3 supper-time

all but the new girls were well settled in by the evening. matron had received health certificates and pocket-money from the lower school, and health certificates but no money from the upper school, who were allowed to keep their own without having to ask matron for it.

“did irene’s health certificate arrive all right?” asked darrell, remembering how almost every term irene’s certificate was mislaid.

sally laughed. “oh, somebody put an envelope in irene’s case, marked ‘health certificate’, and she thought her mother had put it there instead of sending it by post—so she took it to matron, of course, and said, ‘here you are, matron—i’ve really remembered it at last!’?”

“and what was inside it?” asked darrell.

“a recipe for bad memories,” chuckled sally. “i forget how it went. take a cupful of reminders, and a spoonful of scoldings—something like that. you should have seen matron’s face when she saw it. irene was dumbfounded, of course. she would be! however, it didn’t matter because matron had got her certificate by post.”

“irene’s such a scatterbrain, for all her cleverness,” said alicia. “so is belinda. there must be something about art and music that makes people with those gifts perfectly idiotic over ordinary things. if irene can lose something, she does. and if belinda can forget something she forgets it! do you remember how she came down to breakfast once without her blouse on?”

“there’s the gong for supper,” said darrell, thankfully. “i’m awfully hungry. hope there’s as super a supper as usual—we always have such a good one on the first night! i’m glad i haven’t got to fuss round felicity this term—she’s not a new girl any more. she can stand on her own feet.”

they went down into the big dining-room to supper. sally absent-mindedly walked towards the fourth-form table, and darrell pulled her back.

“idiot! do you want to sit with those kids?” she hissed. “here’s the fifth-form table!”

they took their places, and saw three girls already there, two old fifth-formers, and one new girl. catherine and moira nodded to them, and catherine gave them a beaming smile. moira didn’t. she was tight-lipped and looked as if the cares of the whole school rested on her shoulders!

the new girl, maureen, smiled at them brightly. she was a fluffy, rather untidy-looking girl, with a big mouth, a large nose and rather uneven teeth that stuck out a little and made her look rabbity.

“i’m maureen little,” she said, in a light, friendly voice. “i hope you won’t mind me at malory towers!” she gave a little giggle.

“why should we?” asked darrell, surprised. “we heard your old school had closed down. that was bad luck.”

“yes,” said maureen, and looked pensive. “it was such a marvellous school, too—you should have seen the playing fields! and we had two swimming-pools, and were allowed to keep our own pets.”

“well, i expect you’ll find malory towers isn’t too bad,” said alicia, joining in.

“oh yes,” said the girl, smiling again, and showing her rabbit-teeth. “i’m sure it’s wonderful. that’s why my mother chose it. she said that next to mazeley manor—that was my old school, you know—malory towers was the best.”

“dear me—that was nice of her,” said alicia in her smooth voice. “i don’t seem to have heard of mazeley manor. or was it the school whose girls always failed in the school cert.?”

maureen flushed. “oh no,” she said. “it couldn’t have been. why, quite half of us passed. i passed myself.”

“very clever of you,” said alicia, and darrell nudged her. what a pity for maureen to get on alicia’s wrong side so soon! she was just the type that irritated the sharp-tongued alicia. alicia winked at darrell but darrell frowned. it wasn’t fair to tease a new girl so soon. give her a chance!

but maureen didn’t give herself a chance! “i must be friendly!” she said to herself. “i must keep my own end up, i must impress these girls!”

so she chattered away in a light, airy voice, and didn’t seem to realize that new girls should be seen and not heard! it was only when the others very pointedly began to talk to one another, turning away from her until she found that no one at all was listening to her, that she stopped.

in the first form if any new girl behaved like that the first-formers would have pointed out at once that she’d better keep her mouth shut before somebody sat on her. but the fifth-formers were not quite so crude. they merely ignored her, hoping she would see that she was behaving stupidly and making a bad start.

“are we all back?” said darrell, looking round the table. “ah, there’s mavis. how’s the voice, mavis? i hope it’s quite all right now!”

mavis nodded. she had a beautiful voice, which she had lost for a few terms, but which was now back in all its beauty. she looked happy.

“and there’s mary-lou—and daphne—and ruth—hallo, ruth! how’s your twin?”

“all right. you know she’s been left down in fourth form?” said ruth. “it’ll be queer without her. i’ve always had her, no matter what school or form i’ve been in. i hope she won’t miss me too much.”

“oh, she’ll soon find someone else to look after and speak up for, just as she used to do to you!” said alicia. “you were her little shadow, ruth—now this term we’ll be able to see what you’re really like yourself. we didn’t know before!”

“oh!” put in maureen, “is ruth a twin? there were twins at my old school, and they were so . . .”

well, it simply wasn’t done for a new girl to speak out of turn like this, and to maureen’s surprise everyone at the table began talking at once, so that nobody could possibly hear what she said. mam’zelle dupont, who was at the head of the table, was sorry for her. she liked the fluffy type of girl, and she spoke comfortingly to maureen.

“they are excited, you see, at being back again. you will soon be their friends, n’est ce pas? tomorrow they will—what do you call it—they will take you to their chests and you will be one of them. what a pity dear gwendoline isn’t back yet. now you would like her, maureen. she has golden hair, like you, and . . .”

alicia caught part of this and winked at sally. “i bet gwendoline would be just the person for maureen,” she said. she raised her voice and spoke to mam’zelle.

“what’s happened to dear gwendoline mary, mam’zelle? she’s the only one not back.”

“she only came back from france today,” said mam’zelle. “she comes to us tomorrow. the dear child—she will be able to talk to me about my beloved country. we shall gobble together about it.”

“gabble, mam’zelle, you mean,” said sally, with a giggle.

“oh, i’ve been to france, too,” said maureen, delighted.

“then you and gwendoline and mam’zelle can all gobble about it together,” said irene. “nice trio you’ll make, gobbling away about la belle france!”

“don’t be an ass, irene,” said moira’s voice. “remember you’re in the fifth form now, not the fourth.”

“oh—thanks most awfully for reminding us, moira,” said alicia, in her smoothest voice. “i say—it must be frightful for you to have to live with us—awful come-down to pig it with old fourth-formers instead of queening it in the sixth.”

“moira and i don’t mind a bit,” said catherine, with such an air of pouring oil on troubled waters that the old fourth-formers couldn’t help nudging one another. “after all, somebody has to be left down sometimes—and it’s always a help, don’t you think, when an old member of the form can help new ones to carry on the tradition.”

“ah ?a—c’est bien dit!” said mam’zelle. “very well said, catherine.”

but nobody else thought so. “hypocrite!” muttered alicia to irene. “who wants catherine to help us? she couldn’t teach a cat to drink milk! gosh, if she’s going to be as pi as that i shall resign from the fifth and go up into the sixth!”

irene did one of her explosive snorts, and catherine looked astonished. “do tell us the joke,” she said, with a beaming smile.

“joke over,” said alicia, also with a beaming smile. darrell winked at sally. it was easy to see that there was going to be some fun that term. she glanced at moira who was frowning glumly.

“want to collect a few more scowls for your notebook, belinda?” said darrell, softly. belinda glanced at moira too and nodded. she had pursued gwendoline once for a whole term, collecting her scowls, drawing them one after another in what the girls came to call her “gwendoline collection”. now here was another person with a wonderful selection of scowls for belinda!

bill and clarissa were happily talking horses together, unheedful of anyone else at the table. “i wonder they don’t whinny to one another!” said alicia, exasperated. “bill! clarissa! do you think you’re in the stables still?”

“oh—sorry,” said clarissa, looking round with shining green eyes. “i forgot where i was for a minute. but it’s so nice to be back with bill again and talk horses.”

“ah, this horse-talk! i do not understand it!” chimed in mam’zelle. “me, i would not go near a horse—great, stamping creatures.”

“you really must come and let thunder take a lump of sugar from the palm of your hand one day!” said bill, with an impish grin. “will you, mam’zelle?”

mam’zelle gave small squeal. “always you say that to me, bill! it is not kind. i will not let your great horse tread on my foot with its paws.”

“hooves, mam’zelle, hooves,” said bill, quite shocked at mam’zelle calling them paws.

“shaking its hair all over me,” went on mam’zelle, conjuring up a fearsome picture of a stamping, head-shaking, rearing creature!

“shaking its mane,” corrected bill. “oh, mam’zelle, you’re awful about horses. i shall drag you out to thunder and give you a lesson on all his different parts!”

“this horrible bill!” said mam’zelle, turning her eyes up to the ceiling. “why must i teach her french when all she wants to learn about is horses? why do you laugh, girls? i would not make a joke about so serious a thing!”

“oh—it’s good to be back again, isn’t it?” said darrell to sally. “i never laugh anywhere like i do at school, never!”