Edna's head was moved slightly backwards, in the manner of one who has flung down the gauntlet fearlessly. Her eyes travelled slowly round the table.
Suddenly she uttered an impulsive "Ah!"
Julian, taken unawares, glanced up quickly. His wife's eager, ardent gaze had fallen upon Miss Marchrose, motionless in her place.
"My dear!" she exclaimed half under her breath, but entirely audibly, "I forgot you—I forgot you were here. Have I hurt you?"
"Good God!" broke from Fairfax Fuller, and almost at the same instant Mark Easter, with ingenious clumsiness, sent an empty chair to the floor.
Sir Julian set his teeth and stood up.
"I am afraid that we have strayed from the subject under discussion. May I suggest that Mr. Fuller should outline the scheme?"
"Certainly, Sir Julian, by all means—by all means," said the chairman, looking harassed.
Fuller's scheme anticipated the humanitarian doubts raised by Lady Rossiter. The Saturday class should be open from two o'clock to four, and Saturday duty taken weekly in rotation by each one of the three shorthand teachers belonging to the College. The classes of the week should be so rearranged as to enable those members of the staff who had been at work on Saturday afternoon to return to the College at midday only on Monday morning.
"Excellent," said Mark Easter.