Milford chronicle., 1925-04-17
CHAPTER 10

The students at Miss Martincastle's
School for Young Ladies-to give the
word student a wildly liberal con-
struction-were some eighty feminine
creatures, living forward to the day
when the local Society Editor would
refer to them as buds"
There had been two Misses Martin
castle, but the younger one had sue
cumbed to obesity several years before,
leaving Miss Angela in full possession
of the fine Louis Philippe house that
had once done proudly by General
Martincastle, his son Governor Mar
tincastle and his son Major Martin
castle,-great men on a sliding scale.
Miss Angela Martincastle came forth
as the friend of organized society, offer
ing to open her house to certain young
ladies, daughters of the elite, and to
instruct them in the graceful arts of
Victorian ladyhood. Miss Angela
might have been an educator Of some
value, had she been allowed to choose
her fnstructresses. But as matters
stood she had that work done for her
by eminent ladies of the Satsuma Clan.
Decayed gentlewomen, sometimes less
proficient than their pupils in the
branches they taught, presided in the
various classrooms, struggling nobly
with a profession which, at best, is
poorly paid and poorly praised.
Miss Martincastle's pupils, impris-
Oned in the broad, trodden yard with |
its spiked iron fence, were a pretty |
sight. They wore stiff little dresses of |
dark red or dark blue, and from the
top of their heads wide black ribbons
spread-eagled to the winds. They
wore new white ruchings at their necls,
and starched white pinafores of a more
or less uniform cut-it was Miss Mar
wish that hey young ladies
should be distinguished from all other
young ladies. Granted, Of course, that
the persons who played outside the
spiked iron fence could be designated as
young ladies.
There was theory to the effect that
Miss Martincastle sat at an upper
window during play hours, marking
each individual for praise or censure.
If so, she nodded at times, or forgot
easily or fOrgave quickly. But there
we're objectionable sins which never l
escaped the all-seeing eye. Barter and .
jrade through the picketS of Miss
Angelas fence was strictly forbidden !
md sternly preached against during the
i've minute discussion" after morning |
chapel services.
1t was Miss Margaret Livingstone
2eake, believe, who first thought of :
aling up a collection and intrusting it
o Solomon, the janitOr's crOss-eyed
on. The Candy Boy, gangling youth S
With a basket of peppermints, shuffled r
" at the recess hour, and his dreamy,
lever eyes were not slow to see the +
ignal. For three months he drove I
thriving trade by the backyard gate. \
hen came morning when Miss
1artincastle herself sauntered majesti- y
ally forth and met Solomon coming up 8
he walk. The boy was laden thiclly n
nth little paper bags and was too f
cared to run.
Solomon" she doomed in her richly
cultivated baritone, what have you &
here?" &c..
Miss Martincastle was filed with a Z,
ighteous anger which she vented on o
olOmon and his father, David. She 7
ven spoke tactfully to Margaret-One
eldom went further with a Peake. 6,
1afgdf6G was uJGl0 dIdlQ GudO Gu6
fair would get around to her grand
ather. So she promised to obey the Il
wv and kept her promise, as she usually q
i'd. Smuggling was abandoned and h
be Candy Boy came that way no more. r,
The really exciting feature of Miss
PARTNERSHIPS was the dancing class.
b was held at three o'clock on Friday
fternoons. Miss Angela had an enor- fl
lous, bare room upstairs with "Calis- W
lenics Hail. marked on it's double A
DOR in rusty gold letters. Nobody nj
yer referred to it by so rough a name ii
) Gymnasium; Calisthenics Hall it
as, and the name was no more genteel
ian the morning wand-drills, where
fly young ladies in baggy boomers
punished polished poles to the One-two- in
lree-four of Miss Julia Macrae while Sc
[iss Betsy Huddleston tinkled Sousa de
arches on a tinny piano. pr
But at three o'clock on Fridays Miss m
ngela introduced an exciting novelty. &c
oyS. hi
CHAPTER II -,
Only Margaret saw anything more pa
M ooro3O eide Of loft Cartor'c | as