She read the letter over with a glow of quiet satisfaction and then
gave it to Miss Parbury for perusal and criticism. Miss Parbury’s
criticism was that she didn’t think it was strong enough.
Taking it altogether, Mrs. Trenchard-Simpson was inclined to think the
letter didn’t lack force.
“I don’t know about that.” Miss Parbury fixed one arctic eye upon the
mobile countenance of General Norris. “Considering that she has just
pretty nearly killed poor Joan.”
“Killed poor Who?” The development of the issue was growing too much
for the feelings of an impressionable soldier.
“Didn’t you hear the uproar in the schoolroom, George?” A shade of
maternal reproach softened Mrs. Trenchard-Simpson’s note of indignation.
George confessed that he had not.
“Why, even Cook heard it in the basement. And when I went into the
schoolroom what do you suppose was happening?”
George had not the faintest idea.
“I found Miss Cass”--it was the voice of a Niobe mourning her
young--“shaking the life--literally shaking the life out of the poor
darling.”
“Well, the poor darling seems a pretty lively corpse, I must say.”
It was, of course, a remark that ought not to have been made. A
military career has a tendency to make the best and the nicest of men
unfeeling. There was that to be said for George Norris. Both ladies,
however, were clearly wounded a little. Their quiet air of triumph
was almost vanquished by such gaucherie. Men are so amazing! Some men
are, at any rate. How was it possible to defend such a creature! Mrs.
Trenchard-Simpson painted a full-length portrait of the wicked Miss
Cass, and as a final touch invited the young man to read the letter she
had just addressed on the subject to the Rector of Laxton.
The invitation was an error of judgment. And it really seemed odd that
one so conspicuously a member of the sex which specializes in finesse
in all its branches should have made such a mistake.
George Norris read the letter to Canon Carnaby with amazement. Nay with
more than amazement. The young man found it hard to conceal his wrath.