Mrs. Buller was saying, 'On one thing I have made up my mind, Mrs.
Frampton; never again will I have a G.F.S. girl in my house. Besides all
the meetings and things at all hours, to have the girl's Associate
coming into my kitchen and talking about prayer (it was prayer, for I
overheard) and ending up with a kiss you could hear upstairs--it was
more than I could be expected to stand. And the girl smashed three cups
that same afternoon, and answered me back in a downright impertinent
way. So I said, 'If _that's_ what your G.F.S. teaches you for manners,
the sooner you and I part company the better,' and I gave her her
month.'
'I'm sure you were right,' said Mrs. Frampton. 'Though of course one
mustn't put it all on the G.F.S.' She said this because of Kate, who was
a church worker. But as it happened Kate did not care for the G.F.S.,
having fallen out with the local secretary, and also having been told by
her vicar that it was a society which drew too rigid an ethical line and
no denominational line at all. Kate also drew rigid ethical lines, when
left to herself and her own natural respectability; the comic spirit
must be largely responsible for driving people like Kate into the
Christian church, a body which, whatever opprobrium it may have at
various times incurred, has never yet been justly accused of
respectability. So Kate joined in about Girls and the G.F.S.
Mrs. Buller said, 'However, we may be thankful we aren't in the country,
for my sister at Stortford has had five soldiers billeted on her, and
how is her girl to keep her head among them all? She won't, of course.
Girls and a uniform--it goes to their heads like drink.'
'It does seem an upset for your sister,' said Mrs. Frampton.
'And Bertie's started again wanting to enlist,' continued their visitor,
who had many troubles. 'If I've told him once I've told him fifty times,
"Not while _I_ live you don't, Bertie." So I hope he'll settle down
again. But he says he'll only be fetched later if he doesn't; such
rubbish. He actually wants to go as a common soldier, not even a
commission. Think of the class of _company_ he'd be thrown into, not to
speak of the risk. Fancy his thinking his father and I could let him do
such a thing.'
Mrs. Frampton made sympathetic sounds.
They had tea. They went on talking, of Belgians, Zeppelins, bulbs, and
Girls. Belgians as a curiosity (in the corner house), Zeppelins as
murder ('to call that war, you know'), bulbs as a duty (to be put in
quite soon), and Girls as a nuisance (to be changed as speedily as may
be). Mrs. Buller stayed till nearly six.
'It's always a treat to see Mrs. Buller,' said Mrs. Frampton. 'But
fancy, it's nearly time to get ready for church.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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