Regiment of Women

A bustling school corridor opens onto a large, oddly furnished classroom—high windows, scarred desks, trays of silkworms and jam‑pots, and whimsical pictures that hint at a world both traditional and experimental. The atmosphere hums with the ordinary clatter of lessons, yet an undercurrent of tension lingers in the empty space where a solitary mistress watches from a raised desk, waiting for the day to unfold.

Into this scene steps Henrietta Vigers, the meticulous secretary whose precise speech and sharp eyes belie a stubborn, mule‑like obstinacy. When she confronts the irritable Clare Hartill—new to the school and desperate to locate a missing class—their exchange crackles with sarcasm, suspicion, and a glimpse of deeper rivalries among the women who run the institution. Their clash promises a tangled web of personalities, authority, and the quiet battles fought behind the school’s orderly façade.