“There will certainly be discipline at school,” said Mrs. Haddo, “just as there is discipline in life. What miserable people we should be without discipline! Why, we couldn’t get on at all. I am not going to lecture you to-day. As a matter of fact, I never lecture; and I never expect any young girl to do in my school what I would not endeavor to do myself. Above all things, I wish to impress one thing upon you. If you have any sort of trouble—and, of course, dears, you will have plenty—you must come straight to me and tell me about it. This is a privilege I permit to very few girls, but I grant it to you. I give you that full privilege for the first month of your stay at Haddo Court. You are to come to me as you would to a mother, had you, my poor children, a mother living.”
“Don’t! It makes the lump so bad!” said Betty, clasping her rough little hand against her white throat.
“I think I have said enough on that subject for the present. I am very curious to hear all about your life on the moors—how you spent your time, and how you managed your horses and dogs and your numerous pets.”
“Do you really want to hear?” said Betty.
“Certainly; I have said so.”
“Do you know,” said Hetty, “that Sylvia would bring Dickie here. Betty and I were somewhat against it, although he is a darling. He is the most precious pet in the world, and Sylvia would not part with him. We sent her to the kitchen before dinner to get a bit of raw meat for him. Would you like to see him?”
Mrs. Haddo was silent for a minute. Then she said gently, “Yes, very much. He is a sort of pet, I suppose?”
“He is a spider,” said Betty—“a great, enormous spider. We captured him when he was small, and we fed him—oh, not on little flies—that would be cruel—but on morsels of raw meat. Now he is very big, and he has wicked eyes. I would rather call him Demon than Dickie; but Sylvia named him Dickie when he was but a baby thing, so the name has stuck to him. We love him dearly.”
“I will come up to your room presently, and you shall show him to me. Have you brought other pets from the country?”
“Oh, stones and shells and bits of the moor.”