Read Online The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Muriel Spark
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her embroidery. Then she looked up at the sisters. "It may be Miss Brodie has the same complaint as Mr. Lowther," she said.
Sandy saw her face as that of the housekeeper in Jane Eyre, watching her carefully and knowingly as she entered the house, late, from the garden where she had been sitting with Mr. Rochester.
"Perhaps Miss Brodie is having a love affair with Mr. Lowther," Sandy said to Jenny, merely in order to break up the sexless gloom that surrounded them.
"But it was Mr. Lloyd who kissed her. She must be in love with Mr. Lloyd or she wouldn't have let him kiss her."
"Perhaps she's working it off on Mr. Lowther. Mr. Lowther isn't married." It was a fantasy worked up between them, in defiance of Miss Gaunt and her forbidding brother, and it was understood in that way. But Sandy, remembering Miss Gaunt's expression as she remarked, "It may be Miss Brodie has the same complaint as Mr. Lowther," was suddenly not sure that the suggestion was not true. For this reason she was more reticent than Jenny about the details of the imagined love affair. Jenny whispered, "They go to bed. Then he puts out the light. Then their toes touch. And then Miss Brodie... Miss Brodie..." She broke into giggles.
"Miss Brodie yawns," said Sandy in order to restore decency, now that she suspected it was all true.
"No, Miss Brodie says, 'Darling.' She saysâââ"
"Quiet," whispered Sandy, "Eunice is coming." Eunice Gardiner approached the table where Jenny and Sandy sat, grabbed the scissors and went away. Eunice had lately taken a religious turn and there was no talking about sex in front of her. She had stopped hopping and skipping. The phase did not last long, but while it did she was nasty and not to be trusted. When she was well out of the way Jenny resumed:
"Mr. Lowther's legs are shorter than Miss Brodie's, so I suppose she winds hers round his, andâââ"
"Where does Mr. Lowther live, do you know?" Sandy said.
"At Cramond. He's got a big house with a housekeeper." In that year after the war when Sandy sat with Miss Brodie in the window of the Braid Hills Hotel, and brought her eyes back from the hills to show she was listening, Miss Brodie said: "I renounced Teddy Lloyd. But I decided to enter into a love affair, it was the only cure. My love for Teddy was an obsession, he was the love of my prime. But in the autumn of nineteen-thirty-one I entered an affair with Gordon Lowther, he was a bachelor and it was more becoming. That is the truth and there is no more to say. Are you listening, Sandy?"
"Yes, I'm listening."
"You look as if you were thinking of something else, my dear. Well, as I say, that is the whole story."
Sandy was thinking of something else. She was thinking that it was not the whole story.
"Of course the liaison was suspected. Perhaps you girls knew about it. You, Sandy, had a faint idea... but nobody could prove what was between Gordon Lowther and myself. It was never proved. It was not on those grounds that I was betrayed. I should like to know who betrayed me. It is incredible that it should have been one of my own girls. I often wonder if it was poor Mary. Perhaps I should have been nicer to Mary. Well, it was tragic about Mary, I picture that fire, that poor girl. I can't see how Mary could have betrayed me, though."
"She had no contact with the school after she left," Sandy said.
"I wonder, was it Rose who betrayed me?" The whine in her voice â "... betrayed me, betrayed me" â bored and afflicted Sandy. It is seven years, thought Sandy, since I betrayed this tiresome woman. What does she mean by "betray"? She was looking at the hills as if to see there the first and unbetrayable Miss Brodie, indifferent to criticism as a crag. After her two weeks' absence Miss Brodie returned to tell her class that she had enjoyed an exciting rest and a well-earned one. Mr. Lowther's singing class went on as usual and he beamed at Miss Brodie as she brought them proudly into the music room with their heads up, up.
Sandy saw her face as that of the housekeeper in Jane Eyre, watching her carefully and knowingly as she entered the house, late, from the garden where she had been sitting with Mr. Rochester.
"Perhaps Miss Brodie is having a love affair with Mr. Lowther," Sandy said to Jenny, merely in order to break up the sexless gloom that surrounded them.
"But it was Mr. Lloyd who kissed her. She must be in love with Mr. Lloyd or she wouldn't have let him kiss her."
"Perhaps she's working it off on Mr. Lowther. Mr. Lowther isn't married." It was a fantasy worked up between them, in defiance of Miss Gaunt and her forbidding brother, and it was understood in that way. But Sandy, remembering Miss Gaunt's expression as she remarked, "It may be Miss Brodie has the same complaint as Mr. Lowther," was suddenly not sure that the suggestion was not true. For this reason she was more reticent than Jenny about the details of the imagined love affair. Jenny whispered, "They go to bed. Then he puts out the light. Then their toes touch. And then Miss Brodie... Miss Brodie..." She broke into giggles.
"Miss Brodie yawns," said Sandy in order to restore decency, now that she suspected it was all true.
"No, Miss Brodie says, 'Darling.' She saysâââ"
"Quiet," whispered Sandy, "Eunice is coming." Eunice Gardiner approached the table where Jenny and Sandy sat, grabbed the scissors and went away. Eunice had lately taken a religious turn and there was no talking about sex in front of her. She had stopped hopping and skipping. The phase did not last long, but while it did she was nasty and not to be trusted. When she was well out of the way Jenny resumed:
"Mr. Lowther's legs are shorter than Miss Brodie's, so I suppose she winds hers round his, andâââ"
"Where does Mr. Lowther live, do you know?" Sandy said.
"At Cramond. He's got a big house with a housekeeper." In that year after the war when Sandy sat with Miss Brodie in the window of the Braid Hills Hotel, and brought her eyes back from the hills to show she was listening, Miss Brodie said: "I renounced Teddy Lloyd. But I decided to enter into a love affair, it was the only cure. My love for Teddy was an obsession, he was the love of my prime. But in the autumn of nineteen-thirty-one I entered an affair with Gordon Lowther, he was a bachelor and it was more becoming. That is the truth and there is no more to say. Are you listening, Sandy?"
"Yes, I'm listening."
"You look as if you were thinking of something else, my dear. Well, as I say, that is the whole story."
Sandy was thinking of something else. She was thinking that it was not the whole story.
"Of course the liaison was suspected. Perhaps you girls knew about it. You, Sandy, had a faint idea... but nobody could prove what was between Gordon Lowther and myself. It was never proved. It was not on those grounds that I was betrayed. I should like to know who betrayed me. It is incredible that it should have been one of my own girls. I often wonder if it was poor Mary. Perhaps I should have been nicer to Mary. Well, it was tragic about Mary, I picture that fire, that poor girl. I can't see how Mary could have betrayed me, though."
"She had no contact with the school after she left," Sandy said.
"I wonder, was it Rose who betrayed me?" The whine in her voice â "... betrayed me, betrayed me" â bored and afflicted Sandy. It is seven years, thought Sandy, since I betrayed this tiresome woman. What does she mean by "betray"? She was looking at the hills as if to see there the first and unbetrayable Miss Brodie, indifferent to criticism as a crag. After her two weeks' absence Miss Brodie returned to tell her class that she had enjoyed an exciting rest and a well-earned one. Mr. Lowther's singing class went on as usual and he beamed at Miss Brodie as she brought them proudly into the music room with their heads up, up.
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