Mr. Snooks saw them off from Rome with that pathetic interrogative perplexity still on his face, and if it had not been for Helen he would have retained Miss Winchelsea’s hold-all in his hand as a sort of encyclopaedic keepsake.  On their way back to England Miss Winchelsea on six separate occasions made Fanny promise to write to her the longest of long letters.  Fanny, it seemed, would be quite near Mr. Snooks.  Her new school—­she was always going to new schools—­would be only five miles from Steely Bank, and it was in the Steely Bank Polytechnic, and one or two first-class schools, that Mr. Snooks did his teaching.  He might even see her at times.  They could not talk much of him—­she and Fanny always spoke of “him,” never of Mr. Snooks—­because Helen was apt to say unsympathetic things about him.  Her nature had coarsened very much, Miss Winchelsea perceived, since the old Training College days; she had become hard and cynical.  She thought he had a weak face, mistaking refinement for weakness as people of her stamp are apt to do, and when she heard his name was Snooks, she said she had expected something of the sort.  Miss Winchelsea was careful to spare her own feelings after that, but Fanny was less circumspect.

The girls parted in London, and Miss Winchelsea returned, with a new interest in life, to the Girls’ High School in which she had been an increasingly valuable assistant for the last three years.  Her new interest in life was Fanny as a correspondent, and to give her a lead she wrote her a lengthy descriptive letter within a fortnight of her return.  Fanny answered, very disappointingly.  Fanny indeed had no literary gift, but it was new to Miss Winchelsea to find herself deploring the want of gifts in a friend.  That letter was even criticised aloud in the safe solitude of Miss Winchelsea’s study, and her criticism, spoken with great bitterness, was “Twaddle!” It was full of just the things Miss Winchelsea’s letter had been full of, particulars of the school.  And of Mr. Snooks, only this much:  “I have had a letter from Mr. Snooks, and he has been over to see me on two Saturday afternoons running.  He talked about Rome and you; we both talked about you.  Your ears must have burnt, my dear...”

Miss Winchelsea repressed a desire to demand more explicit information, and wrote the sweetest, long letter again.  “Tell me all about yourself, dear.  That journey has quite refreshed our ancient friendship, and I do so want to keep in touch with you.”  About Mr. Snooks she simply wrote on the fifth page that she was glad Fanny had seen him, and that if he should ask after her, she was to be remembered to him very kindly (underlined).  And Fanny replied most obtusely in the key of that “ancient friendship,” reminding Miss Winchelsea of a dozen foolish things of those old schoolgirl days at the Training College, and saying not a word about Mr. Snooks!