could solve! Usually between them they’re able to unravel the more simple dilemmas of those at Tregillis. People as a rule come to me only as a last resort demanding the wisdom of Solomon,’ he said, fixing me with an eye in which there was no merriment in spite of a certain conventional lightness in his words.
I could feel myself flush. ‘I shouldn’t have troubled you if Mrs.
Kinnefer or Paul Newsom would have done!’ I answered angrily.
‘The reason I wanted to see you is because I am quite at sea about my duties here.’
‘So you are quite at sea, and this in spite of the admirable list of qualifications in your letter of application! You surprise me!’
‘I don’t mean that I’m at sea about what or how I’m to teach,’ I burst out angrily. ‘I merely want to know whom I’m to teach.’
‘Whom?’ His eyebrows rose. ‘Let me see, there was an advertisement in the papers. I had Paul Newsom put it in if I recollect correctly. “Tutor (male or female) for—” ’
‘For a young French boy,’ I interrupted. ‘One child, in fact!
And now I find there are to be two children.’
‘Do you find two children past your strength?’ he asked coldly,
‘especially as Melinda speaks excellent English already, with a wide vocabulary—not all of it polite, unfortunately! Or do you.
feel that for two children your salary is not adequate? That, however, can be arranged.’
‘Two children are not beyond my capacities,’ I retorted. ‘I should be very pleased to teach two ordinary children. Melinda, however, is in a totally different category.’
He regarded me in silence for a moment. ‘Yes, Melinda is an unusual child, I have to admit,’ he conceded slowly.
I was taken aback by his yielding the point so readily. I had not expected any justice from this man and now that he agreed with me I felt as if the ground had been taken from under my feet.
However, this did not make me like him any the better and when he said, ‘You feel you cannot—or perhaps I should say,’ he amended, seeing my angry expression, ‘you do not see your way to accepting Melinda as a pupil?’
‘What sort of results am I to get from my teaching of Emile, who is intelligent and docile, if Melinda is to be present, disrupting the lessons?’ I demanded.
He was silent for a long moment, his eyes going to the great beds of peony roses beyond the lawns stretching before the wide windows. ‘Very well, I accept the impossibility of your position. I shall give orders that Melinda is not to be present at Emile’s lessons.’
The interview was over, I realized. There was nothing left for me but to stand up and leave the library. But the unexpectedness of my victory gave me a curious feeling of dissatisfaction. The capacity to see my point had been the last thing I had expected of him. As I hesitated he added with what was, for him, a touch of graciousness, ‘You are too young and inexperienced to deal with such a little monster as Melinda. No one can control that child except myself and as soon as my back is turned she gets up to all sorts of mischief. As for the governesses I’ve engaged for her!
None of them lasted more than a few weeks. However, she seems to be getting on better at school, I’m glad to say. And if only we can survive during the summer holidays, all may yet be well.’
Hi’s tone was cold and contemptuous and while he was speaking there came vividly before my mind the picture of Melinda at lunch on the previous day. She had daydreamed of crewing for him. They would win a race together. She would keep house for him when she was grown up. In her childish way, Melinda loved and hoped to win his approval—which seemed to mean so much to everyone at Tregillis.
Suddenly I wished I had not protested against Melinda’s presence at the lessons. I cast about in my mind for some way of telling him that I had changed my mind and was now prepared to take on Melinda too, but could find no way of doing so
I could feel myself flush. ‘I shouldn’t have troubled you if Mrs.
Kinnefer or Paul Newsom would have done!’ I answered angrily.
‘The reason I wanted to see you is because I am quite at sea about my duties here.’
‘So you are quite at sea, and this in spite of the admirable list of qualifications in your letter of application! You surprise me!’
‘I don’t mean that I’m at sea about what or how I’m to teach,’ I burst out angrily. ‘I merely want to know whom I’m to teach.’
‘Whom?’ His eyebrows rose. ‘Let me see, there was an advertisement in the papers. I had Paul Newsom put it in if I recollect correctly. “Tutor (male or female) for—” ’
‘For a young French boy,’ I interrupted. ‘One child, in fact!
And now I find there are to be two children.’
‘Do you find two children past your strength?’ he asked coldly,
‘especially as Melinda speaks excellent English already, with a wide vocabulary—not all of it polite, unfortunately! Or do you.
feel that for two children your salary is not adequate? That, however, can be arranged.’
‘Two children are not beyond my capacities,’ I retorted. ‘I should be very pleased to teach two ordinary children. Melinda, however, is in a totally different category.’
He regarded me in silence for a moment. ‘Yes, Melinda is an unusual child, I have to admit,’ he conceded slowly.
I was taken aback by his yielding the point so readily. I had not expected any justice from this man and now that he agreed with me I felt as if the ground had been taken from under my feet.
However, this did not make me like him any the better and when he said, ‘You feel you cannot—or perhaps I should say,’ he amended, seeing my angry expression, ‘you do not see your way to accepting Melinda as a pupil?’
‘What sort of results am I to get from my teaching of Emile, who is intelligent and docile, if Melinda is to be present, disrupting the lessons?’ I demanded.
He was silent for a long moment, his eyes going to the great beds of peony roses beyond the lawns stretching before the wide windows. ‘Very well, I accept the impossibility of your position. I shall give orders that Melinda is not to be present at Emile’s lessons.’
The interview was over, I realized. There was nothing left for me but to stand up and leave the library. But the unexpectedness of my victory gave me a curious feeling of dissatisfaction. The capacity to see my point had been the last thing I had expected of him. As I hesitated he added with what was, for him, a touch of graciousness, ‘You are too young and inexperienced to deal with such a little monster as Melinda. No one can control that child except myself and as soon as my back is turned she gets up to all sorts of mischief. As for the governesses I’ve engaged for her!
None of them lasted more than a few weeks. However, she seems to be getting on better at school, I’m glad to say. And if only we can survive during the summer holidays, all may yet be well.’
Hi’s tone was cold and contemptuous and while he was speaking there came vividly before my mind the picture of Melinda at lunch on the previous day. She had daydreamed of crewing for him. They would win a race together. She would keep house for him when she was grown up. In her childish way, Melinda loved and hoped to win his approval—which seemed to mean so much to everyone at Tregillis.
Suddenly I wished I had not protested against Melinda’s presence at the lessons. I cast about in my mind for some way of telling him that I had changed my mind and was now prepared to take on Melinda too, but could find no way of doing so
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