She did not put the bottles away, in case the Professor should come
back and want them, but she took them off the table and dusted it,
and then put them back in orderly rows. The saucers she wisely did
not touch, except to dust underneath them. Then she attacked the dark
closet, which was surrounded by shelves, holding innumerable saucers,
trays, bottles, and boxes. A good many of these things were on the
floor. Joey rammed her dusters into the pockets of her coat, and set to
work to find a safer resting-place for them. She was really interested
by now in this duty which had been thrust upon her in right of her
scholarship; so absorbed indeed that she never heard an exclamation at
the door and a quick step across the room. She noticed nothing till
the half-open door of the closet was wrenched violently wide. And she
sprang round to find herself looking into the furious light eyes of the
French Professor.
CHAPTER IV
ENTER GABRIELLE
He was a short man, this Monsieur Trouville, neat and dapper, though
inclined to be fat. His high forehead peaked up to his receding hair,
his short moustache was stiffly waxed and stood out very black against
his pallid face. He was not ill-looking, but just at that moment Joey
thought she had never seen anyone quite so unpleasant.
He caught her by the arm. "What are you doing here? How dare you come?
Do you not know it is forbidden, except when I take the classes here? I
will report you to Miss Conyngham. You shall be expelled."
Joey stood her ground. "You can't expel people when they've only just
come," she assured him stoutly. "It ... isn't done. Besides, I'm all
right to tidy here. I'm the scholarship girl."
This last statement did not appear to mitigate Monsieur Trouville's
fury in the least.
"You have distairbed all my bottles--you have made for me hours of work
with your disobedience," he snarled. "I vill have you punished--you
shall be no more at Redlands!"
He began to cast about the room, like a blood-hound nosing for a trail.
Joey felt rather frightened; there was no doubt about it, Monsieur
Trouville was really angry. He spluttered out the objurgations in his
strong French accent rather like an angry cat. Somehow, in spite of
what Noreen and Syb had said, she had not expected him to be quite so
much annoyed by her presence.
"I'm awfully sorry if I've mixed your bottles," she told him, trying
to speak steadily. "I didn't mean to. Perhaps some time when you're
not too busy you would just show me how you like things tidied, and
then----"
Monsieur Trouville made three strides towards her, with so menacing an
expression that Joey gave back a step in spite of herself.
"Miss Conyngham tell you to say dat?" he demanded.
"No, of course not. Do you suppose one needs _telling_ to be polite?"
Joey answered, growing angry in her turn. "If you don't want your old
Lab tidied for you I'm sure I don't want to do it. Good-bye."
[Illustration: "HOW DARE YOU COME?"]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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