Florentyna always enjoyed staying in one of her father’s hotels when she was on a trip. She would happily spend hours walking around trying to pick up mistakes the hotel was making. After all, she pointed out to Miss Tredgold, they had their investment to consider. Over dinner that night in the Grill Room of the New York Baron, Florentyna told her father that she didn’t think much of the hotel shops.
‘What’s wrong with them?’ asked Abel, mouthing questions without paying much attention to the answers.
‘Nothing you can point to easily,’ said Florentyna, ‘except that they are all dreadfully dull compared with real shops like the ones on Fifth Avenue.’
Abel scribbled a note on the back of his menu, ‘Shops dreadfully dull,’ and doodled around it carefully before he said, ‘I’ll not be returning to Chicago with you, Florentyna.’
For once Florentyna was silent.
‘Some problems have come up here with the hotel and I have to stay behind to see they don’t get out of hand,’ he said, the line sounding a little too well rehearsed.
Florentyna gripped her father’s hand. ‘Try and come back tomorrow. Eleanor and I always miss you.’
Once Florentyna had returned to Chicago Miss Tredgold set about preparing her for Upper School. Each day they would spend two hours studying a different subject, but Florentyna was allowed to choose whether they should work in the mornings or the afternoons. The only exception to the rule was on Thursdays, when their sessions took place in the morning as it was Miss Tredgold’s afternoon off.
At two o’clock promptly every Thursday she would leave the house and not return until seven that night. She never explained where she was going, and Florentyna never summoned up the courage to ask. But as the holiday progressed Florentyna became more and more curious about where Miss Tredgold spent her time, until finally she resolved to discover for herself.
After a Thursday morning of Latin and a light lunch together in the kitchen, Miss Tredgold said goodbye to Florentyna and retired to her room. As two o’clock struck she opened the front door of the house and headed off down the street carrying a large canvas bag. Florentyna watched her carefully through her bedroom window. Once Miss Tredgold had turned the corner of Rigg Street, Florentyna dashed out and ran all the way down to the Inner Drive. She peered around to see her mentor waiting at a bus stop on Michigan Avenue. She could feel her heart beating at the thought of not being able to follow Miss Tredgold any farther. Within minutes she watched a bus draw up and come to a halt. She was about to turn back for home when she noticed Miss Tredgold disappear up the circular staircase of the double-decker. Without hesitation, Florentyna ran and jumped onto the moving platform, then quickly made her way to the front of the bus.
When the ticket collector asked her where she was going, Florentyna suddenly realized she had no idea of her destination.
‘How far do you go?’ she asked.
The collector looked at her suspiciously. ‘The Loop,’ he replied.
‘One single for The Loop, then,’ Florentyna said confidently.
‘That’ll be fifteen cents,’ said the conductor.
Florentyna fumbled in her jacket pocket to discover she had only ten cents.
‘How far can I go for ten cents?’
‘Rylands School’ came back the reply.
Florentyna passed over the money, praying that Miss Tredgold would reach her destination before she would have to get off, while not giving any thought to how she would make the return journey.
She sat low in her seat and watched carefully each time the bus came to a halt along the lake front, but even after she had counted twelve stops and passed the University of Chicago, Miss Tredgold still did not appear.
‘Your stop is next,’ the conductor said a few minutes later.
When the bus next came to a halt, Florentyna knew she was beaten. She stepped down reluctantly onto the sidewalk thinking about the long walk home and determined that the following week she would have enough money to cover the journey both ways.
She stood unhappily watching the bus as it traveled a few hundred yards farther down the street before coming to a stop once more. A figure stepped out into the road which could only have been Miss Tredgold. She disappeared down a side street, looking as if she knew exactly where she was going.
Florentyna ran as hard as she could, but when she reached the corner, breathless, there was no sign of Miss Tredgold. Florentyna walked slowly down the street wondering where her governess could have gone. Perhaps into one of the houses, or might she have taken another side street? Florentyna decided she would walk to the end of the block and if she failed to spot her quarry then, she would have to make her way home.
Just at the point when she was considering turning back she came into an opening that faced a large white archway on which ‘South Shore Country Club’ was embossed in gold.
Florentyna didn’t think for a minute that Miss Tredgold could be inside, but out of curiosity she peered through the gates.
‘What do you want?’ said a uniformed guard standing on the other side.
‘I was looking for my governess,’ said Florentyna.
‘What’s her name?’
‘Miss Tredgold,’ Florentyna said unflinchingly.
‘She’s already gone into the clubhouse,’ said the guard, pointing toward a Victorian building surrounded by trees about a quarter of a mile up a steep rise.
Florentyna marched boldly through, without another word, staying on the path because ‘Keep off the grass’ signs were displayed every few yards. She kept her eye on the clubhouse and had ample time to leap behind a tree when she saw Miss Tredgold emerge. She hardly recognized the lady dressed in red-and-yellow-checked tweed trousers, a heavy Fair Isle sweater and heavy brown brogues. A bag of golf clubs was slung comfortably over one shoulder.
Florentyna stared at her governess, mesmerized.
Miss Tredgold walked toward the first tee, where she put down her bag and took out a ball. She placed it on a tee at her feet and selected a club from her bag. After a few practice swings she steadied herself, addressed the ball and hit it firmly down the middle of the fairway. Florentyna couldn’t believe her eyes. She wanted to applaud but instead ran forward to hide behind another tree as Miss Tredgold marched off down the fairway.
Miss Tredgold’s second shot landed only twenty yards from the edge of the green. Florentyna ran forward to a clump of trees at the side of the fairway and watched Miss Tredgold chip her ball up onto the green and hole it out with two putts. Florentyna was left in no doubt that Miss Tredgold had been playing the game for some considerable time.
Miss Tredgold then removed a small white card from her pocket and wrote on it, before heading toward the second tee. As she did so she gazed toward the second green, which was to the left of where Florentyna was hidden. Once again Miss Tredgold steadied herself, addressed the ball and swung, but this time she sliced her shot and the ball ended up only fifteen yards from Florentyna’s hiding place.
Florentyna looked up at the trees, but they had not been made for climbing other than by a cat. She held her breath and crouched behind the widest trunk, but could not resist watching Miss Tredgold as she studied the lie of her ball. Miss Tredgold muttered something inaudible and then selected a club. Florentyna let out her breath as Miss Tredgold swung. The ball climbed high and straight before landing in the middle of the fairway again.
Florentyna watched Miss Tredgold replace her club in the bag.
‘I should have kept a straighter arm on the first shot and then we would never have met.’