420
I squealed, and I heard a match strike, and a lot of people squealed, and the gas in the hall shot up—and what do you think? That hall was full of people! Fourteen we counted up afterward, girls and teachers, close up against the wall on both sides, and staring at us in the middle, with Miss Nor- ton grabbing us and old Weeksey lighting the gas. And down on her knees by Mad- emoiselle’s door, in a funny brown wrapper and her hair in two skimpy little braids, was the Creepy-Cat, listening at the key-hole!
They all looked at each other so queerly that I knew they didn’t know one another were there, and they all kept still as mice, and counted how many of them there were, and tried to think of something to say.
And suddenly a door opened and Miss Naldreth herself appeared before us! She looked taller than ever, in a long black wrapper like a tea-gown, and her hair was just the same as it always is. Some of the girls do say she sleeps in it, and I believe it now.
“What is the meaning of this, Miss Nor- ton, Miss Weeks, young ladies?” she said, and her voice sounded terrible, it was so still in the hall. ‘“‘ Miss Kripsen, what am I to understand from your attitude? Be- nigna, what is that in your hand?”
“A note, Miss Naldreth,” says Ben. “Give it to me,” commanded Miss Nal- dreth. She opened itand reidit. Thatis something she never did in the history of Elmbank. “What is the meaning of this extraordinary folderol?” she said. “Are you all mad?”
And then Connie, like a little fool, began to cry. She was so frightened she didn’t know what she was doing, and she just whimpered out: ‘‘Oh, Miss Naldreth, you ought not to separate them and wreck their lives!”
“Separate whom, Constantia?” said Miss Naldreth, in that calm, awful way, “ Control yourself, ¥
Just then the door opened, and Mad- emoiselle stuck out her head.
“Qu’est-ce que c’est? Qu’est-ce que c’est? Mon Dieu!” she called out, but Connie went on answering Miss Naldreth.
‘““We were trying to warn Mademoiselle about her lover,” she said, “and help them to )
Then Mademoiselle gave a dreadful scream and fainted away. That is, she
A Scandal in High Life
turned as white as snow and fell against the wall a moment, and Miss Naldreth said, “Girls, go to your rooms instantly!”
But for once in our lives we didn’t mind Miss Naldreth. We stayed.
In just a minute Mademoiselle stood up and pointed her finger at Connie and made a long speech. It was so fast we couldn’t - have understood it if we’d studied French forten years, but Miss Norton did, and all of a sudden she began to look queer and tried to answer Mademoiselle, and ask her some- thing, too. And Mademoiselle snapped out some answer to her and went on giving it to Connie. And Miss Naldreth took her hand down from her neck and wiped her forehead off with her handkerchief, as if it was summer. ‘Then she said something in French to Mademoiselle and Mademoiselle shook her head and stamped her foot and jumped into her room and locked the door, talking to herself.
Miss Naldreth leaned up against the door, and she looked whiter than Mad- emoiselle, and awfully queer.
““T will see you in the morning, all of you. Oblige me by separating quietly,” she said (her exact words) and we sort of melted away.
Well, what do you think? It was not Mademoiselle’s lover at all; it was her son, and she was Madame, really! Before she came to this country somebody told her that she could not get a position to teach here unless she was Mademoiselle, for they never had anybody else in _ boarding- schools, and she believed them, and of course nobody knew.
Miss Naldreth made a speech to the school in the morning and explained it, and oh, how icy she was, and how silly the teachers looked!
Of course, it was foolish of Mademoiselle, but then she didn’t speak much English, and she didn’t know any better. Still, it was deceitful. But it was all based on a misapprehension, and therefore we should not sit in judgment on a stranger. (Miss Naldreth’s words.)
Her son got lonesome without inde and he was just finishing school, so he begged some money from his friends and ran away and crossed the ocean and came to Elmbank. He wrote to her from New York, and she was so happy she had to let him come, and
he thought it would be fun to steal in at