The matron was small and plump; the teacher was tall and lean. The rosy, pleasant face of Mrs. Eland could not have been put to a greater contrast than with the angular and grim countenance of the bespectacled Miss Pepperill.
The latter seemed, for the moment, confused. She was not a person easily disturbed in any situation, it would seem; but she was almost bashful as the little matron confronted her.
"I--I---- Really, are you Mrs. Eland?" stammered the school teacher.
"Yes," said the quietly smiling gray lady.
"I--I have heard Theresa, here, speak so much of you----" She actually fell back upon Tess for support! "Theresa! introduce me to Mrs. Eland," she commanded.
"Oh, yes, Mrs. Eland," said the cordial Tess. "I wanted you to meet Miss Pepperill. You know--she's my teacher."
"Oh! who wanted you to learn the succession of the rulers of England?" said Mrs. Eland, laughing, with a sweet, mellow tone.
"Yes, ma'am. The sovereigns of England," Tess said.
"'First William, the Norman, Then William, his son.'"
"That old rhyme!" Miss Pepperill said, hastily, recovering herself somewhat. "You taught it to Theresa?"
"I wrote it out for her," confessed Mrs. Eland. "I could never forget it. I learned it when I was a very little girl."
"Indeed?" said Miss Pepperill, almost gasping the ejaculation. "So did I."
"That was some time ago," Mrs. Eland said, in her gentle way. "My mother taught me."
"Yes. She was an English woman. She had been a governess herself in England."
"Indeed!" Again the red-haired teacher almost barked the expression. She seemed to labor under some strong emotion. Tess noted the strange change in Miss Pepperill's usual manner as she spoke to the matron.
"I think it must have been my mother who taught me," the teacher said, in the same jerky way. "I'm not sure. Or--perhaps--I picked it up from hearing it taught to somebody else.
"'First William, the Norman, Then William, his son,----'
"Very true," Mrs. Eland said quietly. "I believe my little sister learned it listening to mother and me saying it over and over."
"Ah! yes," Miss Pepperill observed. "Your sister? I suppose much younger than you?"
"Oh, no; only about four years younger," said Mrs. Eland, sadly. "But I lost her when we were both very young."