"But am I not always full? Do I ever have a vacancy that is not applied for three times over? Am I not sent students by the British Council, by London University Lodging Board-by the Embassies-by the French Lycée? Are not there always three applications for every vacancy?"
"That's very largely because the meals here are appetizing and sufficient. Young people must be properly fed."
"Bah! These totals are scandalous. It is that Italian cook and her husband. They swindle you over the food."
"Oh no, they don't, Mrs. Nicoletis. I can assure you that no foreigner is going to put anything over on me."
"Then it is you yourself-you who are robbing me." Mrs. Hubbard remained unperturbed.
"I can't allow you to say things like that," she said in the voice an old fashioned Nanny might have used to a particularly truculent charge. "It isn't a - nice thing to do, and one of these days it will land you in trouble."
"Ah!" Mrs. Nicoletis threw the sheaf of bills dramatically up in the air whence they fluttered to the ground in all directions. Mrs. Hubbard bent and picked them up, pursing her lips.
"You enrage me," shouted her employer.
"I daresay," said Mrs. Hubbard, "but it's bad for you, you know, getting all worked up. Tempers are bad for the blood pressure."
"You admit that these totals are higher than those of last week?"
"Of course they are. There's been some very good cut price stuff going at Lampson's Stores. I've taken advantage of it. Next week's total will be below average." Mrs. Nicoletis looked sulky.
"You explain everything so plausibly."
"There," Mrs Hubbard put the bills in a neat pile on the table. "Anything else?"
"The American girl, Sally Finch, she talks of leaving-I do not want her to go. She is a Fulbright scholar. She will bring here other Fulbright scholars. She must not leave."
"What's her reason for leaving?" Mrs. Nicoletis humped monumental shoulders.
"How can I remember? It was not genuine. I could tell that. I always know." Mrs. Hubbard nodded thoughtfully. She was inclined to believe Mrs. Nicoletis on that point.
"Sally hasn't said anything to me," she said.
"But you will talk to her?"
"Yes, of course."
"And if it is these coloured students, these Indians, these Negresses-then they can all go, you understand? The colour bar, it means everything to these Americans, and for me it is the Americans that matter-as for these coloured ones-Scram!" She made a dramatic gesture.
