“Where is she?” asked the Squire, in a tone of interest.
“She put up at the hotel. I was there jest now, and saw her two trunks. Rather high toned for a school teacher, I think. We don’t need two trunks for our clothes, Mrs. Hadley.”
“Young people are terrible extravagant nowadays,” said Mrs. Hadley, a tall woman, with a thin, hatchet-like face, and a sharp nose. It wasn’t so when I was young.”
“That’s a good while ago, Lucretia,” said the Squire, jokingly.
“You’re older than I am,” said the lady tartly. “It don’t become you to sneer at my age.”
“I didn’t mean anything, Lucretia,” said her husband in an apologetic tone.
“Did you see the woman, Mrs. Slocum?” asked Mrs. Hadley, condescending to let the matter drop.
“I jest saw her looking out of the window,” said Mrs. Slocum. “Looks like a vain, conceited sort.”
“Very likely she is. Mr. Hadley engaged her without knowin’ anythin’ about her.”
“You know, Lucretia, she was highly recommended by Mary Bridgman in the letter I received from her,” the Squire mildly protested.
“Mary Bridgman, indeed!” his wife retorted with scorn. “What does she know of who’s fit to teach school?”
“Well, we must give her a fair show. I’ll call round to the hotel after tea, and see her.”
“It’s her place to call here, I should say,” said the Squire’s wife, influenced by a desire to see and judge the stranger for herself.
“I will tell her to call here tomorrow morning to be examined,” said the Squire.
“What hour do you think you’ll app’int?” asked Mrs. Slocum, with a vague idea of being present on that occasion.
The Squire fathomed her design, and answered diplomatically, “I shall have to find out when it’ll be most convenient for Miss Frost.”
“Her convenience, indeed! ” ejaculated his wife. “I should say that the School Committee’s convenience was more important than hers. Like as not she knows more about dress than she does about what you’ve engaged her to teach.”
“Where is she going to board?” asked Mrs. Slocum, with unabated interest in the important topic of discussion.
“I can’t tell yet.”
“I s’pose she’d like to live in style at the hotel, so she can show off her dresses.”
“It would take all her wages to pay for board there,” said the Squire.
“Mebbe I might take her,” said Mrs. Slocum. “I could give her the back room over the shed.”
“I will mention it to her, Mrs. Slocum,” said the Squire diplomatically, and Mrs. Slocum hurried home.
“You don’t really intend to recommend Mrs. Slocum’s as a boarding place, Benjamin?” interrogated his wife. “I don’t think much of the teacher you’ve hired, but she’d roast to death in that stived up back room. Besides, Mrs. Slocum is the worst cook in town. Her bread is abominable, and I don’t wonder her folks are always ailing.”
“Don’t be uneasy about that, Lucretia,” said the Squire. “If Miss Frost goes to Mrs. Slocum’s to board, it’ll have to be on somebody else’s recommendation.”
The new school teacher was sitting at the window in her room, supper being over, when the landlady came up to inform her that Squire Hadley had called to see her.
“He is the chairman of the School Committee, isn’t he?” asked the stranger.
“Yes, miss.”
“Then will you be kind enough to tell him that I will be down directly?”
Squire Hadley was sitting in a rocking chair in the stiff hotel parlor, when Miss Frost entered, and said composedly, “Mr. Hadley, I believe?”
She exhibited more self possession than might have been expected of one in her position, in the presence of official importance. There was not the slightest trace of nervousness in her manner, though she was aware that the portly person before her was to examine into her qualifications for the post she sought.
“I apprehend,” said Squire Hadley, in a tone of dignity which he always put on when he addressed teachers, “I apprehend that you are Miss Mabel Frost.”
“You are quite right, sir. I apprehend,” she added, with a slight smile, “that you are the chairman of the School Committee.”
“You apprehend correctly, Miss Frost. It affords me great pleasure to welcome you to Granville.”