“Well, let us hope so.But our doubts will very soon be solved, for here,unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question.”
As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room.She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright,quick face, freckled like a plover’s egg,and with the brisk manner of a woman who has had her own way to make in the world.
“You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure,” said she,as my companion rose to greet her,“but I have had a very strange experience,and as I have no parents or relations of any sort from whom I could ask advice,I thought that perhaps you would be kind enough to tell me what I should do. ”
“Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter.I shall be happy to do anything that I can to serve you. ”
I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and his finger-tips together, to listen to her story.
“I have been a governess for five years,” said she,“in the family of Colonel Spence Munro,but two months ago the colonel received an appointment at Halifax,in Nova Scotia, and took his children over to America with him,so that I found myself without a situation.I advertised, and I answered advertisements,but without success.At last the little money which I had saved began to run short,and I was at my wit’s end as to what I should do.
“There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End called Westaway’s,and there I used to call about once a week in order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers and sees whether she has anything which would suit them.
“Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office as usual,but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone.A prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper.
“‘That will do,’ said he;‘I could not ask for anything better. Capital!capital!’ He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at him.
“‘You are looking for a situation, miss?’ he asked.
“‘Yes, sir.’
“‘As governess?’
“‘Yes, sir.’
“‘And what salary do you ask?’
“‘I had £ 4 a month in my last place with Colonel Spence Munro. ’
“‘Oh, tut, tut!sweating—rank sweating!’ he cried, throwing his fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling passion. ‘How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with such attractions and accomplishments?’
“‘My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,’ said I. ‘A little French, a little German, music, and drawing—’
“‘Tut, tut!’ he cried. ‘This is all quite beside the question.The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment of a lady?There it is in a nutshell. If you have not,you are not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have, why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to accept anything under the three figures?Your salary with me, madam,would commence at £ 100 a year.’
“You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me,destitute as I was,such an offer seemed almost too good to be true.The gentleman, however,seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face,opened a pocket-book and took out a note.
“‘It is also my custom,’ said he,smiling in the most pleasant fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid the white creases of his face, ‘to advance to my young ladies half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.’
“It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so thoughtful a man.As I was already in debt to my tradesmen,the advance was a great convenience,and yet there was something unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know a little more before I quite committed myself.
“‘May I ask where you live, sir?’ said I.
“‘Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches,five miles on the far side of Winchester.It is the most lovely country, my dear young lady,and the dearest old country-house.’
“‘And my duties, sir?I should be glad to know what they would be.’
“‘One child—one dear little romper just six years old.Oh, if you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper!Smack!smack!smack!Three gone before you could wink!’ He leaned back in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again.
“I was a little startled at the nature of the child’s amusement,but the father’s laughter made me think that perhaps he was joking.
“‘My sole duties, then,’ I asked,‘are to take charge of a single child?’
“‘No, no, not the sole, not the sole,my dear young lady,’ he cried. ‘Your duty would be,as I am sure your good sense would suggest,to obey any little commands my wife might give,provided always that they were such commands as a lady might with propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?’
“‘I should be happy to make myself useful.’
“‘Quite so. In dress now, for example.We are faddy people, you know—faddy but kind-hearted.If you were asked to wear any dress which we might give you,you would not object to our little whim. Heh?’
“‘No,’ said I, considerably astonished at his words.
“‘Or to sit here, or sit there,that would not be offensive to you?’
“‘Oh, no.’
“‘Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?’
“I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr.Holmes, my hair is somewhat luxuriant,and of a rather peculiar tint of chestnut.It has been considered artistic.I could not dream of sacrificing it in this offhand fashion.
“‘I am afraid that that is quite impossible,’ said I.He had been watching me eagerly out of his small eyes,and I could see a shadow pass over his face as I spoke.
“‘I am afraid that it is quite essential,’ said he.‘It is a little fancy of my wife’s,and ladies’ fancies, you know, madam,ladies’ fancies must be consulted.And so you won’t cut your hair?’
“‘No, sir, I really could not,’ I answered firmly.
“‘Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter.It is a pity, because in other respects you would really have done very nicely.In that case, Miss Stoper,I had best inspect a few more of your young ladies.’
“The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal.
“‘Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?’ she asked.
“‘If you please, Miss Stoper.’
“‘Well, really, it seems rather useless,since you refuse the most excellent offers in this fashion,’ said she sharply. ‘You can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.’ She struck a gong upon the table, and I was shown out by the page.