'Bootmaker!' said Miss Hannah with great scorn. 'I am surprised that
you venture to hint the remotest possibility of such a contingency.'
At last it was settled that the line should also be drawn outside the
druggist. Miss Hannah, however, had her revenge. A tanner in
Bermondsey with a house in Bedford Square, had sent two of his
children to Miss Pratt's seminary. Their mother found out that they
had struck up a friendship with a young person whose father
compounded prescriptions for her, and when she next visited Brighton
she called on Miss Pratt, reminded her that it was understood that
her pupils would 'all be taken from a superior class in society,' and
gently hinted that she could not allow Bedford Square to be
contaminated by Bond Street. Miss Pratt was most apologetic,
enlarged upon the druggist's respectability, and more particularly
upon his well-known piety and upon his generous contributions to the
cause of religion. This, indeed, was what decided her to make an
exception in his favour, and the piety also of his daughter was 'most
exemplary.' However, the tanner's lady, although a shining light in
the church herself, was not satisfied that a retail saint could
produce a proper companion for her own offspring, and went away
leaving Miss Pratt very uncomfortable.
'I warned you,' said Miss Hannah; 'I told you what would happen, and
as to Mr Hopgood, I suspected him from the first. Besides, he is
only a banker's clerk.'
'Well, what is to be done?'
'Put your foot down at once.' Miss Hannah suited the action to the
word, and put down, with emphasis, on the hearthrug a very large,
plate-shaped foot cased in a black felt shoe.
'But I cannot dismiss them. Don't you think it will be better, first
of all, to talk to Miss Hopgood? Perhaps we could do her some good.'
'Good! Now, do you think we can do any good to an atheist? Besides,
we have to consider our reputation. Whatever good we might do, it
would be believed that the infection remained.'
'We have no excuse for dismissing the other.'
'Excuse! none is needed, nor would any be justifiable. Excuses are
immoral. Say at once--of course politely and with regret--that the
school is established on a certain basis. It will be an advantage to
us if it is known why these girls do not remain. I will dictate the
letter, if you like.'
Miss Hannah Pratt had not received the education which had been given
to her younger sister, and therefore, was nominally subordinate, but
really she was chief. She considered it especially her duty not only
to look after the children's clothes, the servants and the accounts,
but to maintain TONE everywhere in the establishment, and to stiffen
her sister when necessary, and preserve in proper sharpness her
orthodoxy, both in theology and morals.