The English Tutor by Sara Seale

slowly, thinking that it was a pity she had made it necessary for him to make a point of discipline at such an early date. He could, of course, have overlooked the first breach and allowed her to write her paper in the evening, but he doubted very much whether it would have lessened her dislike for him, and he had a shrewd suspicion that with Clancy he must begin as he meant to go on.
    He found her in the schoolroom, kneeling on the window seat, and hanging half out of the open window. Her back was eloquent of rage and helpless defeat.
    “ Come and sit down, please, ” he said, pulling a chair from the table. “ The sooner you make a start the sooner you ’ ll be free to go. ”
    She turned then to face him and her eyes were bright with defiance, and perhaps tears.
    “ You can ’ t treat me like this, ” she cried. “ I ’ m too old—I ’ m past seventeen—I ’ m not a schoolgirl any more. ”
    “ As far as I ’ m concerned, you ’ re just another pupil and will have to learn to do as you ’ re told, ” he said. “ Your age doesn ’ t concern me at all. ”
    She stamped her foot.
    “ Everyone treats me like a child, everyone —even Conn. ”
    “ Perhaps you encourage them, ” he observed mildly. “ Here are your questions. Sit down and see what you can make of them. It shouldn ’ t take you more than a couple of hours. ”
    She sat down in the chair he had placed for her and snatched the paper from him, putting it on the table without looking at it.
    “ I ’ m sorry this had to happen, Clancy, ” he said, sitting down opposite her, and pulling the half-finished time-table of the morning towards him. “ You ’ ve punished us both, as it happens. I ’ ve no more desire than you have to be cooped u p in the schoolroom all the afternoon. ”
    She stared across at him, disliking afresh his smooth fair hair and impassive face, the lazy eyes which could hold such a chill.
    “ You just did it out of spite and pig-headedness. All the English are pig-headed, ” she said.
    His face did not change, but his voice held faint amusement as he replied:
    “ I can see I shall have to teach you something about the English while I ’ m here. You have some very odd ideas. But other things apart, you ’ re very foolish to run over to Slievaun quite so much. It annoys your father. ”
    She tugged at her hair violently, her favourite gesture when she was angry.
    “ If you think you can make trouble for me with Kilmallin over Conn —” she began, but he interrupted a little sharply:
    “ Oh, really, Clancy, have some sense! I don ’ t care how often you see your boy friend as long as it doesn ’ t interfere with your work. It ’ s your father who ’ s likely to object. Now keep quiet and read over those questions. ”
    He took no further notice of her and began filling in the time-table in his firm, neat writing.
    Clancy relapsed into silence, but she made no attempt to start work. She folded her arms over her thin little chest and gazed steadily out of the window.
    Nearly half an hour went by, then Mark looked up.
    “ Get on with your work, ” he said quietly.
    She continued to stare out of the window.
    “ You can ’ t make me, ” she said. “ That ’ s one thing you can ’ t me do, if I don ’ t choose. You can ’ t make me learn. ”
    He sighed a little wearily.
    “ No one can make you learn, if you don ’ t want to, ” he said; “ but it ’ s rather an unintelligent point of view and I shouldn ’ t have said you were stupid. ”
    She made no reply.
    “ Very well. I ’ m quite prepared to sit here until midnight if necessary. It ’ s entirely up to you, ” he said, and resumed his writing.
    Clancy wavered. She was just beginning to know him well enough to realize that he meant what he said. He was perfectly capable of keeping her there through tea, through dinner, even through breakfast the next morning until they both starved. She wanted to give way to the temper of childhood, to