four o'clock
`` You leave the boy alone , '' was Mrs. Church 's answer . `` He 's a good boy , and the moral of his grand-uncle ; and I 'll leave him that microscope . See if I do n't . '' At four o'clock that afternoon the governors of the Great Shirley School met in the room set aside for the purpose . There were six governors , and they were all ladies . Their names were Miss Mackenzie , Mrs. Naylor , Mrs. Ross , the two Misses Scott , and Miss Jane Smyth . The founders of the Great Shirley School had ordained that it should always be governed by women -- that women should conduct its concerns , should see to the best possible education of its pupils , and should manage these things to the best of their ability .