The Governess Read Online Free PDF

golden hair. She must be no older than her husband, vigorous in his mid-fifties. Yet, seldom moving away from the special, Paris-imported invalid sofa where she now lay, she had all the appearance of someone almost old enough to be his mother, even of someone indeed not long for this world.
    Would she have enough force to deal with the affair of the stolen sugar-mice, now that it had been brought to her notice?
    Concisely as she could, Miss Unwin retailed the whole history. Certainly her hearer seemed to take it all in. But how would she respond?
    The response, when it came, was unexpected.
    ‘You say that you made Pelham go without his treat for so many nights?’
    ‘Why, yes. He must learn to accept the setbacks of life, after all.’
    It seemed to be Mrs Thackerton’s turn to be surprised.
    ‘Yes. Yes, I know that he ought to. But… But … Well, he has not been prepared to accept setbacks very much up to now. His previous governess had to be sent away, you know, because he was so wilful and she could not control him. Is he not disobedient with you?’
    ‘Well, I see to it that he is not. He is a good-hearted little fellow once he understands how things must be.’
    Mrs Thackerton, careworn on her French sofa, sighed deeply.
    ‘If only I could have been as firm as that with Arthur,’ she said, as much to herself as to Miss Unwin.
    She turned her head then.
    ‘We had no governess for him, you know,’ she said. ‘Mr Thackerton was not so prosperous in the days before he was able to use the invention for making steam-moulded hats.’
    Miss Unwin murmured something in acknowledgement of the confidence she was being favoured with. She would rather have pushed forward with her scheme to persuade Mrs Thackerton to deal with Joseph. But she saw that this was not the moment.
    ‘Yes,’ Mrs Thackerton murmured on, her eyes fixed now on the slumbering fire that was making the room so oppressive. ‘Yes, Arthur was always a troublesome boy. He was a trouble at home, and he was a trouble at Eton when he went away to school. He was fast there. He was fast at Oxford, and I sadly fear he is fast yet.’
    Miss Unwin sat still as she could on her low chair near thewindow and turned her mind away from the whole conversation. She had heard more than she should.
    A silence fell. The coals settled in the grate. Outside in the sun a pigeon cooed and cooed and cooed.
    At last Miss Unwin thought she might venture to speak again. Perhaps firmly changing the subject back to what she had wanted to discuss in the first place would obliterate in Mrs Thackerton’s mind that indiscretion of hers.
    ‘I had occasion to tell Mrs Arthur about Joseph last night,’ she said, ‘and I am very much afraid that she does not intend to take up the matter with him. Do you think that you could see him?’
    ‘See him? You mean speak to him? Dismiss Joseph myself?’
    Mrs Thackerton raised her thin hands in dismay.
    ‘No, no, my dear girl,’ she said. ‘You are asking too much. You know that the affairs of the house are out of my keeping. Oh, I have my set of keys still. I am Mr Thackerton’s wife after all. But Mrs Arthur has the keys that are used. She orders everything now. I cannot do it. I cannot.’
    ‘Yes, I understand,’ Miss Unwin answered, a little desperately. ‘But it truly seems that Mrs Arthur is unwilling even to speak to Joseph. So, if you could …’
    But Mrs Thackerton shook her head.
    ‘You are right, my dear. Joseph’s misdemeanours should not go unchecked, and I admire you for your courage in attempting to see that they do not. But there are things that I can no longer do. Many, many things. And to speak to Joseph is one of them. It would be beyond me, beyond me altogether.’
    ‘Yes, I see,’ Miss Unwin replied.
    She felt suddenly very much alone. Was there no one in this house she could rely upon? Was there, at best, only dear, cheerful, willing but incapable Vilkins on her side? And could she succeed in doing what must