"Here comes Hannah," she said, glancing through the window, as she heard the gate swing back.
And the next minute, Hannah entered the room. She was barely two years older than Salome, and resembled her sister far more than she did her mother. She was better-looking than Salome; her hair was darker, her complexion less high-coloured, her features stronger, and her eyes a deeper blue. Her ample square forehead, from which the hair was rigorously brushed back, seemed to denote considerable intellectual power, whilst the firm lines of mouth and chin showed a strength of will which might degenerate into obstinacy. She looked a strong, capable, energetic woman as she came quickly into the room, her countenance wearing a slightly harassed expression.
She was one of the staff of mistresses belonging to a large high school established in the North London suburb in which Mrs. Tracy lived. She had worked hard, and improved her position considerably since she entered the school, having won the character of a most efficient teacher and thorough disciplinarian. She and Salome were the daughters of Mrs. Tracy's first marriage with a sober, hard-working Glasgow man of business. They resembled their shrewd, staid, matter-of-fact Scotch father far more than they did the pretty, loving little Englishwoman, whom, with a strange lack of his usual prudence, he had taken to wife.
"I am sorry to be late, mother," Hannah said in clear, incisive tones, "but it is not my fault. I saw Juliet in the playground with that horrid Chalcombe girl, so I went to ask her if she were ready to come home. Juliet was in one of her tiresome moods, and was not too polite to me. At first, she would not say what she would do; but finally I understood her to say that she would come. However, after I had waited for ten minutes, I saw her walking away in the opposite direction with her new friend."
"Oh dear!" said Mrs. Tracy, a flush suffusing her delicate face.
"Did you really tell Juliet, mother, that she was not to make a friend of that girl?"
"Oh yes, dear, I spoke to her about it; but she seemed to think it hard that they could not be friendly when they were in the same form, and I thought that Juliet would soon be leaving school, and after that they are not likely to see much of each other, you know."
"But, meanwhile, there is time for Juliet to get a great deal of harm," replied Hannah. "However, if you like her to associate with the daughter of an actor, I have nothing more to say."
"My dear! I do not like it. You should not say that. Is the girl's father really an actor?"
"Well, I do not know that he acts," said Hannah deliberately; "I think someone said that he was the lessee of a theatre at Bow. He has a son who sings at music halls."