She turned away, but Miss. Disney grabbed her arm at the expense of her handbag.
“For your own good, Sandra … “
“Oh, for God’s sake!” “You’ve dropped your handbag, Miss. Disney,’ said Pascoe, picking it up.
He flicked the catch with his thumb as he did so and the bag fell open revealing a surprisingly feminine complexity of articles. But one was less common there than the rest. A thick stick of yellow chalk.
“The good teacher is never without,’ said Pascoe, removing it.
“How dare you!’ said Disney, beginning to swell. She looked tremendously fearsome, but taking his courage in both hands Pascoe leaned close to her and gently said three words. Her face froze, like a hen with the gapes. Sandra gasped in amazement at hearing such words uttered in such company.
But Disney had said nothing; there was no outburst, no protest, and Pascoe, much relieved, knew he had been right.
“On Mr. Fallowfield’s wall,’ he said. ”s what you wrote, wasn’t it?
After you tore up the books.”
She took a deep breath and steadied herself.
“Not in front of the child,’ she said. ‘ wouldn’t understand.” “Wait,’ said Pascoe to ‘ child’ who while she may not have understood was obviously agog for instruction.
He led Disney gently some yards away.
“Now,’ he said. ‘ truth.”
“I am not in the habit of lying,’ she said scornfully. ‘ I tell you may not redound to my credit, not all of it; but it shall be the truth, be certain of that.”
He almost admired her then.
Almost.
There was a ramshackle seat round the bole of one of the trees and they seated themselves, not without some trepidation on Pascoe’s part.
“It does not become a woman of my beliefs to hate a fellow being,’ she began, ‘ we are exhorted in the Bible to hate evil and the man Fallowfield was evil.”
She nodded emphatically as though defying contradiction.
“How was he evil, Miss. Disney?”
“In the worst possible way. He corrupted the young. Since he came here, I have noticed a steady decline of interest in the Christian societies I run, a growing scepticism and cynicism in seminar discussions I have with students.”
“But surely that’s symptomatic of the age?’ said Pascoe.
“If it is, it is people like Fallowfield who are responsible for it.
Girls who would have looked to me as a friend and counsellor have turned away; even among the staff, among my own colleagues, he has mocked me unreproved. And when he debauched that poor girl, Anita Sewell, and finally brought about her death … “
“We have positive evidence that he never debauched her,’ said Pascoe mildly, ‘ there’s no evidence that he had anything to do with her death. Is there?”
“She was there! She was there that night! I saw them! That was his doing. Isn’t that evidence?”
“You mean last Wednesday night out in the dunes? You saw them dancing without their clothes?”
Disney covered up her eyes and groaned. Pascoe was not in the least tempted to admire her now and pressed on relentlessly.
“What did you do when you saw them, Miss. Disney? Did you shout, cry out?
Or did you just stand and watch till you were seen?” “I feel faint,’ she said suddenly. ‘ want to go to my room.”
“Soon. Tell me what happened.”
“They all ran away. At least I did that. I stopped it before … I couldn’t sleep that night. I couldn’t get the sight out of my mind.”
“You went there deliberately? You knew what was going on?”
“Yes. I suspected. I had overheard some young men talking.”
“And yesterday, did you go to Mr. Fallowfield’s cottage deliberately?”
“Yes. It had all been too much. Miss. Girling, Anita, the dancing. All that man’s fault, all … so I went to confront him, to challenge him.
He wasn’t there, but the door opened when I pushed it. I went in. The place was
in a mess, things all over the floor. At first I went next door to call for help, but there was no one in. Everybody was on the beach. I went back inside and started gathering things up. Then I saw what kind of books he had. Evil ideas. Evil ideas. Worse than the flesh. I began to tear them. I tore and tore and tore. And then I wrote on the walls, just what was up there already. The words, the drawings, applied to him, didn’t seem wrong, you understand? It was as if some force had come out of me already and begun the damage. Just like when I heard he was dead last night, I knew that I had helped somehow. And I am glad. It is a good thing, a good thing. There may be some hope for all our salvations now.”
Pascoe did not speak but instinctively stood up, disliking their proximity. She looked up at him coldly.
“I fear you too are one of the new generation, young man. If you wish me to make a written statement, I shall be in my room. I have done nothing I am not proud of.”
She strode energetically away between the trees, across the grass.
“What was all that about?’ asked Sandra, fully recovered from her emotional scene, and very interested.