"You see,I can't go away,"she said."I've nowhere to go to.I've no friends,nor relations,and no one will take me for their children,if Mrs.Cole says I can't keep order.""Then I suppose you'd go to the workhouse,"continued Jeremy,pursuing her case with excited interest."That's what the Jampot always used to say,that one day she'd end in the workhouse;and that's a horrible place,SHE said,where there was nothing but porridge to eat,and sometimes they took all your clothes off and scrubbed your back with that hard yellow soap they wash Hamlet with."His eyes grew wide with the horrible picture.
"Oh,Miss Jones,you mustn't go there!"
"Would you mind,"she said,"just getting me some water from thejug over there?There's a glass there."Still proud of the level to which he had been raised,but puzzled beyond any words as to this new realisation of Miss Jones,he fetched her the water,then,standing quite close to her,he said:
"You must stay with us,always."
She looked up at him,and they exchanged a glance.
With that glance Miss Jones learnt more about children than she had ever learnt before--more,indeed,than most people learn in all their mortal lives.
"I can't stay,"she said,and she even smiled a little,"if you're always naughty.""We won't be naughty any more."He sighed."It was great fun,of course,but we won't do it any more.We never knew you minded.""Never knew I minded?"
"At least,we never thought about you at all.Helen did sometimes.
She said you had a headache when you were very yellow in the morning,but I said it was only because you were old.But we'll be good now.I'll tell them too--"Then he added:"But you won't go away now even if we're not always good?We won't always be,I suppose;and I'm going to school in September,and it will be better then,I expect.I'm too old,really,to learn with girls now."She wanted terribly to kiss him,and,had she done so,the whole good work of the last quarter of an hour would have been undone.He was aware of her temptation;he felt it in the air.She saw the warning in his eyes.The moment passed.
"You won't go away,will you?"he said again.
"Not if you're good,"she said.
IV
Half an hour later,when Mary and Helen returned from their walk,they were addressed by Jeremy.
"She was crying because we'd been so naughty,and she had pains in her head,and her brother was dead.Her brother was very strong,and he used to row in a boat forty years ago.She told me all about it,just as though I'd been Aunt Amy or Mother.And she says that if we go on being naughty she'll go away,and no one else will have her,because they'll hear about our having been naughty.And I told her about the workhouse and the porridge and the yellow soap that the Jampot told us of,and it would be awful if she went there because of us,wouldn't it?""Awful,"said Mary.
But Helen said:"She wouldn't go there.She'd take a little house,like Miss Dobell,and have tea-parties on Thursdays--somewhere near the Cathedral.""No,she wouldn't!"said Jeremy excitedly."How could she take a little house if she hadn't any money?She told me she hadn't,and no friends,nor nobody,and she cried like anything--"He paused for breath,then concluded:"So we've got to be good now,and learn sums,and not make her jump.Really and truly,we must.""I always thought you were very silly to make so much noise,"said Helen in a superior fashion."You and Mary--babies!""We're not babies,"shouted Jeremy.
"Yes,you are."
"No,we're not."
Miss Jones was no longer the subject of the conversation.
That same day it happened that rumours were brought to Mrs.Cole through Rose,the housemaid,or some other medium for the first time,of Miss Jones's incapacity.
That evening Jeremy was spending his last half-hour before bedtime in his mother's room happily in a corner with his toy village.He suddenly heard his mother say to Aunt Amy:
"I'm afraid Miss Jones won't do.I thought she was managing the children,but now I hear that she can't keep order at all.I'm sorry--it's so difficult to get anyone."Jeremy sprang up from the floor,startling the ladies,who had forgotten that he was there.
"She's all right,"he cried."Really she is,Mother.We're going to be as good as anything,really we are.You won't send her away,will you?
"My dear Jeremy,"his mother said,"I'd forgotten you were there.
Rose says you don't do anything Miss Jones tells you.""Rose is silly,"he answered."She doesn't know anything about it.
But you will keep her,won't you,Mother?"
"I don't know--if she can't manage you--"
"But she can manage us.We'll be good as anything,I promise.You will keep her,won't you,Mother?""Really,Jeremy,"said Aunt Amy,"to bother your mother so!And it's nearly time you went to bed."He brushed her aside."You will keep her,Mother,won't you ?""It depends,dear,"said Mrs.Cole,laughing."You see--""No--we'll be bad with everyone else,"he cried."We will,really--everyone else.And we'll be good with Miss Jones.""Well,so long as you're good,dear,"she said."I'd no idea you liked her so much.""Oh,she's all right,"he said."But it isn't that--"Then he stopped;he couldn't explain--especially with that idiot Aunt Amy there,who'd only laugh at him,or kiss him,or something else horrible.
Afterwards,as he went slowly up to bed,he stopped for a moment in the dark passage thinking.The whole house was silent about him,only the clocks whispering.
What a tiresome bother Aunt Amy was!How he wished that she were dead!And what a bore it would be being good now with Miss Jones.At the same time,the renewed consciousness of her personal drama most strangely moved him--her brother who rowed,her neuralgia,her lack of relations.Perhaps Aunt Amy also had an exciting history!Perhaps she also cried!
The world seemed to be suddenly filled with pressing,thronging figures,all with businesses of their own.
It was very odd.
He pushed back the schoolroom door and blinked at the sudden light.
