had
foreseen when he wrote to her in the first place.

As a matter of fact, Nan was in a rage at the thought of a stranger
coming into the house to interfere with her and Delia, to teach her
what she did not want to learn, and to govern her when her sole idea of
happiness was to be free and untrammeled. Even Delia resented the
new-comer's intrusion. Had she managed the house for fourteen years
now, ever since Mrs. Cutler's death, only to be set aside and ruled
over by the first stranger who chose to imagine her position of
governess to Nan gave her the right to interfere in household affairs?
For of course she would interfere. Nan had drawn a vivid mental
picture of the governess, which through her persistence in repetition,
had begun to seem an actual description to herself and Delia.

"She's tall and thin and lanky and old!" declared the girl whenever the
governess, who had accepted the appointment, was mentioned. "She has
horrid sharp eyes that spy out everything, and she wears glasses.
She'll never laugh because she'll say 'giggling is frivolous,' that's
what Miss Fowler used to say, and she'll talk arithmetic and grammar
and geography the whole blessed time. She'll snoop in your closets,
Delia, and into my bureau drawers, and she'll find out everything we
don't want her to know. Her hair is black and shiny, and I guess she
parts it in the middle and makes it come to the back of her head in a
little hard knot. Oh! I know just how she looks! I can see her every
time I shut my eyes--the horrid thing! Just like Miss Fowler at
school! And how I'll hate her! I'll hate her just as much as I did
Miss Fowler. I'll hate her more, because I can never get rid of her:
she'll always be here. Don't you fix up her room a single bit, Delia.
Make it look as awful as you can. Then perhaps she won't like it
and'll leave. I guess after a little while she won't think it agrees
with her to live here. Then we two'll be alone again, and I tell you,
won't we be glad, Delia?"

In her heart Delia thought they would. She did not follow Nan's advice
to make the governess' room look "as awful as she could." She swept
and dusted it thoroughly, and set all the furniture in place, as she
had been accustomed to do for the last fourteen years, and when she had
finished the place was as uninviting as even Nan could have desired.
In fact, there was nothing attractive in the whole house. The
furniture was all good and substantial