Superseded

ncey Sta

about it. All the afternoon and the evening and the night lay before

ealize it all at once. It was an outrage to all the meek reticences and chastities of her spirit.

n of sins, the sin of

life in ignorance of her own nature, having spent the best part of five-and-forty years in acquiring other knowledge. She had nothing to go upon, for she had never been young; or

under any one of them it might have crept about unchallenged in the shadows and blind alleys of thought. As love pure and simple, if it came to that, there was no harm in it. Many an old maid, older than she, has just such a secret folded up and put aw

n had been shaken out of its sleep and forced to look at itself before it had time to put on a shred of immortality. In the sudden glare it stood out monstrous, naked and ash

ne sentence detached itself from the torrent. "H

ered over her, with the tubes of the heart-probing stethoscope in his ears (as a matter of fact they gave him a somewhat grotesque appearance, remotely suggestive of a Hindoo idol; bu

l of delicacy and honour. And yet she had never said a word that might be interpreted-He must have seen it in her face, then,-that day-when she allowed herself to sit with him in the park. She

ld rest, and discovering nothing but the traces of her guilty feet. A subtler woman would have flourished lightly over the territory, till she had whisked away every vestige of her trail; another would have seen the humour of the situatio

g some shelter where she could hide her head. She acquired a habit-odd enough to the casual onlooker-of slink

er. Too late? Not a bit of it; better too late than never, and if it's that Cautley man I'm sure I don't wonder. I'm in love with him myself. Lost your self-respect, have you? Self-respect, indeed, why bless your soul, you are all the

ake that view; besides, Mrs. Moon was not a woman of the world and no ridiculous delicacy prompted her to look the other way. In any cas

te of mind would not yield to skilfully directed banter. In these tactics she was not left unsu

sake don't encourage her in any of that nonsense. Sit on it. Laugh her out of it.

st come in. He says w

, but F

ouisa, the m

hy of the Greek Professor's reputation, but for Mrs. M

ned on in all its broad robust humour-"Fooliana!" Or refined away into a playful or delicate suggestion

uliana's complexion grew redder or grayer, but her state of mind

little in the evenings you would h

mall outstanding debt to Sordello. There was an end of the intellectual life; for the living

al, and Miss Quincey was glad enough to bury her grief under it for a time. Indeed it looked as if in St. Sidwell's she had found the shelter where she could hide her head; and a very desirable shelter too, as long as Mrs. Moon continued in that lively temper. Gradually she began to realize that of all those five hundred pai

in. Therefore she clung more desperately than ever to her post. Seeing that she had served the system for five-and-twenty years, it was hard if she could not get from it a little protection aga

nd; the staff cast friendly glances on her as she sat in her corner; Rhoda was almost passionate in her tenderness. Even Miss Cursiter

soon t

deep in examination papers, had been critically considering seventy variously ingenious rendering

We must keep up to a certain standard of efficiency

ntly absorbed in sh

she has been constantl

afraid she i

olemnly unconscious

love at fifty is new wine in old bottles; e

Mistress's face might have been accounted

elf from some accusation conveyed by the frown, "as it i

m the Classic

it to her prettily, wra

Mistress is sti

giving me y

d a great deal more than

l about that. I ask

you told me I was

d? And what i

get the benefit of two o

as some point in what Rhoda said; for in the back of her

two opinions ab

said Rhoda thoughtfully to her

Miss Quincey is a terri

-how long am I to let

as if we could see the end, and we're nowhere near it, we're in all the muddle of the mi

ly getting r

d too many careers open to her to care much about consequences. Miss Cur

rovide for, if it comes to that? We're always talking about specialisation, and the fa

ate papers for each girl if yo

d the more Miss Cur

re if we're to do any good. We've specialised enough with our teachers and our subjects; chipped and chopped till we can't div

y brings us back

to Miss Quincey. Miss Quinc

younger women

hough Miss Cursit

es up the finest and most perishable parts of a woman's nature

ling to take it up, and leave c

a, "it's the rush

very other. The best policy is the policy of the open door

ors as wide as ever they'll go, w

ked keenly at her. "Do you mean that

was

better. I am growing old too, Rhoda. But you are youth itself. It is w

gaze, a gaze that was a menace and an appeal,

go any

is means? You are not a

in command going

demned her. If Rhoda had been dashing her head against the barrack walls her deliverance was at hand.

said she. "I hate i

away with every woman's college in the kin

othing to put

siter, "you are old

s. If everybody was right in rejecting Miss Quincey, there was raptur

ht," said she. "You are under an

, "I'm not far wrong. I honestly think that if we persist in turning out these intellectual

as she realized what a mouthpiece she had be

re an intellectual m

twenty years' time they'

old and worn. She had invoked Rhoda's youth and it had risen

dgment in Miss Quincey's case; now she was anxious to g

t Miss Quince

her subject. She understood that Rhoda had said in effect, "If Miss Quincey goes, I g

ismissal when presented to her in this neat way. Not even when Miss Cursiter said to her, at the close of the interview they

side so long. Somehow, for this occasion, the most incompetent, most insignificant member of her staff

moments, found actual difficulty in g

u to take a little longer holiday. I do feel in your case the imperative necessity for rest. Indeed if yo

ead had the unmistakable air of asking a favour from her subordinate, of

o gain some little foothold for her poor pride. She faced Miss Cursiter bravely with her innocent dim eyes as she answered: "I am

-or if-if any other arrangement is agreed upon, a term's

d its way deeper than she knew, and the operation was a painful one. A few compliments on the part of the Head

ved by pupils and teachers with cries of incredulity. After all, Miss Quincey belonged to St. Sidwell's; she was part and parcel of the place; her blood and bones h

ls had tears in their eyes; one, more emotional than the rest, sobbed audibly without shame. The staff were unanimous in their sympathy and regret. Rhoda withdrew

," said Miss Quincey, "we must s

you're going. I might have known it. I did

Quincey was mystifi

little pariah face-"because"-the Mad Hatter had lea

ke down. "My dear little

o old t

at the last moment; "let me

ey's brilliant and efficient successor, who made her work hard, with the result that the Mad Hatter got ill of a brain fever just before the Christmas

ence. No, not quite that, for the blouse, the abominable blouse, had been paid for out of her savings and it had cost a guinea. Twenty-six pounds three shillings and eight pence was all that she had saved in five-and-twenty years. This, with the term's salary which Miss Cursiter had insisted on, was enough

said simply, "I re

azed, not with the news

peated her

going back to that place

ver goin

cumstances. None came; neither anger, nor indignation, nor contempt, not even surprise. In f

e memory of Tollington Moon. Henceforth his niece Miss Quincey would be a gentlewoman at l

I were you I should put on that