CHAPTER VIII.
PEGGY AND HER SCHOOL COMPANIONS.
Strange to say, however, Mr. Wyndham’s obstinacy was too strong to be overcome by Mary’s keen desire that Peggy should go to her friend before she was launched into the terrors—as terrors they certainly would be to her—of a fashionable English school.
“No, Mary; I hope you will stay with us for the remainder of the holidays, and do what you can for the poor little thing; but I have already written to Mrs. Fleming, describing Peggy’s character and begging of her to be kind to the child. I have received a letter, telling me that she will accept the charge of Peggy, and that she has no doubt that in a very short time the girl will turn out all that is satisfactory. She says there is nothing, after all, like school for breaking a girl in. She promises to be very kind to the child, and patient, and says that if the other girls laugh at her they will be reprimanded. I am certain that I am doing right, my dear. The girl needs to be educated and that without delay; she would never get the education she requires at home, and will become interested in her life at The Red Gables, will choose her own friends, and, in short, will soon be happy as the day is long.”
Mary had to bring this information to Mrs. Wyndham, who, as may be easily imagined, was anything but gratified when she heard of her husband’s determination.
“Really some men are too annoying!” Mrs. Wyndham could not help saying; then she was silent, for the simple reason that she had nothing more to say.
The Red Gables was one of those select schools which are to be found here and there in England; they are, as time progresses, growing rarer and rarer. The high schools, the schools of the County Council, the colleges, &c., seem to shut them out, to oppose them, to make them undesirable; nevertheless, a few still do exist; the old-fashioned sort of home-school, and of these there could not be a more delightful specimen than The Red Gables.
The house was exceedingly old-fashioned, and was situated in a most lovely part of Devonshire. From the windows could be seen a distant peep of the sea and of some neighbouring hills; the grounds were extensive, consisting of many acres; and the house itself belonged to a very much earlier period than the date of this story. For nearly two hundred years The Red Gables had been a school for girls, and one mistress after another had taken possession of it; and it so happened that the girls of the present day were the children of the girls of the past day, their mothers, their grandmothers, even their great-grandmothers having been educated at The Red Gables. The school was select and small; there were in all only twenty girls, and these were divided into the Upper and the Lower Schools, with ten girls in each. The Upper School lived quite apart, having little or nothing to do with the Lower School except on feast-days and on days of special ceremony.
The teachers were—first of all, Mrs. Fleming, who was the daughter of the late head-mistress (a Mrs. Medbury, a very sweet old lady, who had died some time ago). Mrs. Fleming had married early in life, had lost her husband, had lost her children, and had been only too glad to take possession of The Red Gables. She was essentially a teacher; she had that inestimable gift of tact which is necessary for all good teachers. She was very sympathetic and very patient; she had long ago discovered for herself that there were no two girls alike, so she expected that each girl who came to her would differ in character from her predecessors. She watched these young characters most carefully, and as far as possible she treated them in such a manner as she thought best calculated to help them in their journey through life.
It was an exceedingly difficult thing to get into The Red Gables, the school being so small; limited, in short, to twenty boarders, it was all but impossible to admit any girl there on short notice. Mrs. Fleming had often been implored to enlarge her borders, and had been assured that she could just as easily take a hundred girls under her care as twenty; but she was determined to keep to the good old rules, and not to increase the numbers of her school. One reason, therefore, why Mr. Wyndham was so very anxious that Peggy should go to The Red Gables at once was the fact that there happened to be a vacancy suddenly in the Lower School, caused by the serious illness of a little girl who had been obliged to be moved in order to undertake her education at home. Mrs. Fleming had written immediately to the Wyndhams to tell them of this vacancy, and to ask them if they had any young friend they would like to send to her school.
The Wyndhams happened to be some of Mrs. Fleming’s most esteemed and loved friends. By a curious coincidence this letter of Mrs. Fleming’s arrived on the day before Mr. Wyndham got his letter from poor Captain Desmond, begging him to take compassion on his only child. The two things seemed to Wyndham to fit together too closely to be disregarded. He accordingly wrote immediately to Mrs. Fleming, describing most fully the character of the child, and asking her to help him to bring Peggy up. “She is fifteen,” he said, “and she is as wild as a young colt. She has been taught after a fashion at a board school in Ireland, but what her accomplishments are I know not. She would make a very excellent servant, but she has not the most remote ideas of the part assigned to her—the life of a young lady. But will you take her? Dare you put such a little wild colt into the midst of your very orderly school?”