The house inhabited by Miss Ladd and her pupils had been built, in the
early part of the present century, by a wealthy merchant--proud of his
money, and eager to distinguish himself as the owner of the largest
country seat in the neighborhood.
After his death, Miss Ladd had taken Netherwoods (as the place was
called), finding her own house insufficient for the accommodation of the
increasing number of her pupils. A lease was granted to her on moderate
terms. Netherwoods failed to attract persons of distinction in search
of a country residence. The grounds were beautiful; but no landed
property--not even a park--was attached to the house. Excepting the few
acres on which the building stood, the surrounding land belonged to
a retired naval officer of old family, who resented the attempt of a
merchant of low birth to assume the position of a gentleman. No matter
what proposals might be made to the admiral, he refused them all. The
privilege of shooting was not one of the attractions offered to tenants;
the country presented no facilities for hunting; and the only stream in
the neighborhood was not preserved. In consequence of these drawbacks,
the merchant’s representatives had to choose between a proposal to use
Netherwoods as a lunatic asylum, or to accept as tenant the respectable
mistress of a fashionable and prosperous school. They decided in favor
of Miss Ladd.
The contemplated change in Francine’s position was accomplished, in that
vast house, without inconvenience. There were rooms unoccupied, even
when the limit assigned to the number of pupils had been reached. On the
re-opening of the school, Francine was offered her choice between two
rooms on one of the upper stories, and two rooms on the ground floor.
She chose these last.
Her sitting-room and bedroom, situated at the back of the house,
communicated with each other. The sitting-room, ornamented with a pretty
paper of delicate gray, and furnished with curtains of the same color,
had been accordingly named, “The Gray Room.” It had a French window,
which opened on the terrace overlooking the garden and the grounds.
Some fine old engravings from the grand landscapes of Claude (part of a
collection of prints possessed by Miss Ladd’s father) hung on the walls.
The carpet was in harmony with the curtains; and the furniture was
of light-colored wood, which helped the general effect of subdued
brightness that made the charm of the room. “If you are not happy here,”
Miss Ladd said, “I despair of you.” And Francine answered, “Yes, it’s
very pretty, but I wish it was not so small.”
On the twelfth of August the regular routine of the school was resumed.
Alban Morris found two strangers in his class, to fill the vacancies
left by Emily and Cecilia. Mrs. Ellmother was duly established in her
new place. She produced an unfavorable impression in the servants’
hall--not (as the handsome chief housemaid explained) because she
was ugly and old, but because she was “a person who didn’t talk.” The
prejudice against habitual silence, among the lower order of the people,
is almost as inveterate as the prejudice against red hair.
In the evening, on that first day of renewed studies--while the girls
were in the grounds, after tea--Francine had at last completed the
arrangement of her rooms, and had dismissed Mrs. Ellmother (kept hard
at work since the morning) to take a little rest. Standing alone at her
window, the West Indian heiress wondered what she had better do next.
She glanced at the girls on the lawn, and decided that they were
unworthy of serious notice, on the part of a person so specially favored
as herself. She turned sidewise, and looked along the length of the
terrace. At the far end a tall man was slowly pacing to and fro, with
his head down and his hands in his pockets. Francine recognized the rude
drawing-master, who had torn up his view of the village, after she had
saved it from being blown into the pond.
She stepped out on the terrace, and called to him. He stopped, and
looked up.
“Do you want me?” he called back.
“Of course I do!”
She advanced a little to meet him, and offered encouragement under the
form of a hard smile. Although his manners might be unpleasant, he
had claims on the indulgence of a young lady, who was at a loss how to
employ her idle time. In the first place, he was a man. In the second
place, he was not as old as the music-master, or as ugly as the
dancing-master. In the third place, he was an admirer of Emily; and the
opportunity of trying to shake his allegiance by means of a flirtation,
in Emily’s absence, was too good an opportunity to be lost.
“Do you remember how rude you were to me, on the day when you
were sketching in the summer-house?” Francine asked with snappish
playfulness. “I expect you to make yourself agreeable this time--I am
going to pay you a compliment.”
He waited, with exasperating composure, to hear what the proposed
compliment might be. The furrow between his eyebrows looked deeper than
ever. There were signs of secret trouble in that dark face, so grimly
and so resolutely composed. The school, without Emily, presented the
severest trial of endurance that he had encountered, since the day when
he had been deserted and disgraced by his affianced wife.
“You are an artist,” Francine proceeded, “and therefore a person of
taste. I want to have your opinion of my sitting-room. Criticism is
invited; pray come in.”
He seemed to be unwilling to accept the invitation--then altered his
mind, and followed Francine. She had visited Emily; she was perhaps in
a fair way to become Emily’s friend. He remembered that he had already
lost an opportunity of studying her character, and--if he saw the
necessity--of warning Emily not to encourage the advances of Miss de
Sor.
“Very pretty,” he remarked, looking round the room--without appearing to
care for anything in it, except the prints.
Francine was bent on fascinating him. She raised her eyebrows and lifted
her hands, in playful remonstrance. “Do remember it’s _my_ room,” she
said, “and take some little interest in it, for _my_ sake!”
“What do you want me to say?” he asked.
“Come and sit down by me.” She made room for him on the sofa. Her one
favorite aspiration--the longing to excite envy in others--expressed
itself in her next words. “Say something pretty,” she answered; “say you
would like to have such a room as this.”
“I should like to have your prints,” he remarked. “Will that do?”
“It wouldn’t do--from anybody else. Ah, Mr. Morris, I know why you are
not as nice as you might be! You are not happy. The school has lost its
one attraction, in losing our dear Emily. You feel it--I know you feel
it.” She assisted this expression of sympathy to produce the right
effect by a sigh. “What would I not give to inspire such devotion as
yours! I don’t envy Emily; I only wish--” She paused in confusion,
and opened her fan. “Isn’t it pretty?” she said, with an ostentatious
appearance of changing the subject. Alban behaved like a monster; he
began to talk of the weather.
“I think this is the hottest day we have had,” he said; “no wonder you
want your fan. Netherwoods is an airless place at this season of the
year.”
She controlled her temper. “I do indeed feel the heat,” she admitted,
with a resignation which gently reproved him; “it is so heavy and
oppressive here after Brighton. Perhaps my sad life, far away from
home and friends, makes me sensitive to trifles. Do you think so, Mr.
Morris?”
The merciless man said he thought it was the situation of the house.
“Miss Ladd took the place in the spring,” he continued; “and only
discovered the one objection to it some months afterward. We are in the
highest part of the valley here--but, you see, it’s a valley surrounded
by hills; and on three sides the hills are near us. All very well in
winter; but in summer I have heard of girls in this school so out of
health in the relaxing atmosphere that they have been sent home again.”
Francine suddenly showed an interest in what he was saying. If he had
cared to observe her closely, he might have noticed it.
“Do you mean that the girls were really ill?” she asked.
“No. They slept badly--lost appetite--started at trifling noises. In
short, their nerves were out of order.”
“Did they get well again at home, in another air?”
“Not a doubt of it,” he answered, beginning to get weary of the subject.
“May I look at your books?”
Francine’s interest in the influence of different atmospheres on health
was not exhausted yet. “Do you know where the girls lived when they were
at home?” she inquired.
“I know where one of them lived. She was the best pupil I ever had--and
I remember she lived in Yorkshire.” He was so weary of the idle
curiosity--as it appeared to him--which persisted in asking trifling
questions, that he left his seat, and crossed the room. “May I look at
your books?” he repeated.
“Oh, yes!”
The conversation was suspended for a while. The lady thought, “I should
like to box his ears!” The gentleman thought, “She’s only an inquisitive
fool after all!” His examination of her books confirmed him in the
delusion that there was really nothing in Francine’s character which
rendered it necessary to caution Emily against the advances of her new
friend. Turning away from the book-case, he made the first excuse that
occurred to him for putting an end to the interview.
“I must beg you to let me return to my duties, Miss de Sor. I have to
correct the young ladies’ drawings, before they begin again to-morrow.”
Francine’s wounded vanity made a last expiring attempt to steal the
heart of Emily’s lover.
“You remind me that I have a favor to ask,” she said. “I don’t attend
the other classes--but I should so like to join _your_ class! May I?”
She looked up at him with a languishing appearance of entreaty which
sorely tried Alban’s capacity to keep his face in serious order. He
acknowledged the compliment paid to him in studiously commonplace terms,
and got a little nearer to the open window. Francine’s obstinacy was not
conquered yet.
“My education has been sadly neglected,” she continued; “but I have had
some little instruction in drawing. You will not find me so ignorant
as some of the other girls.” She waited a little, anticipating a few
complimentary words. Alban waited also--in silence. “I shall look
forward with pleasure to my lessons under such an artist as yourself,”
she went on, and waited again, and was disappointed again. “Perhaps,”
she resumed, “I may become your favorite pupil--Who knows?”
“Who indeed!”
It was not much to say, when he spoke at last--but it was enough to
encourage Francine. She called him “dear Mr. Morris”; she pleaded
for permission to take her first lesson immediately; she clasped her
hands--“Please say Yes!”
“I can’t say Yes, till you have complied with the rules.”
“Are they _your_ rules?”
Her eyes expressed the readiest submission--in that case. He entirely
failed to see it: he said they were Miss Ladd’s rules--and wished her
good-evening.
She watched him, walking away down the terrace. How was he paid? Did he
receive a yearly salary, or did he get a little extra money for each
new pupil who took drawing lessons? In this last case, Francine saw her
opportunity of being even with him “You brute! Catch me attending your
class!”