Gertrude Bell by Georgina Howell Read Free Book Online Page A

London’—and Thoby [her brother] was much attracted by them and them by him).”
    Florence subscribed to the then common medical theory that girls become overstrained if subjected to too much mental exertion. For adolescent girls in particular, education was supposed to be a serious health risk. As late as 1895, when Gertrude was twenty-seven, a Dr. James Burnett, author of
Delicate, Backward, Puny and Stunted Children
, informed the world that a girl at puberty would always fall behind her brothers in academic achievement because of her “disordered pelvic life,” and assured readers that “Not one exception to this have I ever seen.” A book by Elizabeth Missing Sewell,
Principles of Education, Drawn from Nature and Revelation
, had stated that a girl should always be guarded from study, for “if she is allowed to run the risks, which, to the boy, are a matter of indifference, she will probably develop some disease, which, if not fatal, will, at any rate, be an injury to her for life.” Florence saw to it that all of the Bell girls had as active a life as theirbrothers, but was beginning to realize that when it came to education, her formula would not do for every girl. As she put it, “There are a thousand of us who can walk along a level road and get to the end of it successfully, for one who can swim a river or scale a cliff which stands in the way.” Gertrude, she now speculated, was this exception.
    When Maurice went to boarding school, the fifteen-year-old Gertrude missed him far more than she had expected. Her half-sisters and half-brother were much younger, and life became rather empty. She had long outstripped poor Miss Klug, who was constantly offended at the flat contradictions and dismissive behaviour of her troublesome charge. All her life Gertrude had trouble confining herself to armchairs, and could now be found at all times of day sprawled on the carpet flicking impatiently through a book, or thrashing away at knitting she had begun but would never finish. She would stalk about the house with a scowl on her face, airing her recently acquired views, arguing with anyone who would take issue with her and getting in the way of the maids. Invited to go and amuse herself in the garden, she invented a game called “rackets,” something like squash, which could be played on her own by smashing a ball as hard as she could against the coach-house doors. The constant banging and the cries of fury when she missed must have been a great irritation to Florence, perhaps trying to concentrate on some children’s story or treatise on the nursery. Despite her father’s remonstrations, Gertrude made a point of throwing her dog into the pond every day because “he does hate it so much.”
    Florence, with three younger children to cope with, was at her wits’ end to know how to occupy the teenager. She was not the only member of the family sooner or later to find Gertrude difficult. Molly Bell wrote: “Gertrude is being rather thorny & I shall have to have another scene with her soon—she contradicts everything Mother says, and goes out of her way to be disobliging and snubby.” It was not hard for Florence to come to the decision that Gertrude was a special case and that a fifteen-year-old so confident, so able and thirsty for knowledge, ought to be stretched.
    Florence had made the best of beginnings with her stepdaughter, and her influence on Gertrude would be permanent. That influence would not always turn her in the direction that her stepmother wished, but in the things that mattered, however far she ventured, Gertrudewould all her life follow Florence’s lead. She always followed the conventions and observances of her upbringing. She would always be devoted to her family, and however far her life would take her from home, she never distanced herself from their interests or thought them less important than her own.
    Now, breathless with