8 meeting at half-past five

the whole of the fifth form was soon collected in the north tower common-room. the girls sat on chairs, lounged on the couches, or lay on the floor-rugs. they talked and shouted and laughed. moira came in and went straight to the table. a big chair had been put behind it.

moira banged on the table with a book.

“quiet!” she said. “the meeting is about to begin. you all know what it’s about. it’s to choose a committee to handle the organization of the christmas entertainment, which we, the fifth form, are to undertake.”

“hear hear,” said somebody’s voice. moira took no notice.

“i think the whole form should also be asked to discuss and choose what kind of entertainment we shall do,” she said.

“punch and judy show!” called someone.

“don’t be funny,” said moira. “now, first of all we’ll get down to the business of choosing the committee. i asked catherine to cut out the slips of paper to use. where are they, catherine?”

she turned to where catherine was sitting next to her. catherine handed her a sheaf of slips.

“here they are. i did them all as soon as you told me you wanted them. and here’s a box. i got it out of the cupboard in the fifth-form room. and i’ve collected enough pencils for everyone to use. and look . . .”

“all right, all right,” said moira. “that’s all we shall want. now who’ll give out the paper slips? you, mary-lou?”

mary-lou was perched up on the top of a small cupboard, swinging her legs. she made preparations to climb down.

“no, no—don’t you bother, mary-lou,” said catherine, at once. “i’ll give them out.” and before anyone could stop her she was going round the room, handing everyone a slip of paper and a pencil.

“everyone got a slip?” asked moira. “look, mavis hasn’t got one, catherine.”

“so sorry i missed you out!” said catherine, in an apologetic voice. she always apologized if she could. “here you are.”

“now,” said moira, “i think we’ll have eight people on this committee—because there will be a lot of work to be done. we shall want someone to represent the art side, for instance—someone for the music side—and so on. i must be one of the committee, as i am head-girl, so you need not vote for me, of course. that means you need only put down seven names.”

“well, i don’t know that i should have voted for moira,” said alicia to irene, in a low voice. “too bossy for my taste. we shall all have to salute her when we meet her soon!”

everyone was soon busy scribbling down names. maureen was at a loss because she knew so few. gwendoline prompted her, and moira soon noticed it.

“gwendoline! don’t tell maureen names to put down. that simply means you have two votes instead of one. i forgot that maureen is new. we shall have to leave her out of this for the moment.”

the papers were folded over and put into the box that catherine took round. then, whilst the rest of the girls chattered, moira and catherine took out the slips, jotted ticks beside the names of the girls chosen, and counted them up.

moira rapped on the table. “silence, please! we’ve got the results now. these are the names of the girls with most votes: alicia, mavis, irene, belinda, darrell, janet—and sally and betty tie.”

janet and betty were girls from other houses who were in the fifth form. betty was alicia’s best friend, as clever and witty as she was, and very popular.

“well, there you are,” said moira. “as sally and betty have tied, we’d better have them both in, making a committee of nine, instead of eight.”

“i’ll take on the music side,” said irene.

“and i’d like to take the art side—any decorations and so on,” said belinda.

“i draw very well,” whispered maureen to gwen. “i could help with that. shall i say so?”

“no,” said gwen, who couldn’t draw anything, and didn’t particularly want this new girl to shine.

“i’ll take on the costumes,” said janet, who was extremely clever with her needle, and made all her own dresses. “i’d love to help with those.”

“good,” said moira, approvingly.

“could i—do you think i could help with the singing part of it?” said mavis, hesitatingly. “i don’t want to push myself forward—but if there’s to be any singing—you know, choruses and all that—i could train them. i’ve had such a lot of training myself i think i’d know how to set about it.”

“right. that’s a good idea,” said moira.

“and if there’s any solo-work, you can sing it yourself!” called darrell. “your voice is lovely now.”

mavis flushed with pleasure. “oh well—i’ll see. there might not be any,” she said. “it depends what we do, doesn’t it?”

“that leaves alicia, darrell, sally and myself for general things—the organization,” said moira, who was certainly able to handle a meeting well, and make it get on with things. “we’ll have to work together smoothly, efficiently—and amicably.”

she glanced at alicia, as she spoke, a quick, rather hostile glance, a mere flick of the eyes. but alicia caught it and noted it. that word “amicably” was meant for her. all right—she would be amicable just as long as moira was—and not a moment longer!

“well, now that we’ve got the members of the committee settled, we’ll get on with the next thing,” said moira. “what kind of entertainment shall we give?”

“pantomime!”

“no—a play—a humorous play! let’s do ‘a quiet week-end’!”

“a variety show!”

“a ballet! oh, do let’s do a ballet!”

the last suggestion was from a girl who was a beautiful ballet dancer. she was cried down.

“no, no—that’s too one-sided. we can’t all dance!”

“well, let’s have something that everyone can be in, and do something in.”

“well, it had better be a pantomime then,” said moira. “we can have songs, dances, acting and all kinds of sideshows in that. a pantomime never sticks to its story—it just does what it likes.”

after some more shouting and discussion a pantomime was decided on, and for some reason or other “cinderella” found more favour than any other pantomime idea.

gwen and maureen immediately had visions of themselves as perfect cinderellas, loose hair and all. maureen turned to gwen.

“how i’d love to act cinderella,” she murmured. “at my last school i . . .”

“let’s see now—what was your last school?” asked belinda at once.

poor maureen didn’t dare to say the name. she turned her back on belinda. “at my last school i was once cinderella,” she said. “i was a great success. i . . .”

gwen didn’t like this kind of thing at all. she began to think maureen very boring and conceited. why, she had been about to say what a good cinderella she would make! she didn’t consider that maureen, with her weak, silly, rabbit-mouthed face would make a good leading lady at all.

“we’ll choose cinderella for our pantomime story then,” said moira. “we will write the whole thing ourselves. darrell, you’re good at essays—you can draft it out.”

darrell looked enormously surprised. “draft it out—draft out a whole pantomime!” she exclaimed. “oh, i couldn’t. i wouldn’t know how to begin.”

“you’ve only got to get the script of one or two other pantomimes to see how to set about it,” said moira. “can you write verse—and words for songs? we’ll have to have those, too.”

darrell wished fervently she wasn’t on the committee at all. why, this was going to be real hard work—just as she thought she was going to have a nice slack term, too. she opened her mouth to protest, but moira had already finished with her. she was now speaking to irene.

“can you get on with the music as soon as we’ve got the words?” she asked. “or perhaps you prefer to write the music before you get the words and have them fitted afterwards?”

“i’ll work in my own way, thank you,” said irene, perfectly politely, but with a steady ring in her voice that said, “keep off! where music is concerned i’m going to do as i like.” she looked straight at moira. “you can safely leave it to me. music’s my job, it always has been and it always will be.”

“yes, but i must know how you’re going to set about it—what kind of tunes you’ll write, and so on,” said moira, impatiently. “we can’t leave things like that in the air.”

“you’ll have to as far as i’m concerned,” said irene. “i don’t know what tunes i’m going to write till i hear them in my head. then i’ll catch them and write them down. and i don’t know when i’ll hear them either, so don’t tell me to sit down at ten each morning and listen for them!”

catherine tried to pour oil on troubled waters once more. she loved doing that. “well, after all—when you’re dealing with a genius,” she began. “you can’t make rules for geniuses, can you? moira doesn’t quite understand, irene.”

“don’t apologize for anything i say,” said moira, scowling at catherine. “what do you mean—i don’t quite understand! i’ve done this kind of thing often enough. didn’t i run the show last year, and help to run it the year before that?”

catherine put on a saintly expression. “yes, of course, moira. don’t put yourself out. i shouldn’t have said a word! i’m sure irene understands?”

she gave irene such a sweet smile that everyone felt quite sick. did catherine have to make herself quite so humble?

the meeting had to come to an abrupt end because the supper-bell went. “good gracious—how the time flew!” said maureen.

“and now we shan’t have time to go to the stables,” mourned bill, dismally.

“we’ll call a short committee meeting tomorrow, same time,” said moira, gathering up her things. “we’ll tie up any loose ends then.”

she swept efficiently out of the room, almost as if she were a mistress!

“gosh! we’ll have to mind our ps and qs now,” said daphne, with a comical look. “what have we done to have moira wished on us this term!”