The New Mistress Part 23

"Is--ah, this your first cla.s.s. Miss--ah--ah--"

"Thorne," said Hazel quietly. "No, sir, this is the second."

"Thorne, ah--exactly. Yes, I see--ah. Yes, needlework--ah. Stand."

The girls in the first cla.s.s stood up smartly, and Feelier Potts's thimble flew off, went tinkling across the floor, and was flattened beneath one of Ann Straggalls's big feet.

"Oh, you see if I don't serve you out for that," began Feelier loudly, her face scarlet with rage.

"Hus.h.!.+ silence! How dare you, child?"

"Well, but she's squeedged it flat."

"Silence, girl!" exclaimed the inspector indignantly. "Back to your place."

Hazel turned crimson as she hurriedly took Feelier Potts by the arm, and in her excitement and dread of a scene, knowing as she did the fearless nature of the girl, she said softly--

"Be a good girl, Ophelia, and I will give you a new thimble."

There was quite a sensation during this little episode. Miss Lambent whispering to her sister, who nodded and shook her head, Mrs Canninge looking with raised eyebrows at the first cla.s.s through her gold-rimmed gla.s.ses, and little Miss Burge furiously shaking her fat forefinger at "that naughty child." There was a hearty laugh on its way to George Canninge's lips, but, seeing the pain the chatter was causing Hazel, he checked his mirth and remained serious.

Mr Barracombe seemed to be in doubt as to whether he ought not to expel Feelier Potts there and then, and as she resumed her place he frowned at her severely, the culprit looking up at him with a most mild and innocent aspect, till he turned his gaze upon another pupil, when Feelier began nodding at Ann Straggalls and uttering whispered menaces of what she would do as soon as they were out of school.

Then all eyes were turned to the inspector, who unfolded some printed blue papers, and after coughing to clear his voice, searched in his waistcoat pocket, and brought out a gold pencil-case, which required a good deal of s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g about before it would condescend to mark. Having pinched his nose between his gla.s.ses, he commenced examining the needlework, of which he was evidently a good judge, and doubtless knew the difference between hemming, st.i.tching, tacking, herring-boning, and the other mysterious processes by which cloth, calico, and other woven fabrics are held together.

Then there was an entry made upon the blue paper, and the inspector looked severely through his gla.s.ses at Ann Straggalls.

"Can you tell me, my good girl, how many yards of long-cloth would be required for a full-sized s.h.i.+rt?"

Ann Straggalls allowed her jaw to drop and stood staring hard at the querist for a few moments, and then, like that certain man in the scriptural battle, she drew a bow at a venture, but she failed to hit the useful under garment in question, for she eagerly replied "twelve."

"Next girl," said the inspector.

"Eight."

"Next girl."

"Sixteen."

"Next."

"Twenty."

"Next. How many yards of long-cloth would be required for a full-sized s.h.i.+rt?"

The next was Feelier Potts, whose eyes were twinkling as she answered--

"Mother always makes father's of calico."

"Very good, my girl; then tell me how many yards it would take."

"Night s.h.i.+rt or day s.h.i.+rt?" cried Feelier sharply.

"Day s.h.i.+rt," replied the inspector severely; and George Canninge became red in the face as the disposition to laugh grew stronger.

"Wouldn't take half so much to make one for my brother Tom as it would for--"

"Silence!" exclaimed the inspector, and Feelier Potts pretended to look very much alarmed, drawing her eyes together towards her nose and nearly making Ann Straggalls t.i.tter as the inspector stooped for a fresh entry.

Hazel's attention was here taken up by another cla.s.s, for, being left unattended, the girls began to grow restive.

"Now," said the inspector, "I will ask you another question, my good girls. Can any one tell me what proportion the gusset bears to the whole s.h.i.+rt? The girl who knows put out her hand."

Miss Rebecca had been hoping that Mr Slingsby Barracombe would enter upon some other branch of education; but he clung to the needlework, and smiled approvingly as half-a-dozen, and then two more hands were thrust out.

"Well," he said, "suppose you tell me."

"Three yards," said the first girl.

"You do not apprehend my question, my good child," said the inspector blandly. "I asked what proportion the gusset bore to the whole of the s.h.i.+rt."

"Please, sir, I know, sir," said Feelier Potts, who was standing with her hand pointing straight at the visitor.

"Then tell us," said the inspector, smiling.

"Four yards!" cried Feelier triumphantly.

"I said what proportion, my good girl; do you not know what I mean by proportion?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, what!"

"Rule o' three sums, same as boys learn."

"Tut-tut-tut! this is very sad," said the inspector, shaking his head, a motion that seemed to be infectious, for it was taken up by Miss Rebecca, communicated to Miss Beatrice, and then caught up by little Miss Burge, whose head-shaking was, however, meant to be in sympathy with Hazel.

"I wish he'd let me ask the girls some queshtuns, Betsey," whispered Mr William Forth Burge, as he saw the inspector's pencil going; "I could make them answer better than that."

But the visitor had no intention of choosing a deputy, and he went on asking several more questions of a similar cla.s.s, relating to cutting out and making up, not one of which produced a satisfactory answer; and the vicar looked very grave as he saw entries that he knew to be unfavourable made with the gold pencil-case.

Then the girls had to read, and got on better; but as soon as the inspector began to ask scriptural questions the cla.s.s appeared to have run wild, and the answers were of the most astonis.h.i.+ng nature. Simple matters of knowledge that they knew perfectly the day before, seemed to have pa.s.sed entirely out of the girls' minds, and they guessed and answered at random. Sometimes a correct reply was given, but whenever it came to the turn of Feelier Potts, if she did happen to know, she managed to pervert the answer.

She told the inspector in the most unblus.h.i.+ng manner that during the plagues of Egypt the children of Israel suffered from fleas, and had rice in all their four quarters. Corrected upon this, she a.s.serted that these same people crossed the Red Sea on a dry day. The cla.s.s was asked why Moses struck the rock, and Feelier whispered an answer to Ann Straggalls, who eagerly replied--"Because it was naughty." Due to the same mischief-loving brain, another girl a.s.serted that the ark of the covenant contained Shem, Ham, and j.a.phet; that it was a pillar of salt that went before the wanderers in the desert; and that it was the manna that was swallowed up during the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.

Taken altogether, the children did not s.h.i.+ne in Scripture history.

Slates were pa.s.sed round with a good deal of clatter, and then a question was propounded.