a clash of temperaments. Madame uses her position and physical proximity to try to force information from a child placed in her care.

Her authority is also asserted over Maud’s movements. When Maud refuses to walk beyond the grounds toward Church Scarsdale, Madame rebukes her and insists that she must do as she is told. She frames the disagreement as a question of command: because she is responsible for Maud’s conduct and health, she argues, she must have the power to decide where Maud goes. Coaxing follows the outburst, but it does not undo the demand. Maud remains immovable, explaining that fear—not caprice—keeps her from going with Madame.

Protection and the Limits of Authority

Maud’s fear affects the household’s response. She tells Austin that Madame became angry when she refused the walk and that she is afraid of her. Austin accepts the boundary: from then on, Maud’s walks are to remain within the grounds. He also cautions her against prejudice, recalling that injustice has harmed members of the family. His response both offers immediate protection and leaves open a painful uncertainty about whether Maud’s alarm should be treated as evidence or suspicion.

The wider guardianship arrangement helps explain why the conflict matters beyond the schoolroom. Under Austin’s will, the trustees hold his property in trust for Maud, while his brother Silas Aylmer Ruthyn is to receive a legacy and use of Bartram-Haugh for life. Silas is also appointed Maud’s sole guardian until she reaches twenty-one, with parental authority and an annual allowance for her maintenance and education. The will thus places Maud’s person under a relative’s authority even as it secures her inheritance. Later, when Doctor Bryerly argues that Silas is exercising a power he does not lawfully possess and thereby impoverishing the estate to Maud’s disadvantage, he offers to help her. These circumstances make Madame’s claim to direct Maud part of a larger conflict over who may control the heiress and in whose interests.

The Governess as an Instrument of Isolation

After Maud’s transfer to Bartram-Haugh, Madame’s role changes from that of the woman who initially tries to command her walks to that of an accomplice in the household’s control of her. Silas refuses Lady Knollys’s request to let Maud and his daughter visit her, and his letter declares his intention to prevent Lady Knollys from having another opportunity to weaken his authority over his ward. The language of family authority and protection is therefore matched by practical restrictions on Maud’s contact with potential allies.

When Maud is told to leave for France, the travel arrangements tighten that isolation. Silas orders her to go to a French pension with his daughter, with Madame accompanying her. He dictates a route through London and Dover, controls what Maud is to write to Lady Knollys, and says that the family’s address in France must be kept secret. Madame is assigned to review Maud’s note to ensure it contains no libel against Silas. The former governess is now not merely responsible for instruction: she is placed alongside Maud as a supervisor of her travel and communication.

The journey is a deception. Maud is secretly returned to Bartram-Haugh and kept inside its locked grounds, where she is told that escape is impossible because the gates are locked and dogs are present. During this confinement, Meg Hawkes warns her not to eat or drink anything offered there, apart from clean spring water, and says she fears that those around Maud may try to make away with her. Meg’s warning establishes the danger of Maud’s situation, though the available evidence does not specify Madame’s precise part in any attempt to harm her.

Meaning of the Relationship

The movement from governess to custodian gives the relationship its defining reversal. Madame enters Maud’s life under the respectable title of educator, but her questioning, threats, and demand for obedience expose the danger concealed within that role. At Bartram-Haugh, the same authority is absorbed into a system that regulates Maud’s visits, correspondence, and movement. The domestic language of care thus sits beside acts of restriction rather than guaranteeing Maud’s safety.

The contrast between formal authority and actual protection is reinforced by the women who resist Maud’s isolation. Maud’s refusal to cross the stile is treated as a boundary she has a right to maintain; Austin honors it by limiting her walks, and Meg later risks herself to warn and assist her. In the escape scene, as the carriage driven by Tom Brice speeds toward Elverston, Maud sees someone crossing the stile in pursuit and hears Brice’s name called. The appearance of Meg at the carriage door confirms the persistence of the rescue effort. Against Madame’s claimed right to command Maud, these acts of protection make trust something established through conduct, not title.