If Madame respected Eleanor, we school-girls almost revered her. “She talks so splendidly,” Lucy said one day.
Not that the rest of us were by any means dumb. The fact that English was forbidden did not silence us, and on Sunday when (to Madame’s undisguised chagrin) Miss Mulberry allowed us to speak English, we chattered like sparrows during an anthem. But Eleanor introduced a kind of talk which was new to most of us.
We could all chatter of people and places, and what was said on this occasion or what happened on another. We had one good mimic (Emma), and two or three of us were smart in description. We were observant of details and appearances, and we could one and all “natter” over our small grievances without wearying of the subject, and without ever speculating on their causes, or devising remedies for them.
But, with Eleanor, facts served more as points to talk from, than as talk in themselves. Through her influence the Why and How of things began to steal into our conversation. We had more discussion and less gossip, and found it better fun.
“One never tells you anything without your beginning to argue about it,” said one of the girls to her one day.
“I’m very sorry,” said poor Eleanor.
“You’re very clever, you mean,” said Emma. “What a lawyer you’d have made, Eleanor! While we growl at the Toad’s tyranny, you make a case out of it.”
(I regret to have to confess that, owing to a peculiarity of complexion, Madame was familiarly known to us, behind her back, as the Toad.)
“Well, I don’t know,” said Eleanor, puckering her brows and nursing her knees, as we all sat or lounged on the school-room floor, during the after-dinner recreation minutes, in various awkward but restful attitudes; “I can growl as well as anybody, but I never feel satisfied with bewailing over and over again that black’s black. One wants to find out why it’s black, and if anything would make it white. Besides, I think perhaps when one looks into one’s grievances, one sees excuses for people—there are two sides to every question.”
“There’ll be one, two, three,” said Emma, looking slowly round and counting the party with a comical imitation of Eleanor’s thoughtful air—“there’ll be fifteen sides to every question by the time we’ve all learnt to talk like you, my dear.”