“Good!” exclaimed Valentine. “And we made one pound ten, and the kids one pound seven. What does it tot up to?” 263
“Five pounds and sixpence,” calculated Barbara after a moment’s scribbling on the back of a programme.
“Well, I call it a very decent result for a school of only twenty-six girls!”
CHAPTER XXII
An Accusation
On the following Monday afternoon the Reverend T. W. Beasley arrived in readiness to begin, on Tuesday morning, his task of examining the school. There was great fluttering in the dove-cot, and much anxiety on the part of the girls to catch the first glimpse of him. They had decided that, as the brother of their good-looking Principal, he would be tall, fair, and clean-shaven, with classical features, gentle blue eyes, and a soft, persuasive manner—the ideal clergyman, in fact, of the storybook, who lives in a picturesque country rectory and cultivates roses. To their disappointment he was nothing of the sort, but turned out to be a short, broad-set little man, with a grey beard and moustache, and keen dark eyes under bushy eyebrows, and a prominent nose that was the very reverse of romantic. He cleared his throat frequently in a nervous fashion, and when he spoke he snapped out his remarks abruptly, in a very deep voice that seemed to rise almost out of his boots.
“He isn’t half as nice as Professor Marshall!” decided the Fifth unanimously.