Fourteen
MR. BROADRIBB WONDERS
“S een The Times this morning?” said Mr. Broadribb to his partner, Mr. Schuster.
Mr. Schuster said he couldn’t afford The Times, he took the Telegraph.
“Well, it may be in that too,” said Mr. Broadribb. “In the deaths, Miss Elizabeth Temple, D.Sc.”
Mr. Schuster looked faintly puzzled.
“Headmistress of Fallowfield. You’ve heard of Fallowfield, haven’t you?”
“Of course,” said Schuster. “Girls’ school. Been going for fifty years or so. First class, fantastically expensive. Soshe was the Headmistress of it, was she? I thought the Headmistress had resigned some time ago. Six months at least.
I’m sure I read about it in the paper. That is to say there was a bit about the new Headmistress. Married woman.
Youngish. Thirty- five to forty. Modern ideas. Give the girls lessons in cosmetics¹, let ’em wear trouser suits.
Something of that kind.”
“Hum,” said Mr. Broadribb, making the noise that solicitors² of his age are likely to make when they hearsomething which elicits³ criticism based on long experience. “Don’t think she’ll ever make the name that ElizabethTemple did. Quite someone, she was. Been there a long time, too.”
“Yes,” said Mr. Schuster, somewhat uninterested. He wondered why Broadribb was so interested in defunctschoolmistresses.
Schools were not really of particular interest to either of the two gentlemen. Their own offspring were now more orless disposed of. Mr. Broadribb’s two sons were respectively in the Civil Service and in an oil firm, and Mr. Schuster’srather younger progeny⁴ were at different universities where both of them respectively were making as much troublefor those in authority as they possibly could do. He said,“What about her?”
“She was on a coach tour,” said Mr. Broadribb.
“Those coaches,” said Mr. Schuster. “I wouldn’t let any of my relations go on one of those. One went off aprecipice in Switzerland last week and two months ago one had a crash and twenty were killed. Don’t know whodrives these things nowadays.”
“It was one of those Country Houses and Gardens and Objects of Interest in Britain—or whatever they call it—tours,” said Mr. Broadribb. “That’s not quite the right name, but you know what I mean.”

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