"Well—what do you think of her, eh? I hope you were a good girl—did as she told you?"
Henrietta had flushed, resenting it that Miss Marsham, certainly a head mistress of forty years' standing, should, as she aged, treat her staff more and more as if it were but a degree removed from the Upper Sixth. The younger women might like it, but it did not accord with Henrietta's notions of her own dignity. She was devoutly thankful that Miss Marsham reserved her freedom for private interviews; had, in public at least, the grand manner. Yet she had a respect for her; knew her dimly for a notable dame, who could have coerced a recalcitrant cabinet as easily as she bullied the school staff.
She had rubbed her hands together, shrewd eyes a-twinkle.
"I knew what I was doing! How long have you been with me, Henrietta? Twelve years ago, eh? Ah, well, it's longer ago than that. Let me see—she's twenty-eight now, Clare Hartill—and she left me at sixteen. A responsibility, a great responsibility. An orphan—too much money. A difficult child—I spent a lot of time on her, and prayer, too, my dear. Well, I don't regret it now. When I met her at Bournemouth that day—oh, I wasn't pleased with you, Henrietta! It has taken me forty years to build up my school, and I can't be ill two months, but——Well, I made up my mind. I found her at a loose end. I talked to her. She'll take plain speaking from me. I told her she'd had enough of operas and art schools, and literary societies (she's been running round Europe for the last ten years). I told her my difficulty—I told her to come back to me and do a little honest work. Of course she wouldn't hear of it."
"Then how did you persuade Miss Hartill?"
But Henrietta, raising prim brows, had but drawn back a chuckle from the old woman.
"How many types of schoolgirl have you met, Henrietta? Here, under me?"
Henrietta fidgeted. The question was an offence. It was not in her department. She had no note of it in her memorandum books.
"Really—I can hardly tell you—blondes and brunettes, do you mean? No two girls are quite the same, are they?"
But Miss Marsham had not attended.