by Clara Benson
‘Indeed she would,’ said Miss Bell, ‘and I shall go so far as to say that I think Violet herself would have benefited enormously from having a companion such as Barbara with whom to work towards the examination.’
‘Then it is a shame that both of them will be leaving the school shortly,’ said Angela.
‘Yes, it is, isn’t it?’ said Miss Bell.
There followed a pause loaded with meaning. The two ladies’ eyes met.
THREE
Barbara was standing outside Miss Bell’s study, under the watchful eye of the headmistress’s secretary, when Angela emerged. Angela regarded the girl. She had the scraggy, lanky aspect of a child who had grown a lot in the past year, and her hair looked as though she had not combed it in a week. She gave Angela a wary but slightly defiant glance.
‘Well?’ she said.
‘I should like a word with you, Barbara,’ said Angela. ‘Let us go into the grounds.’
This was hardly a surprise, so Barbara set her jaw, followed Angela into the corridor, and prepared for a roasting. She thanked her stars that the Ellises were abroad, since the thought of an hour or two on the carpet at home, staring mutinously at the floor while Gerald strode up and down and tore at his hair and Nina gave full vent to her sharp tongue, did not appeal. The mild-mannered Angela was a much better prospect, thought Barbara, and felt somewhat cheered.
They headed out through the Quad and away from the building, and stopped by the tennis courts, which were quite deserted for once. Angela regarded Barbara coolly for a good long minute, until the girl felt quite awkward under her gaze and began to wonder whether she had drawn the easy lot after all.
‘Must you be so silent?’ she said nervously at last. ‘Can’t you just get it over with?’
‘I should like to hear what you have to say for yourself first,’ said Angela.
Barbara looked sulky.
‘What’s the use?’ she said. ‘I suppose you’ve heard it all from Big Ben, and I can’t deny any of it, so why must we go over it again? She’s given me the chuck now, anyhow, and I don’t suppose there’s any chance of her changing her mind, so why don’t we just can it and shove off?’
‘Is that the sort of language they teach you here?’ said Angela. ‘If so, perhaps it’s a good thing you’re leaving.’
‘No,’ admitted Barbara. ‘They’re rather hot on our not using slang. I’d get a fine and a black mark for it.’
‘Then you’ll think before you speak and not add to your list of misdeeds if you know what’s good for you,’ said Angela. ‘I have just spent a most uncomfortable hour in the company of your headmistress, hearing all sorts of tales about what you have been getting up to, and I am not in the best of moods at present. Now, kindly explain yourself. What do you think Nina and Gerald are going to say when they find out you have been expelled in disgrace? Is this any way to repay their kind treatment of you?’
Her tone was icy and Barbara reddened.
‘I’m sorry, Angela. It was only supposed to be a bit of fun. I try to be good, truly I do, but then the devil gets into me and I can’t help getting into scrapes.’
‘What do you mean, you can’t help it?’ said Angela. ‘You are fourteen, not four. One would expect that by now you would have at least some semblance of control over your baser impulses. Can’t you even get through one term without playing some silly trick or other?’
‘That’s pretty thick,’ said Barbara indignantly. ‘The book was your idea. You told me yourself you did something similar when you were at school.’
Angela blinked as the conversation in question came back to her, but barely faltered.
‘Firstly, it was not “my idea,” as you put it,’ she said. ‘At no point did I instruct you to do the same thing. As a matter of fact, I believe I expressly mentioned it as an example of my naughtiness as a child and told you not to do it. Secondly, I played the trick on the prefects, not the mistresses, which is a different thing entirely and not nearly so disrespectful. And thirdly,’ she could not help adding, ‘when I did it, I was never stupid enough to get caught.’ She was aware that this fact hardly constituted the moral high ground, and so went on hurriedly, ‘How did Miss Bell get hold of the book?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Barbara. ‘I think someone must have snitched. Probably the Everard female. It would be like her.’
‘Who is the Everard female?’ said Angela.
‘Edith Everard,’ said Barbara. ‘Horrid thing. She hates me but I’m not scared of her. She knows it and that’s probably why she tried to get me into trouble. Awful bully. She gives the smaller girls a terrible time of it and I won’t stand for it.’
‘Is she the girl you shoved?’ said Angela.
‘Yes,’ said Barbara defiantly, ‘and I shouldn’t have stopped there if Miss Devlin hadn’t caught me.’
‘But why?’ said Angela. ‘That’s not like you at all, Barbara.’
‘I hate bullying,’ said Barbara, ‘and I won’t stand for it.’
‘Who was she bullying?’ said Angela.
‘Oh, just one of the scholarship girls,’ said Barbara. ‘It’s hardly their fault if their people don’t have much money, is it? And looking down on them for being poor is a low thing to do. Edith’s uncle is a baronet, or something, although I heard he was disgraced, and she seems to think that gives her the right to lord it over everybody. It’s not as though a baronet is all that impressive anyway. We have all sorts of high-born girls here—why, we’ve even got a foreign princess, but she doesn’t give herself any airs. She’s rather dull, as a matter of fact.’
‘But Barbara,’ said Angela, ‘why didn’t you tell Miss Bell all this at the time?’
‘Because girls don’t squeak on one another,’ said Barbara. ‘It simply isn’t done.’
‘But you just said this Everard girl squeaked on you.’
‘Yes, and that just goes to show what a vile pig she is, don’t you see?’ said Barbara.
‘Barbara!’ exclaimed Angela.
‘Sorry,’ muttered Barbara.
Angela looked at the girl’s hot, mutinous face, and felt a pang of sympathy mixed in with the exasperation, for she had been just the same at Barbara’s age—although without quite so many opportunities for mischief. It was perfectly evident that Barbara had reached a delicate stage in which she would need careful handling; otherwise, she looked likely to run off the rails altogether and become quite incorrigible. Summoning the Ellises back from their trip was wholly out of the question, however—and indeed, Angela harboured no small feelings of guilt at having left so much of Barbara’s care to them over the years. They had been only too willing to provide her with a happy, healthy family life that would otherwise have been lacking, but it was not fair that they should be forced to take all the responsibility upon themselves. Angela saw that the time had come for her to begin taking greater pains with the girl now that she was growing up, and relieve Nina and Gerald of some of the burden. As one of Barbara’s guardians it was only right that she should do so. Having reached this decision (with the additional faint hope that it might assuage some of her uncomfortable feelings on the question), Angela abandoned all thoughts of the trip to Paris—not without reluctance—and resolved that from now on she should keep a closer eye on Barbara’s progress. Perhaps a little kind treatment now would do her good—although there was still the matter of the threatened expulsion from Wakeley Court to be got over, and on that there was still much to be said. Angela drew herself up, hardened her heart and prepared to deliver a lecture.
‘Listen to me,’ she said. ‘I don’t know why on earth you thought you could get away with this sort of behaviour without being punished. It’s all very well saying you can’t help it, but I’m afraid that’s no good. You simply must help it. Think how tremendously selfish you’re being by acting like this.’
‘Selfish?’ said Barbara, taken aback, for truth to tell she rather considered herself to be a sort of female Robin Hood, entertaining and protecting her
fellow pupils at no little cost to herself.
‘Yes, selfish,’ said Angela with emphasis. ‘Just think what would have happened had I not been here to fetch you. Nina and Gerald would have had to come all the way back from India just to get you out of this scrape. It was the only opportunity they had to see Richard and to meet Emma and the new baby, and you might have spoilt it all for them—not least because you know perfectly well they wouldn’t have hesitated. I must say, I’m very disappointed in you, Barbara. The Ellises have treated you like a daughter. You’ve wanted for nothing, and this is how you repay them: by getting yourself expelled from school—and that’s after you’ve already been moved once at your own request. You ought at least to have made a little effort. I don’t know where you learned such ingratitude, but I think you might have the grace to be ashamed of yourself for it.’
Barbara shuffled uncomfortably.
‘I say, Angela,’ she said. ‘There’s no need to make one feel quite such a worm.’
‘Oh, but there is,’ said Angela. ‘You are now of an age in which you ought to be aware of the possible consequences of your actions. By losing your place at this school you have most likely forfeited any chance you had of passing the Cambridge entrance examination, and that is something from which you will suffer for the rest of your life. How do you expect to make anything of yourself without a good education? You might find it funny to throw eggs at people now, but I can assure you it won’t look so funny in a few years when you discover that you’ve wasted all your opportunities because of it—always assuming, of course, that you’re not planning a career as a circus clown.’
‘All right, then, I’m sorry,’ said Barbara grumpily. ‘I’m sorry I’ve been such a burden to everyone. But it doesn’t matter, does it? It’s not as though I really need an education. I mean to say, I can just wait until I’m twenty-one and come into my money, and then I can go off around the world and have adventures, and you’ll all be rid of me.’
‘It’s not a question of being rid of you,’ said Angela. ‘And besides, there’s no certainty that you will get your money then. That all depends on the trustees—and since I am one of them I may as well tell you now that you won’t get a penny of it unless I see some sign of improvement in you very soon indeed.’
‘Oh!’ said Barbara, who had rather relished the idea of travelling the world, dispensing largesse to the deserving. ‘I didn’t know you were a trustee.’
‘Yes,’ said Angela. ‘And I won’t agree to your having the money until I’m certain you can be relied upon not to do something stupid with it. I should hate you to be an idiot and end up falling prey to a fortune-hunter, as—’ Here she broke off, for she had almost said, ‘as I did.’ She coughed, and went on, ‘—as soon as you get your hands on it.’
‘But I shouldn’t,’ said Barbara. ‘I’m far too sensible for that.’
‘Not on current showing,’ said Angela.
They stood in silence then, since Barbara looked as though she were thinking and Angela judged it better to let her reflect on her sins for a few minutes. They gazed in the direction of the lake, from where the sound of laughter floated towards them. Two girls appeared to have taken a third girl’s shoe, and were tossing it about between them while the other chased them and tried to get it back. Eventually they all fell down in a flurry of arms and legs and the laughter became louder.
‘I shall be sorry to leave, I suppose,’ said Barbara at last. ‘It’s not a bad place, really.’
Angela said nothing.
‘And I was doing rather well in Maths,’ went on Barbara. ‘I was doing lessons with the Fifth, you know, and Big Ben—Miss Bell, I mean—said something about putting me in with them for some other subjects too if I carried on as I had been doing.’
She looked a little wistful.
‘Miss Bell praised your Mathematics abilities very highly,’ said Angela, who felt that some encouragement was needed.
‘I’m not the best in the year,’ said Barbara. ‘Violet Smedley is cleverer than I am, but she doesn’t get everything right. I’m better at algebra. We compete against each other. Or we did, anyway,’ she finished sadly. ‘She’s leaving too.’
‘Is she a friend of yours?’ said Angela.
‘She’s all right,’ said Barbara. ‘Quiet. A little dull, I should think.’
There was a long pause, then:
‘I’m sorry, Angela,’ Barbara said quietly. ‘I’ve let you all down, haven’t I?’
‘Yes,’ said Angela. ‘You have, rather.’
‘I wish there were something I could do to put it right. I knew I’d get into trouble if anybody caught me with that book, but the other girls egged me on, and—’
She stopped as she saw Angela’s expression.
‘I suppose I oughtn’t to put the blame on others for what I did,’ she said.
‘No,’ agreed Angela. ‘Nobody forced you, I imagine.’
‘No, of course they didn’t. It was all my idea. I dare say I’m just naturally bad.’
‘You’re not bad at all,’ said Angela. ‘But you are very thoughtless at times.’
‘Yes, I am,’ said Barbara. ‘I shall try harder in future, Angela, I promise. But what am I to do now? I’ve been given the chuck. Where am I to go? Nina and Gerald are away, and I know you’re always too busy to look after me. Do you suppose they’ll let me stay here until another school can be found?’
‘As a matter of fact, you’ve been given a reprieve,’ said Angela, suppressing a pang at the ‘too busy’ remark.
Barbara glanced up in surprise.
‘What?’ she said, staring. ‘Do you mean to say Miss Bell has changed her mind? Then I’m not to be expelled after all?’
‘It appears not,’ said Angela. She went on quickly as she saw the dawning delight on Barbara’s face, ‘There are, of course, conditions attached.’
‘Yes, yes,’ said Barbara eagerly. ‘They’ll want me to be good, I know that. I shall be a perfect angel, I promise. I’ll learn all my lessons on time, and I’ll stop cheeking the mistresses, especially Miss Devlin—although it’s so hard to resist, sometimes—and I’ll stop all the silly betting, and—and—’
‘And you’ll apologize to Edith Everard,’ said Angela.
‘What?’ cried Barbara in dismay. ‘But—’
‘But nothing,’ said Angela. ‘Miss Bell was quite firm on the subject, and so am I. You will make a formal apology to Edith Everard for shoving her in the corridor.’
‘But it’s so unfair,’ said Barbara. ‘She’s the one who caused the trouble.’
‘Nonetheless, if you wish to continue at the school, then that is what you will do,’ said Angela. ‘You will tell her you are sorry and give every appearance of meaning it, whether you do or not. You may continue to think of her as you choose, naturally.’
Barbara saw that she had no option.
‘Very well,’ she said. ‘I’ll do it.’
‘Good,’ said Angela. ‘Now, then, we had better go and speak to Miss Bell. I imagine she is preparing a number of other punishments for you in the matter of lines, detentions, and so forth, but I dare say you’ve had plenty of experience of those.’
‘Oh yes, I get them all the time. I don’t know why they bother, to be honest, since it doesn’t do a thing to stop me,’ said Barbara with disarming frankness.
‘So I see,’ said Angela.
They set off briskly back towards the Quad. Barbara was very nearly as tall as Angela now, and had no difficulty in keeping up.
‘I say,’ she said suddenly, as a thought struck her. ‘Did you persuade her to keep me on, Angela? What did you say to her?’
‘I—er—merely pointed out all your many good qualities, and promised her that you would behave impeccably in future, and so she agreed to give you another chance,’ said Angela. ‘Not that you deserve it,’ she added.
She had gained no little respect for Miss Bell during their interview. The headmistress had proved herself to be unexpectedly sharp and less
wedded to convention than might have been supposed from her appearance, given that she had shown no compunction in soliciting what amounted to a bribe in return for keeping Barbara. Their talk had ended with a shake of hands, warm thanks from Miss Bell, and an invitation to visit the school properly as an honoured guest in a week or two. Of course, there would be formalities to complete with regard to the endowment of the scholarship, but the headmistress had waved all that away as a matter of no moment for the present. It was so encouraging, she said with a perfectly straight face, to find that there were still so many benefactors—and benefactresses—who were prepared to support the education of girls with such generosity. It was doubly important that this should be so now that the universities were starting to admit women. Meanwhile, Angela nodded and smiled and thought to herself that this Violet Smedley had better be all she was cracked up to be, since she had just cost Angela rather a lot of money.
As they entered the building, they encountered a bland young man in mortar-board and gown who was carrying a sheaf of papers.
‘Hallo, sir,’ said Barbara cheerfully.
‘Ah—hallo—er—Barbara,’ said the man, glancing up. ‘I hope you have learned your task for today’s lesson.’
‘I think so,’ said Barbara. ‘Sic fatur lacrimans, wasn’t it? By the way, this is Mrs. Marchmont. You’ve probably heard of her. Angela, this is our new Latin master, Mr. Hesketh.’
‘It is a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Marchmont,’ said Mr. Hesketh, and shook Angela’s hand. Angela thought she saw a look of curiosity pass across his face, but it swiftly disappeared and was replaced by an expression of nothing more than polite interest. ‘Have you come to look around the school?’
‘No,’ said the irrepressible Barbara. ‘She came to save me from being expelled. She’s a darling.’
‘Ah,’ said Mr. Hesketh. ‘Jolly good.’ There was little else that could be said on the subject without awkwardness, and so he smiled politely and passed on.