It filled her with surprise to hear the girls discuss future doings in their calm, unemotional fashion; but though she could not participate, the subject never failed to interest. The discussion began again now, for it was impossible to keep away from the all-engrossing subject, and the supposition, “If I pass,” led naturally to what would come afterwards.
“If I do well I shall go up to Newnham, and try for the Gilchrist Scholarship—fifty pounds a year for three years. It’s vacant next year, and I don’t see why I shouldn’t have it as well as anyone else,” said Bertha, modestly, and Tom pounded the table with her heels.
“Go in, my beauty, go in and win! I only wish you could wait a few years until I am there to look after you. I am going to be Principal of Newnham one of these fine days, and run it on my own lines. No work, and every comfort—breakfast in bed, and tea in the grounds—nothing to do but wait upon me and pander to my wishes!”
“I daresay! So like you, Tom! You would be a terror, and work the girls to death. You are never tired yourself, so you would keep them going till they dropped. I pity the poor creatures who came under your rule, but most likely you will never be tried. You may be first mistress, or second, or third, but it’s not likely you’ll ever be a Principal!”
“It’s not likely at all, it’s positive sure,” retorted Tom calmly. “Principals, like poets, are born not made, and the cause can’t afford to lose me. I don’t say for a certainty it will be Newnham; it may possibly be Girton, or Somerville, or Lady Margaret Hall, but one of the two or three big places it’s bound to be. No one shall call me conceited, but I know my own powers, and I intend that other people shall know them too. Education is my sphere, and I intend to devote my life to the advancement of my sex. Pass the cake, someone! I haven’t had half enough. Yes, my vocation is among women. You will hardly believe me, my dears, but men don’t seem to appreciate me, somehow! There is a ‘Je-ne-sais-quoi’ in my beauty which doesn’t appeal to them a mite. But girls adore me. I’ve a fatal fascination for them which they can’t withstand. There’s Rhoda there—she intended to hate me when she first came, and now she adores the ground I tread on. Don’t you, Fuzzy? You watch her smile, and see if it’s not true! Very well, then; I see plainly what Providence intends, and I’m going straight towards that goal.”
“And it is what you would like? You would choose it if you had the choice?”
“Rather, just! It’s the dream of my life. There is nothing in all the world that I should like so much.”
Pretty Dorothy sighed, and elevated her eyebrows.
“Well—I wouldn’t. I enjoy school very much, and want to do well while I am here, but when I leave, I never want to do another hour’s study. If I thought I had to teach, I should go crazy. I should like to have a good time at home for a few years, and then—yes, I should!—I should like to marry a nice man who loved me, and live in the country—and have a dear little home of my own. Now, I suppose you despise me for a poor-spirited wretch; but it’s true, and I can’t help it.”
But Tom did not look at all scornful. She beamed at the speaker over her slice of plum-cake, and cried blandly—