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She did not fly into a rage as some girls would have done, but her face flushed, and her breath came more quickly than usual signs of great excitement on her part, which Miss Polehampton was not slow to observe. "She likes them in their proper station, my dear. This friendship is not improving for you, nor for Miss Colwyn.
"It was not that that made Miss Polehampton angry. It was what she called insubordination. Miss Adair did not like to see me having meals at a side-table though I didn't mind one single bit! and she left her own place and sat by me and then Miss Polehampton was vexed and everything followed naturally. It was not just my being friends with Miss Adair that made her send me away."
When Miss Polehampton made the observation just recorded, she stepped back to a position beside her teacher's chair in the demure attitude of a well-behaved schoolgirl hands crossed over the wrists, feet in position, head and shoulders carefully erect, and eyes gently lowered towards the carpet.
For "her dear Margaret" was the pet pupil, the show pupil of the establishment: her air of perfect breeding gave distinction, Miss Polehampton thought, to the whole school; and her refinement, her exemplary behavior, her industry, and her talent formed the theme of many a lecture to less accomplished and less decorous pupils.
The girls all sat round the room on wooden chairs, and Miss Polehampton occupied a high-backed, cushioned seat at a centre table while she read the portion of Scripture with which the day's work concluded. Near her sat the governesses, English, French and German, with little Janetta bringing up the rear in the draughtiest place and the most uncomfortable chair.
Arrived at the churchyard, a long shallow trench, six feet wide, had been prepared, and in this, side by side, the dead were tenderly placed. Then Mr. Polehampton spoke a few words of prayer and comfort, and the mourners turned away, happily without one of them having been struck by the bullets which sang around, while some of the soldiers speedily filled in the grave.
"It seems to me," said Mr. Colwyn, "that Miss Adair was very inconsiderate." "It was all her love and friendship, father," pleaded Janetta. "And she had always had her own way; and of course she did not think that Miss Polehampton really meant " Her weak little excuses were cut short by a scornful laugh from her stepmother.
And great offence was given in several directions by Miss Adair's attachment to poor little Janetta. "It is an unsuitable friendship," Miss Polehampton, the principal of the school, observed on more than one occasion, "and I am sure I do not know how Lady Caroline will like it." Lady Caroline was, of course, Margaret Adair's mamma.
"But I don't know, Miss Polehampton, what you want me to do," she said, more nervously than usual. "I can't give up Janetta; I can't possibly avoid speaking to her, you know, even if I wanted to " "I desire nothing of the sort, Margaret. Be kind and polite to her, as usual.
Miss Colwyn would have obeyed, it seems, but Margaret took the bit in a quiet way between her teeth. Miss Colwyn was ordered to take her meals at a side table: Margaret insisted on taking her meals there too. The school was thrown into confusion. At last Miss Polehampton decided that the best way out of the difficulty was first to complain to us, and then to send Miss Colwyn home, straight away.
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