decided that he was of very uncertain age, good-looking in a way, with a face so red that he lived up to the traditional cartoons of majors the world over. His thick grey hair set him at about fifty. He had a grey moustache, too—and yet somehow his features were curiously young. Altogether he was not easy to assess.
“I’ll just fit into whatever regulations there are, Miss Black,” Frances said anxiously. “I know that it is an intrusion to burst in early in the summer term like this and expect to be enrolled but— Well, I just can’t be left alone! It was my idea really that I be sent here. I’ll not be any trouble, really!”
“The military authorities are so ruthless,” the major sighed. “I have only about twelve hours in which to turn round.”
“Quite,” Maria nodded. “I appreciate your position—and in these wartime days it behooves us to help each other as much as we can. I am willing for that reason to waive our usually strict rules. You would wish to domicile here right away, Frances?”
The girl nodded eagerly.
“Hmm.…” Maria took a syllabus from the desk drawer. “You may wish to study these terms and conditions, major, while I make inquiries as to vacancies—”
He nodded and took the folded card from her. Turning to the house telephone Maria said briefly: “Ask Miss Tanby to step along to my study, will you please?” Replacing the receiver, she glanced at the girl.
“Where have you been receiving your education up to now, Frances?”
“Elmington High School. You may not know it, though, ma’am; it is only a little place, Elmington. A Surrey village.”
“No, I don’t know of it,” Maria admitted. “I—”
“If you will excuse me, Miss Black,” Major Hasleigh interrupted, putting down the syllabus, “these terms are quite acceptable. Money is no object. As much as you require in advance, just as long as my little girl is happy and safe, as I know she will be with you.… I am telling you this before your—er—Miss Tanby arrives.”
“Miss Tanby is my Housemistress,” Maria explained, and at that moment there came a knock on the door and the pale but deadly efficient Eunice Tanby came in.
“You wish to speak to me, Miss Black?” she asked, glancing at the visitors.
“I do, Miss Tanby—on a rather urgent matter of placing a new pupil. Meet Major Hasleigh and his daughter Frances.… Miss Tanby, my Housemistress.”
Tanby smiled with colourless lips; then Maria got to her feet.
“I was wondering, Miss Tanby, if there is room in Study F in the New House for this young lady? I assigned two pupils to it only the other day—”
“Yes, Miss Black—Beryl Mather and Joan Dawson.”
“Splendid! That leaves room for one more.… Three to a study is the general rule,” Maria explained, turning. “Well, Major, that settles everything.”
“I’m so glad,” he said earnestly. “As to the terms—”
“I am sure we can attend to that most satisfactorily,” Maria interposed. “Miss Tanby, I will leave Miss Hasleigh in your care. Have her bags taken to Study F, show her the room yourself, and then I feel certain that in your own inimitable way you will make her feel at home.… Thank you for coming so promptly.”
Tanby shrugged, accustomed to abrupt dismissals. She waited while the girl took leave of her father—yet endearing though it was, Maria noted they did not kiss each other.… Then Tanby took the girl’s arm and led her from the room.
Maria sat down again, her cold eyes on the major’s face.
“I am prepared,” he said, “to pay a year’s fee in advance. It may be at least a year before I am back in England—”
“That’s very generous of you,” Maria said, “but it also raises a point which I must clarify, Major. Your daughter might be taken seriously ill—she might be injured or even killed in an air raid; or unwittingly get involved in criminal circumstances. If that should happen, to whom am I to turn?”
“Good Lord!” The major gave a start. “Air raids apart, I am sure there is no need to fear. She is a healthy girl and very quiet. As for criminal circumstances— Really, Miss Black!”
“Such things have happened,” Maria stated, unmoved. “It is one of the regulations set down by our Board of Governors. Take a small instance. If your daughter were down with double pneumonia and I had no relative to contact, where would I be?”
“I see,” Hasleigh muttered. “Well, I am not allowed to hand on my own address abroad with my unit for security reasons—but I’ll tell you what you can do!” His eyes gleamed in sudden inspiration. “In case of emergency call on my sister-in-law—Mrs. Clevedon, The Willows, Sundale, Essex. As the wife of a big financier she will have plenty of influence in case of anything—er—criminal,” he finished, drily.
“Much obliged, Major.” Maria made a note of the address. “I have to do it because in wartime—forgive me—you might never return—”
He laughed. “I’m fully aware of that. As to other matters on the financial side, just communicate with this bank and they will attend to it.”
Maria took the cheque he had written out—an account drawn on the Elmington Branch Bank, Surrey. She nodded, then said:
“I shall need your daughter’s ration book and identity card if you please. So many regulations these days, unhappily.”
“Yes, of course.” He pulled out his wallet and handed them both over. Both ration book and identity card had a new label on the front, reading—Frances Hasleigh, c/o Roseway College, Sussex.
“So you anticipated results, Major?” Maria smiled.
“I did, yes. I had Frances transfer her address the moment she thought of coming here. It was a risk—but it came off, I’m glad to say.”
Maria put the cards in her desk drawer; then as she and the major reached the door of her study, she said casually:
“Since you are liable to be away a long time, Major, perhaps you would like to carry in your memory a picture of where your daughter will work, play, and sleep?”
“Well, I—” He hesitated. “I don’t want to take up a lot of your time on account of my sentiment, Miss Black.”
“Not at all; daughters are very precious.… Just come with me.”
Maria swept out into the passageway and thereupon began a majestic parade. There was something magical about the way under-teachers, stray pupils, and occasional members of the domestic staff fell away from about her as she advanced.
In turn she took the major at a rather breathless speed to the classrooms—where a dead silence descended while she explained the finer points—then up to the long, cool Sixth Form dormitory, shaded against the blaze of the summer sun; and up again to the solarium and gymnasium, with its endless equipment for improving the physique and maintaining the health. It was in this big room, with its trapezes and
