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Miss Nunn's suggestion, hitherto but timidly discussed, had taken hold upon their minds as soon as Alice received the practical call to her native region. Both were enthusiastic for the undertaking. It afforded them a novel subject of conversation, and inspirited them by seeming to restore their self-respect. After all, they might have a mission, a task in the world.
In one of the offices, typewriting and occasionally other kinds of work that demanded intelligence were carried on by three or four young women regularly employed. To superintend this department was Miss Nunn's chief duty, together with business correspondence under the principal's direction. In the second room Miss Barfoot instructed her pupils, never more than three being with her at a time.
She also was astonished. 'Yes, indeed I was, Miss Barfoot! exclaimed the younger lady, with a merry little laugh. 'I hesitated before speaking of such a frivolous entertainment. Lowering her voice, and casting a smile in Rhoda's direction, Miss Barfoot replied, 'I have to make a concession occasionally on Miss Nunn's account. It would be unkind never to allow her a little recreation.
It began from a mistake. Monica could not shape her phrases. Hastening to utter the statement that would relieve her from Miss Nunn's personal displeasure, she used the first simple words that rose to her lips. 'When I went to Bayswater that day I had no thought of seeing Mr. Barfoot. I wished to see someone else. The listener manifested more attention.
Something like dissatisfaction passed over Miss Nunn's face, though she did not allow Monica to see it. Her lips moved in a way that perhaps signified disdain for such timidity. Tolerance was not one of the virtues expressed in her physiognomy. 'Let us go back to the drawing-room and have some tea. Monica could not become quite at ease. This energetic woman had little attraction for her.
That, of course, is partly the reason of her power over me. I feel that if ever if ever she should disclose herself to me, it would be the strangest revelation. Every woman wears a mask, except to one man; but Rhoda's Miss Nunn's is, I fancy, a far completer disguise than I ever tried to pierce. Monica had a sense of something perilous in this conversation.
He told me he was going to Cumberland with the hope of seeing you; and I understood him to mean he wished to ask you The sudden and great change in Miss Nunn's expression checked the speaker. Scornful austerity had given place to a smile, stern indeed, but exultant.
Nunn's introductions with much propriety and little cordiality, for Anne was far too alert and robust, and uncompromising of eye, to suit their modish taste. Nevertheless they asked her politely what she thought of Nevis, and seemed satisfied with her purposely conventional replies.
She saw the characteristics which made Virginia enthusiastic, but feared rather than admired them. To put herself in Miss Nunn's hands might possibly result in a worse form of bondage than she suffered at the shop; she would never be able to please such a person, and failure, she imagined, would result in more or less contemptuous dismissal.
A week passed. Alice had written from Yatton, and in a cheerful tone. Virginia, chronically excited, had made calls at Rutland Street and at Queen's Road; she talked like one who had suddenly received a great illumination, and her zeal in the cause of independent womanhood rivalled Miss Nunn's.
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