'Yes, my dear, and more than that. I 'm getting a boy called Henry de Courcy Anstel from the big school; and another one, Roger Carden.'
'Oh, oh!' said Hollyhock, turning first white and then red, 'has he blue eyes—has he blue eyes?'
'That is more than I can tell you. The colour of the eyes does not trouble me, and they ought not to trouble a lass of your tender years. There 's another boy called Ivor Chetwode also coming. These with my own five make eight. In addition, I have got Andrew MacPen from Edinburgh, and Archie MacPen, his brother, and four little orphan boys, who are coming all the way from London. Their names are Johnnie and Georgie and Alec and Murray. I call them orphans because their father and mother have gone to India, and have had to leave them behind. So on Monday my little Annex will open with fourteen boys. They'll have the advantage of the fräuleins and mesdemoiselles from Ardshiel to give them lessons two or three times a week; and in addition, being manly boys, I have made arrangements that they shall be taught by the Reverend James Cadell and two resident tutors. So you see now for yourself, Hollyhock, that after your insisting so often that nothing would make you go to a mixed school, the thing has been taken out of your hands, my love. Mrs Macintyre has a large and flourishing school for girls, and I hope to do well with my boys. You must congratulate me, Hollyhock.'
'Well,' said Hollyhock haltingly, 'I—somehow—it seems hard on Mrs Macintyre, doesn't it?'
'Not a bit of it, dear. Why, it's the making of her school. She has got so many applications for girlies like yourself to go to Ardshiel that she soon will have to close her lists. Now that you have decided to go there, Hollyhock, it will bring the number of her pupils in the course of next week up to nearly seventy.'
Hollyhock sat very cold and still.
'You don't look pleased, my child, and yet you were so strong against a mixed school.'
'Well, yes, I was, and I am still. For that matter, I hate all schools.'
'But you faithfully promised me to go to Ardshiel, Hollyhock.'
'Oh yes, I 'll keep my word. I expect I 'm a bit of a dare-devil; there is something very wicked in me, Auntie Cecilia.'