“And he takes things in quite a different way from what Gibbie does.”
“He’s no need to be sarcastic!”
“Sarcastic, did you say? I call him downright rude!”
“He evidently doesn’t think much of our intellects!”
“Well, we don’t think much of him, anyway!”
“I believe he uses pomatum on his hair,” confided Fauvette in a shocked whisper.
“My dear, I believe it’s bear’s grease!” corrected Morvyth scornfully.
“This is the most painful week I’ve ever had to go through in all my life,” bleated Aveline. “Even if I live through it—and that’s doubtful—I shall be a nervous wreck. They’ll have to send me for a rest cure during the holidays. I’m not accustomed to be cross-questioned as if I were a criminal in the dock!”
“It’s a witness, child, you mean,” amended Raymonde. “Criminals don’t generally give evidence against themselves. But we understand you, all the same! For two pins I’d sham utter ignorance, and give him some very surprising answers. Yes, I would, if Gibbie or the Bumble didn’t stick in the room the whole time! That’s the worst of it. They’d know in a second that I was only having him on.” 271
As the week progressed, the school considered itself more and more ill-used. The fact was that the Reverend T. W. Beasley was accustomed to university students, and could not focus his mind to the intellectual range of girls of thirteen to seventeen. Moreover, he was by nature a reformer. He liked to give others the benefit of his advice, and he had much to say in private to his sister upon the subject of her pupils’ lessons and general management. Perhaps poor Miss Beasley had not expected quite so much criticism. She was accustomed, nevertheless, to defer to her brother’s opinions, and she listened with due humility, though with much inward perturbation, while he laid down the law upon the education of women. Miss Gibbs, who was a born fighter, was inclined to argue—a disastrous policy, which so nearly ended in what are generally termed “words,” that her Principal was obliged to ask her (privately) to allow the visitor to state his views uninterrupted.