Christmas dinner was over, Christmas crackers had been pulled, mottoes read, and, the boys having been coerced into taking a walk with two of the dogs, Jenny was saying that she thought the babies ought to have their afternoon sleep, when the telephone rang.
‘It’s for you, mum,’ said Mrs Ditch. ‘Long distance.’
Mrs Bradley went into the hall.
‘Speaking from Cartaret College, madam,’ said George. ‘We thought you might like to know we’ve been having a busy morning, putting out the fire in the basement’
‘Oh, so she got in, George?’
‘Well, the Chief Engineer reckons she’s been there all the time, madam, waiting her opportunity.’
‘What damage?’
‘Very little, madam. Please don’t trouble to come along. Barring a bit of a mess in the bakehouse which took on from the petrol drips in the basement, there’s nothing can’t be set to rights, we think, before the young ladies come back. There’s nothing really amiss.’
‘Athelstan Hall?’
‘Not touched. Not so much as a scorch-mark, madam, anywhere except in the boxroom and a bit in the passage.’
‘Oh, good. You didn’t catch her, I suppose?’
‘I think when she had dispersed the petrol about the place, she made her getaway, madam. There wasn’t the slightest trace. We didn’t see anybody, although we searched very careful.’
‘Are either of you burnt at all?’
‘No, madam.’
‘Is that the truth, George?’
‘Yes, madam, not a blister. Only I thought you’d be interested to know, or I wouldn’t have rung you.’
‘I see. “Well, thank you very much, George.’
‘A merry Christmas, madam.’
Chapter 14
FIELD-WORK
« ^ »
‘I don’t care what you say,’ said Alice, ‘although I think it’s coarse to talk like that, but I shall get married myself, later on.’
‘Why not?’ inquired Laura, flinging clothing out of a suitcase in the manner of a terrier flinging up earth from a hole where it thinks it has buried a bone. ‘Where the Hell are my bedroom slippers? Oh, Kitty, you lout, you’ve got them on!’
‘Well, teachers generally don’t,’ resumed Alice. ‘But I come from the lower classes where marriage is the rule, not the exception, and I’m not ashamed of it. What I mean…’
‘The glories of our blood and state, are shadows, not substantial things,’ remonstrated Laura, assuming the slippers lately snatched from Kitty. ‘I do not recognize class-consciousness, young Alice, so pipe down. Don’t be a snob.’
‘Anyway, I hope the Deb. stays until the end of our first year,’ said the denuded one, sitting on Laura’s bed with her feet up. ‘I don’t suppose I shall be able to go down to tea, Dog,’ she continued, surveying the ends of her stockinged feet. ‘I can’t find a thing of my own except the shoes I came in, and they’re all mud, from that foul path out of the station.’
‘Have mine. They were new for Christmas,’ said Alice, putting both hands into her hat-box. ‘Here you are.’
‘And don’t scuffle about in ’em,’ added Laura. ‘Incidentally, I suppose bedroom slippers at first tea are
‘Mrs Croc. won’t be there, and anyway, it’s a free country,’ said Kitty, trying on Alice’s slippers and holding out one foot the better to admire it. ‘These from the boy friend, young Alice?’
‘I haven’t a boy friend,’ said Alice, blushing. ‘I was only stating my views in a general way about marriage. You needn’t laugh.’
‘You know, there’s something a bit Little Lord Fauntleroy about our Alice,’ said Laura. ‘I used to notice it last term. A kind of
‘Little Lord Fauntleroy?’ said Alice.
‘Yes. You know… she means where they stick a placard on his back to say he bites,’ said Kitty earnestly. Her friends gazed at her with fascinated admiration.
‘What she owes to her spiritual pastors and masters will never be known,’ said Laura. ‘She goes from strength to strength. When we were at school she thought Dickens wrote
‘Well, I don’t see why he shouldn’t have,’ said Kitty sturdily. ‘Where’s my calendar? I want to mark off the days. I think I’ll mark today off straight away. It’s practically over. When’s half-term, Dog?’
The date was January 23rd. The Lent term had its own interests, did not include School Practice, and part of it would be devoted (as soon as the weather improved) to the various rambles and excursions which formed part of the First Year Course.
