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talk in his room there. I was not exactly the ignoramus they had previously thought me. I had a brain which had lain dormant for all these years but I might possibly grow up to be one of them.
    Felicity was to be married in March of the following year. I had passed my thirteenth birthday. Felicity was to stay with us until a week before the marriage; then she would go to the house of Professor Wills, who had been responsible for her admission into our household, and from there be married; and in due course she and James would set up house in Oxford to whose university he was attached. The big question was what course should my education now take?
    Having received a gift of money from her uncle. Felicity was now able to indulge in replenishing her scanty wardrobe, a task in which I
    joined with great enthusiasm, though never quite able to escape from the big question of my future and the prospect of facing the emptiness which her departure must inevitably mean.
    I tried to imagine what it would be like without her. She had become part of my life, and closer even than the others. Would there be a new governess of the more traditional sort at cross purposes with Mrs. Harlow and the rest? There was only one Felicity in the world and I had been lucky to have her with me all those years. But there is little comfort in recalling past luck which is about to be snatched away so that the future looks uncertain.
    It was about three weeks before the date fixed for the wedding when my parents sent for me.
    Since my meeting with my father in the British Museum there had been a subtle change in our relationship. They had certainly become more interested in me and in spite of the fact that I had always told myself I was happy to be without their attention, I was now faintly pleased to have it.
    “Rosetta,” said my mother.
    “Your father and I have decided that it is time you went away to school.”
    This was not unexpected, of course. Felicity had talked to me about it.
    “It’s a distinct possibility,” she had said, ‘and really it’s the best thing. Governesses are all very well but you’ll meet people of your own age, and you will enjoy that. “
    I could not believe I would enjoy anything as much as being with her and I told her so.
    She hugged me tightly.
    “There’ll be holidays and you can come and stay with us.”
    I remembered that now, so I was prepared.
    “Gresham’s is a very good school,” said my father.
    “It has been highly recommended. I think it will be most suitable.”
    “You will be going there in September,” went on my mother.
    “It’s the start of the term. There will be certain preparations. Then there is Nanny Pollock, of course.”

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    Nanny Pollock! So I was to lose her, too. I felt a great sadness. I remembered those loving arms . those whispered endearments, the comfort I had received.
    “We shall give her a good reference,” said my mother.
    “She has been excellent,” added my father. Changes . changes all around. And the only one who was moving to a happier state was Felicity. There was always some good in everything, Mr. Dolland had said. But how I hated change.
    The weeks passed too quickly. Every morning I awoke with an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. The future loomed before me, unfamiliar and therefore alarming. I had lived too long in unruffled serenity.
    Nanny Pollock was very sad.
    “It always comes,” she said.
    “Little chicks don’t stay that way forever. You’ve cared for them like they was your own … and then comes the day. They’ve grown up. They’re not your babies any more.”
    “Oh Nanny, Nanny. I’ll never forget you.”
    “Nor I you, lovey. I’ve had my pets, but them upstairs being as they are made you more my little baby … if you know what I mean.”
    “I do. Nanny.”
    “It’s not that they was cruel … or hard-hearted … no, none of that. They was just absentminded, like … so deep in all that unnatural writing and what it means and