] In Emma, Mrs. Goddard is the mistress of a school that seems to have for students girls from what we would call upper middle class families (doctors, lawyers or such). Does this make her genteel? She is received at Hunsford, but it seems that because she actually "works" for a living, she would be a bad connection....

kept a sort of university preparation boarding school in their house.I should think that her being received along with Mrs Bates at Hunsford would solidify her position at the lower fringes of the gentry (perhaps above the Steele sisters) but I am no expert in such matters. Also poor Miss Taylor worked for a living but was certainly considered gentry.