Carmelina sensed her own misstep almost immediately, and wondered how best to backtrack, because she hadn't meant to offend. Constance hardly sounded accusatory, but she ought not to have assumed! A matronly position may take different skills, but it was no lesser - Merlin, if she did start here in September she would not be so quick to sound the fool.
"Oh," she exclaimed, with a hint of bashfulness. "A daunting endeavour! You must be better qualified than the rest of us put together," she put in with a hopefully teasing smile: one must have a strong mettle, to take on teaching so many pupils about life! Here she was, at thirty-three, and Carmelina still felt she had barely begun to unravel all the enigmas of life. (She wouldn't pretend she wasn't all the more curious about Constance's background now, and how she might have wandered into such a role. Carmelina was sure the matron she'd know whilst she had been at school had been, well - rather more matronly; grey-haired and deliriously stuffy, even on a good day! What a change.)
Whatever she had begun imagining about Constance, precisely the last thing she had expected of the blonde was to recognise her name! Carmelina's sheepishness became embarrassment of a different kind; she was rather pleased her skin didn't betray her blushes too badly, because she could certainly feel the heat in her face. "Oh, you didn't read that!" She declared, with an amazed laugh, although there was no doubt there - people did not tend to come across books like that long enough to remember it if they hadn't truly tried to bother with it. (She had thought it decently exciting, as academia went, but that said little out in the real world.) So this... was something of a marvel. Merlin, she had never considered the disappointment she must be in person, with none of the poise she had in specialised prose. That boded well for September, now didn't it?
There was a daft grin on her face anyway, though eventually she had to bite her lip to stop her laugh echoing down the empty corridor. "I just hope it didn't put you off reading for ever!"
"Oh," she exclaimed, with a hint of bashfulness. "A daunting endeavour! You must be better qualified than the rest of us put together," she put in with a hopefully teasing smile: one must have a strong mettle, to take on teaching so many pupils about life! Here she was, at thirty-three, and Carmelina still felt she had barely begun to unravel all the enigmas of life. (She wouldn't pretend she wasn't all the more curious about Constance's background now, and how she might have wandered into such a role. Carmelina was sure the matron she'd know whilst she had been at school had been, well - rather more matronly; grey-haired and deliriously stuffy, even on a good day! What a change.)
Whatever she had begun imagining about Constance, precisely the last thing she had expected of the blonde was to recognise her name! Carmelina's sheepishness became embarrassment of a different kind; she was rather pleased her skin didn't betray her blushes too badly, because she could certainly feel the heat in her face. "Oh, you didn't read that!" She declared, with an amazed laugh, although there was no doubt there - people did not tend to come across books like that long enough to remember it if they hadn't truly tried to bother with it. (She had thought it decently exciting, as academia went, but that said little out in the real world.) So this... was something of a marvel. Merlin, she had never considered the disappointment she must be in person, with none of the poise she had in specialised prose. That boded well for September, now didn't it?
There was a daft grin on her face anyway, though eventually she had to bite her lip to stop her laugh echoing down the empty corridor. "I just hope it didn't put you off reading for ever!"
