rather amusing, like that. He said you were not so much on looks--just pleasing, he said. But I think you are perfectly beautiful. Do you think you're beautiful, Miss Exeter?"
This was the first crisis. Pearl knew that if she said no Antonia would distrust her honesty, and if she said yes it might be used against her.
So she compromised.
"I'll answer that question the day I leave," she said.
"I'll tell you something funny about that," said Antonia. "Perhaps I oughtn't to, but I'm going to. Uncle Anthony made mother promise not to send you away until he came back, no matter what happened; but mother says she knows a way to get round that if the worst comes to the worst.
You see, I don't want to hurt your feelings; but we all felt it was rather hard on us to have a governess at all in summer. Mother thinks it's hard too. She says it's just one of Uncle Anthony's ideas. She says a man can't take an interest in anything unless he thinks he's running it. So she just lets him think he runs the family, and then when he's away she does what she thinks best. This is our gate now.
What do you think of the house? We only rent it. There's Durland going in for a swim before dinner. I wonder if he'd wait for us. Durland! Durland!"