Gynecocracy

Between Beatrice and myself there had already been established, from the first, a tacit intelligence and friendliness. The dear girl was evidently much disconcerted and greatly concerned for me.

About Agnes' mouth there played a cold but amused smile. She said nothing and gave no sign.

I found they led a delightful life, taking high tea at half-past five, dinner at half-past eight, bed at half-past eleven, breakfast between nine and ten, and luncheon at two.

I enjoyed my dinner that evening hugely. The exquisite toilettes and low dresses surprised and delighted my susceptible nature. Every one was merry and free, and lessons were not mentioned.

That night I soon fell asleep; and so ended the day of my arrival at Downlands Hall.

CHAPTER 3

Mademoiselle Hortense de chambonnard

The next morning I woke up miserable. Since my father's servant who had brought me here had departed, I had not seen a single male about the place. My sensation of utter loneliness at the full realization of this fact, which was vividly borne in upon me on awaking, made me completely wretched. What would become of me amidst a pack of women and girls, with no companion in an uncongenial feminine atmosphere against which I instinctively revolted?

I anticipated that I should be shorn of my manhood and made effeminate and good-for-nothing, that my strength and virility would be suppressed. I worked myself into a passion of rage and resentment against my parents for putting me to such a position, and resolved to write at once and expostulate in strong terms. I did not understand then that this was the very discipline they considered desirable. I arose with rebellion surging in my breast, and with a determination to give battle at the earliest opportunity and to assert myself.

All my surroundings felt strange and unnatural to the last degree as I indignantly dressed myself; and when Elise came to show me the way to the breakfast room, the climax was reached, and I told her roughly that I could find my way there myself. She looked angry, but merely said she was to show me the way and she whispered something to Mademoiselle when we got there.

Mademoiselle and the girls were dressed in charmingly simple dresses, and looked so fresh and beautiful that, for the time, I completely forgot my isolation and resolutions. An opportunity for battle soon arose. There were two letters for me, and Mademoiselle actually took them and opened and read them before my eyes, and would not let me look at them, or even tell me from whom they came. She merely remarked that they did not need any reply, and that I was neither to write nor receive any letters without her express permission. I protested, remonstrated, and expostulated; but it was useless. The girls looked on amused, but never uttered a word. I could, in my fury, have burst into 12

tears and torn the letters from her. Mademoiselle remained quite collected and exasperatingly calm, gazing at me with a peculiar light in her eyes. I think she was revelling in my helpless raving and storming. She severely observed that I certainly did not know how to behave, and that she would give me a lesson afterwards in the schoolroom (at which I noticed the girls looked at each other very significantly), and bade me sit down, eat my breakfast, and hold my tongue, or that she would send me out of the room. I saw there was nothing else for it, so, very crestfallen, I at last sat down.

The hour for assembling in the schoolroom was half-past ten, so Mademoiselle told me when I had finished and she added I might go.

"Let me have my letters," I cried passionately. "I will have them," I added, walking up to the head of the table where she sat with them open in her right hand.

"No," she answered very calmly, "you shall not have them. Leave the room."

A little after half-past ten, I sullenly made my way to the schoolroom. Mademoiselle had not arrived, but the girls were there.

"Oh, Julian!" said Beatrice, looking up from the Dante she was conning over. "You will catch it! How ever could you be so rude and violent?"

"Catch it!" I rejoined. "What do you mean? I have a perfect right to my own letters; and I call her conduct dishonourable."

"You won't talk like that in an hour or two, my boy," remarked Maud from her easel in the window.

"A little smart feminine discipline will certainly make a great change," chimed in Agnes, who was arranging some flowers.

"Nonsense," said I, wildly. "That she can't do!"

"Do!" they ejaculated in chorus. "What can't she do?"

"I suppose," added Maud, "he has never heard of a riding whip. Mademoiselle has a horridly cruel little whip. Ay! How it bites!" and she laughed.

"Or of the regime of the stay-lace, or of fifty other ways young ladies have for breaking in refractory boys," went on Agnes. "Never mind," in a tone of mock consolation, which maddened me, "he will soon be initiated."