United States or Norfolk Island ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Sibyl Ray, who had returned to the lower school, was of course nowhere in sight. Fanny marched bravely down the corridor, along which she had hurried yesterday in nameless fear and trepidation. She knocked at Mrs. Haddo's door. Mrs. Haddo said, "Come in," and she entered. "Oh, it's you, Fanny Crawford! I haven't sent for you." "I know that," replied Fanny.
But she suddenly met a rebuff a kind of rebuff that she did not expect; for Mrs. Haddo's eyes looked back at her with such a world of love, sympathy, and understanding that the girl felt that choking in her throat and that bursting sensation in her heart which she dreaded more than anything else. She instantly lowered her brilliant eyes and stood back, waiting for her sisters to speak.
"Need you ask, Betty Vivian? The head mistress commands your presence." "Then I will go." "Remember, I trust you," said Miss Symes. "You may," answered the girl. She drew herself up and walked quickly and with great dignity through the lounge into the great corridor beyond, and so towards Mrs. Haddo's sitting-room. Here she knocked, and was immediately admitted.
O Baron! if you heard her fine counter-tenor admonishing Kate and Matty in the morning, you, who understand music, would tremble at the idea of hearing her shriek in the psalmody of Haddo's Hole. 'Lord forgie you, colonel, how ye rin on! But I hope your honours will tak tea before ye gang to the palace, and I maun gang and mask it for you. So saying, Mrs.
Haddo's words were out of tune with the rest of the conversation. Dr Porhoët had spoken of magical things with a sceptical irony that gave a certain humour to the subject, and Susie was resolutely flippant. But Haddo's vehemence put these incredulous people out of countenance. Dr Porhoët got up to go. He shook hands with Susie and with Margaret. Arthur opened the door for him.
Haddo arranged matters quite calmly and to her entire satisfaction. There was no fuss or commotion of any kind; and when Sir John appeared on the following morning, with the six deal boxes and the three girls dressed in their coarse Highland garments, they were all received immediately in Mrs. Haddo's private sitting-room. "I have brought the girls, Mrs. Haddo," said Sir John. "This is Betty.
Betty had a natural love of power. With a slight shudder she walked past the little patches of ground and across what she contemptuously called the miserable common. This common marked the boundaries of Mrs. Haddo's school. There were iron railings at least six feet high guarding it from the adjacent land. The sight of these railings was absolute torture to Betty.
'Sit still for a minute or two, and you shall tell us what you want to when you are a little rested. Dr Porhoët had not seen Arthur since that afternoon in the previous year when, in answer to Haddo's telegram, he had gone to the studio in the Rue Campagne Première. He watched him anxiously while Arthur drank his coffee.
'The man's a funk, he said. 'Do you think if he'd had anything in him at all he would have let me kick him without trying to defend himself? Haddo's cowardice increased the disgust with which Arthur regarded him. He was amused by Susie's trepidation. 'What on earth do you suppose he can do? He can't drop a brickbat on my head.
Well, dear, if you can get it by any chance, you had better put it into Mrs. Haddo's charge until I return. I asked those poor children if they had seen it, and they denied having done so." Fanny felt herself shiver, and had to clasp her hands very tightly together. "I also asked that good shepherd Donald Macfarlane and his wife, and they certainly knew nothing about it.
Word Of The Day