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Had you any reason to suspect measles, or anything of the sort, in your school before you closed it a week ago?" Mr Rounsell, who had seemed to be arming himself against a very different approach, sensibly relaxed his guard. He was punctilious by habit in all official responsibilities. He considered for a moment before answering. "Had I done so, I should have reported my er suspicions.
"It never allows the fellow to forget his chain: he talks to me as if I were a class of forty." Mr Rounsell himself answered the door. He had been gardening, and was in his shirt-sleeves. At sight of his visitor he became exceedingly prim and scholastic, with a touch of defiance. He was short in stature, and, aware of this, often paused in the middle of a sentence to raise himself on his toes.
"Yes, I know: but you see, Agatha " "No, I do not see." She faced him, her eyes swimming. "I might have argued a little have cried a little. But why oh, why, Robert? did you deny me the pride to say in the end, 'Go, and God bless you'?" It was a rule of life with Schoolmaster Rounsell and his daughter to be very stiff against all outside assistance.
Their mistake lay in supposing that in this dear land of ours prejudice can be removed by official decree, or otherwise than by the slow possession of patience, tact, and address. Mr Rounsell, however, was less stiff than usual, since the Vicar had asked him to second a vote of thanks at the end of the meeting.
Doctor Mant sought up the valley to the Schoolmaster, Mr Rounsell, whose quarters formed a part of the school buildings, and ended the block on its southern or seaward side. One roof, indeed, covered him in and out of school: and the Vicar, as one of the Managers, had been heard to lament this convenient provision.
"Doctor Mant?" "Ah, it's yourself, is it?" chimed Dr Mant, whom the Schoolmaster's accent always sent back, and instantly, to a native brogue. "Well, and it's a fine row of sweet peas you have, Mr Rounsell, at the edge of the garden by the stream. I note them every time I drive by: and how in the world you contrive it, year after year, in the same soil "
That's to say, you can't pass a lot of books around and say 'Don't turn the page, or maybe you'll get more than you bargain for. Mr Rounsell had stiffened visibly. "I will not conceal from you, Dr Mant, that the matter on which you now approach me is er the subject on which I er privately anticipated that you had called.
Mr Rounsell stood up and pointed out the positions of Liege and Polpier on the wall-map, and their relative distances from London. A moment later the Vicar frowned again as Mr Boult launched into a violent and as it turned out, a lengthy invective against the German Emperor; with the foulness of whose character and designs he had, it seemed, been intimately acquainted for a number of years.
As they entered, Miss Rounsell, seated at the piano at the far end of the platform, struck the opening chords of "God Save the King." It seemed to take the audience by surprise: but they shuffled to their feet and, after a few bars, sang the anthem very creditably. When they had settled themselves, Farmer Best opened the meeting.
"You take me at some disadvantage, sir," said Mr Rounsell stiffly. "My daughter being from home on a holiday, and few people coming to this door at any time, unless it be to ask a small favour." "Well, and you've hit it: for myself's one of that same," Dr Mant assured him cheerily. "But business first! Jago's child has the measles.
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