I see,’ said Miss Sven­son. ‘Can you think of one good rea­son why I should not expel you on thespot?’ They’re not a bad lot all in all,’ replied Miss Pren­der­gast enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly, ‘but per­haps not all quite as well-behaved as Melanie.’

Well, this sounds like a very child­ish offence,’ assert­ed Miss Sven­son at last, sur­vey­ing the tall fifth-for­mer before her.Not only had she had to wit­ness the pun­ish­ment of one of her pupil’s, Miran­da Spears, at the hands of anoth­er – a resound­ing six of the best with the strap from Tillwood’s head­mas­ter, Don­ald Rudd – but she had also had to endure Rudd’s excru­ci­at­ing com­bi­na­tion of syco­phancy and self-regard. Yes, she had assured him on the phone that morn­ing, she was ful­ly aware of his prowess with the cane (enough to bring the hardi­est sixth for­mer to tears in three strokes); of his dis­dain for the strap (less painful); and of his unerr­ing trust in her abil­i­ties and judge­ment. Yes, yes,yes. Mercedes looked at Rebecca and saw her react. Her eyes grew wide and she gripped Mercedes hands even tighter. No, noth­ing thank you Miss,’ the girl replied again shift­ing her eyes towards Miss Pren­der­gast, who gave the slight­est nod of assent. I’m still wait­ing for an answer to my ques­tion,’ con­tin­ued Miss Sven­son, ‘Where did you go this afternoon?’ So, here she was, see­ing off the hares into the dull light of a Novem­ber after­noon. Set over the exten­sive grounds of Cams­ford, the win­ner should come home with­in an hour and a half. All should be well and tru­ly home with­intwo.

I sus­pect that this is a few inch­es short­er than school rules allow, so.…..’ the skirt flipped up briefly reveal­ing a glimpse of underwear. Well, I can­not agree with that. You should under­stand that pupils have no author­i­ty here. It is the staff who must be obeyed. Any­way boy, after what your teacher has said, tell me what you expect fromme.’ What I am going to do is ring up Dr Rudd and tell him about our lit­tle con­ver­sa­tion. And, on this occa­sion, as I find you so exceed­ing­ly dif­fi­cult, I am going to ask him to decide what to do withyou.’ Miss Sven­son glanced at her col­league and, observ­ing no dis­sent, stood up and took hold of thecane. I am going to give you one chance to answer this ques­tion, Miran­da,’ began Miss Sven­son, ‘so think about your reply carefully.’Miss Gregory showed no mercy, clearly she was enjoying lighting a fire on Rebecca's well spanked rump.