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’
    ‘Monsieur?’
    ‘Who is the teacher here? I wish you to follow my instructions. I am well aware you will have what you call “your own style” but in this establishment, in
this
classroom you are toforego all self-styled methods and imitate – to the best of your abilities – those writers
I
recommend.
    ‘It is impossible. If I could – ’
    But here Monsieur Heger cut my sister short.
    ‘Time,’ he said knitting his brows so that his eyes, already dark, grew even darker, ‘does not permit me to argue this point. I am expected elsewhere. Please indulge me this once.’
    Emily glowered.
    Two seconds later and Monsieur Heger was gone.
    ‘We shall be late for Madamoiselle Sophie,’ I said standing up, but Emily remained glued to her seat.
    ‘I do not like him,’ she whispered.
    ‘It will take time.’
    ‘No,’ she said. ‘He looks like an insane type of Tom-cat. Not at all how you described him.’
    ‘I said he was dark and expressed himself bluntly – ’
    ‘He is rude – ’
    ‘We have never been tutored by a man before, or a foreigner,’ I reminded her. ‘Their methods are different to ours, that is all. Will you do as he wishes?’
    Emily narrowed her eyes and looked at me as though I had asked a trick question.
    ‘Reason tells me I should – ’
    ‘But does that mean that you will?’
    She glowered. ‘He has no dominion over me. He cannot command what I think.’
    ‘But dearest’ I said in as reasonable a tone as I could muster for I had no wish to fight with my sister. ‘We are here to learn, are we not? We are here as pupils and as such we should dowhat is requested of us.’
    Emily’s eyes met mine. I knew she could tell what I was thinking. There was no need to explain myself further. For a couple of moments we were silent, Emily remained seated while I stood staring at the walls. A clock on the mantelpiece chimed eleven o’clock. I could hear scurrying outside in the corridors, the sound of laughter. Emily stood up and collected her books.
    ‘We are going to be late for Mademoiselle Sophie,’ she said.

IV
    Dear Ellen
    Is it the fashion now a days to send sheets of blank paper instead of letters to friends in foreign parts –
’ I wrote referring to the envelope I had received from my friend Ellen Nussey which contained two sheets of blank paper upon which she had written no more than a question mark.
    The letter had arrived several weeks previously but it was only now that I had time to sit down and write the type of detailed description she so obviously desired.
    The schoolroom was quiet. A few students milled around the desks. Emily was sitting beside me agonizing over an essay.
    ‘
This is a large school,
’ I wrote, ‘
in which there are about 40 externes or day-pupils and 12 pensionaires or boarders – Madame Heger the head is a lady of precisely the same cast of mind degree of cultivation and quality of character as Miss Catherine Wooler – I think the severe points are a little softened because she has not been disappointed & consequently soured – in a word – she is a married instead of a maiden lady
.’
    I paused. This was an accurate description although I was quite well aware that neither Ellen nor myself were married, therefore to label Miss Wooler ‘soured’ might sound hypocritical, but Ellen would understand my meaning. We had shared a great deal when we were at school together at Roe Head.
    I picked up my pen again, dipped the nib into the inkwell. ‘
All in this house are Catholics except ourselves one other girl and the gouvernante of Madam’s children – an Englishwoman in rank something between a lady’s maid and a nursery governess the difference in Country & religion makes a broad line of demarcation between us & all the rest we are completely isolated in the midst of numbers – yet I think I am never unhappy – my present life is so delightful so congenial to my own nature compared to that of a Governess – my time constantly occupied