Burden's education was limited, and she probably was destined to go into domestic service like her mother. After her engagement, she was privately educated to become a gentleman's wife. Her keen intelligence allowed her to recreate herself. She was a voracious reader who became proficient in French and Italian, and she became an accomplished pianist with a strong background in classical music. Her manners and speech became refined to an extent that contemporaries referred to her as "queenly." Later in life, she had no trouble moving in upper-class circles. She was possibly the model for the heroine of the 1884 novel "Miss Brown" by Vernon Lee upon which George Bernard Shaw based the character of Eliza Doolittle in his play "Pygmalion" (1914) and the later film "My Fair Lady" (1964). She also became a skilled needlewoman, self-taught in ancient embroidery techniques, and later became renowned for her own embroideries.