Matilda

'Let's not go into details,' Miss Honey said.

'How simply awful' Matilda said. 'Did you cry nearly all the time?'

'Only when I was alone,' Miss Honey said. 'I wasn't allowed to cry in front of her. But I lived in fear.'

'What happened when you left school?' Matilda asked.

'I was a bright pupil,' Miss Honey said. 'I could easily have got into university. But there was no question of that.'

'Why not, Miss Honey?'

'Because I was needed at home to do the work.'

'Then how did you become a teacher?' Matilda asked.

'There is a Teachers' Training College in Reading,' Miss Honey said. 'That's only forty minutes' bus-ride away from here. I was allowed to go there on condition I came straight home again every afternoon to do the washing and ironing and to clean the house and cook the supper.'

'How old were you then?' Matilda asked.

'When I went into Teachers' Training I was eighteen,' Miss Honey said.

'You could have just packed up and walked away,' Matilda said.

'Not until I got a job,' Miss Honey said. 'And don't forget, I was by then dominated by my aunt to such an extent that I wouldn't have dared. You can't imagine what it's like to be completely controlled like that by a very strong personality. It turns you to jelly. So that's it. That's the sad story of my life. Now I've talked enough.'

'Please don't stop,' Matilda said. 'You haven't finished yet. How did you manage to get away from her in the end and come and live in this funny little house?'

'Ah, that was something,' Miss Honey said. 'I was proud of that.'

'Tell me,' Matilda said.

'Well,' Miss Honey said, 'when I got my teacher's job, the aunt told me I owed her a lot of money. I asked her why. She said, "Because I've been feeding you for all these years and buying your shoes and your clothes!" She told me it added up to thousands and I had to pay her back by giving her my salary for the next ten years. "I'll give you one pound a week pocket-money," she said. "But that's all you're going

to get." She even arranged with the school authorities to have my salary paid directly into her own bank. She made me sign the paper.'

'You shouldn't have done that,' Matilda said. 'Your salary was your chance of freedom.'

'I know, I know,' Miss Honey said. 'But by then I had been her slave nearly all my life and I hadn't the courage or the guts to say no. I was still petrified of her. She could still hurt me badly.'

'So how did you manage to escape?' Matilda asked.

'Ah,' Miss Honey said, smiling for the first time, 'that was two years ago. It was my greatest triumph.'

'Please tell me,' Matilda said.

'I used to get up very early and go for walks while my aunt was still asleep,' Miss Honey said. 'And one day I came across this tiny cottage. It was empty. I found out who owned it. It was a farmer. I went to see him. Farmers also get up very early. He was milking his cows. I asked him if I could rent his cottage. "You can't live there!" he cried. "It's got no conveniences, no running water, no nothing!"

' "I want to live there," I said. "I'm a romantic. I've fallen in love with it. Please rent it to me."

' "You're mad," he said. "But if you insist, you're welcome to it. The rent will be ten pence a week."

' "Here's one month's rent in advance," I said, giving him forty pence. "And thank you so much!"

'How super!' Matilda cried. 'So suddenly you had a house all of your own! But how did you pluck up the courage to tell the aunt?'

'That was tough,' Miss Honey said. 'But I steeled myself to do it. One night, after I had cooked her supper, I went upstairs and packed the few things I possessed in a cardboard box and came downstairs and announced I was leaving. "I've rented a house," I said.

'My aunt exploded. "Rented a house!" she shouted. "How can you rent a house when you have only one pound a week in the world?"