7 darrell loses her temper

alicia got a good scolding, and extra prep. she came out from miss potts's room, and ran straightinto mam'zelle. 'haveyou been to see miss potts, alicia?' asked mam'zelle, thinking that perhapsalicia hadn't heard what miss potts had said.

'oh, yes, thank you. mam'zelle,' said alicia, and walked off. mam'zelle stared after her. how queer!

alicia had heard perfectly what she had said. could ears get better so quickly then? mam'zelle stoodstill and frowned. miss potts came out of her room and saw her.

'if alicia shows any further signs of deafness, send her to me,' said miss potts, coldly. '1 can alwayscure it at once.'

she walked off. mam'zelle began to breathe quickly. 'the bad girl, alicia—she has pulled my foot,'

said mam'zelle, who sometimes got a little mixed! 'she has hoodie-winked me! never again will ibelieve her, the bad girl."

darrell had thoroughly enjoyed the absurd affair. how cleverly alicia had pulled it off! she looked ather admiringly, and alicia liked the admiration. it always egged her on to further misbehaviour.

mary-lou stared at her too, as if she was somebody most remarkable. alicia went up and tookdarrell's arm.

'we'll think of something else soon,' she said, 'you and i and betty. we'll be the bold bad three, orsomething like that!'

'oh, rc'.v!' said darrell, thrilled at the idea of being one of a gang with betty and aliea. 'do let's!

maybe 1 could think of something, too.'

if was decided, however, that it would be best not to try anything further until a little time had goneby. perhaps something could be tried on miss linnie next.

gwendoline was jealous of the way alicia and betty, recognized leaders in the first form, had madefriends with darrell. after all, darrell was as new as she herself was. and she, gwendoline, wasmuch prettier, and had, she was sure, much more charm of manner.

she took sally hope into her confidence. 'i don't like the way darrell rivers pushes herself forwardall the time, do you?' she said to sally. 'thinking she's so marvellous! chumming up with alicia andbetty. not that i would if they asked me.'

sally didn't look very interested, but gwendoline didn't mind. she went on grumbling about darrell.

'she thinks she's got such good brains, she thinks she plays such a marvellous game of tennis, shethinks she's so good at swimming! i've a good mind to show her that i'm twice as good as she is!'

'well, why don't you?' said sally, bored. 'instead of showing everyone you're twice as bad!'

gwendoline was annoyed. to think that the quiet little sally hope should say such a thing to her! shelooked at sally as if she would like to wither her up.

'all right,' said gwendoline grandly. 'i w///just show you, sally. i haven't really tried before, becauseit didn't seem w orth it. / didn't want to come to malory towers, and mother didn't want me to either.

it was daddy that made me come. i did marvellously with my governess. miss winter, and 1 coulddo marvellously now, if only i thought it was worth while!'

alicia came up and heard this curious speech. she laughed loudly.

'you can't play tennis, you can't swim, you squeal when your toe touches the cold water, you don'teven know all your twelve times table, baby! and then you talk of it not being worth while to showwhat you can do! you can't do a thing and never will, whilst you have such a wonderful opinion ofyourself!'

sally laughed too, and that made gwendoline angry. how she would like to slap them both! but misswinter had always said that a little lady kept her hands to herself. anyway, it would be decidedlydangerous to slap alicia.

gwendoline walked off, her nose in the air. 'dear gwendoline mary,' remarked alicia, in a loudvoice. 'mummy's pet, daddy's darling, miss winter's prize pupil. and can't do fractions properly yet!'

that evening the girls were in the swimming-pool, having a lovely time. alicia swam under water thewhole width of the pool, and then back again. everyone applauded her.

'how can you hold your breath all that time?' cried darrell. 'i wish i could ! do it again, alicia, whenyou've got your breath.'

'the water's got properly into my ears this time!' said alicia, shaking her head violently. 'they feel allbunged up. i'll wait till they're clear. i'll do a spot of diving.'

she was just as good a diver as a swimmer. gwendoline, paddling about in the shallow end, enviedher. she was certain she could swim and dive better than alicia-—if only she could get over theunpleasant beginnings. she did hate the first cold plunge. she couldn't bear going under the water.

she spluttered and gasped if she got water up her nose, and felt as if she w as drowning.

there was only one person worse than she was, and that was poor mary-lou. no one teased mary-lou too much. it was too like teasing a small, bewildered kitten. gwendoline saw her flounderingabout near her, and because she knew

mary-lou was even more afraid of the pool than she was, she felt a sense of power.

she waded over to mary-lou, jumped on her suddenly and got her under the water. mary-lou had notime to scream. she opened her mouth and the water poured in. she began to struggle desperately.

gwendoline, feeling the struggles, spitefully held her under longer than she had intended to. she onlylet her go w hen she felt a sharp slap on her bare shoulder.

she turned. it was darrell, trembling with rage, looking as if she was shivering so great was heranger. 'you beast ! 'shouted darrell. 7 saw you duck poor mary-lou—and you know how scared sheis. you nearly drowned her!'

she pulled mary-lou to the surface, and held her there, gasping and choking, blue in the face, almostsick with the amount of salt water she had swallowed.

girls began to swim across to the scene of excitement. darrell, her voice shaking with rage,addressed gwendoline again. 'you just wait a minute! i'll duck you under, gwendoline, and seehowjow like it!'

mary-lou was clinging with all her might to darrell. gwendoline, rather scared by the anger indarrell's voice, thought it would be just as well if she got out of the pool before darrell or somebodyelse carried out the threat. she began to wade towards the steps that led down into the pool.

just as she was climbing up them, darrell, who had given the weeping mary-lou to alicia, caughther up.

'i'm not going to duck you. you little coward!' she cried. 'but i am going to show you what happens topeople like you!'

there came the sound of four stinging slaps and (iwendoline squealed with pain. darrell's hand wasstrong and hard, and she had slapped with all her might, anywhere she could reach as gwendolinhastily tried to drag herself

out of the water. the slaps sounded like pistol-shots.

'hey, darrell!' came the voice of the head-girl of her dormy, katherine. 'stop that! what are youthinking of? leave gwendoline alone!'

still blazing, darrell rounded on katherine. 'some-body's got to teach that cowardly gwendoline,haven't they?'

'yes. but not you,' said katherine, coolly. 'you put yourself in the wrong, slapping about like that.

i'm ashamed of you!'

'and i'm ashamed of vow!' burst out darrell, much to everyone's amazement. 'if /were head-girl ofthe first form i'd jolly well see that girls like gwendoline learnt to swim and dive and everything, andleft people like mary-lou alone. see?'

no one had seen darrell in a temper before. they stared. 'get out of the pool,' ordered katherine. 'goon, get out. it's a good thing no mistress saw you doing that.'

darrell got out, still trembling. she went to where she had flung down her towel-cloak and put itround her. she climbed up the cliff slowly, her heart pounding.

hateful gwendoline! horrid katherine! beastly malory towers!

but before she reached the top of the cliff and came to the little gate that led into the grounds ofmalory towers, darrell's anger had all gone. she was dismayed. how could she have acted like that?

and she had absolutely meant always to keep her temper now. and never let that white-hot flame ofrage flare up as it used to do when she was smaller.

very much subdued, darrell went back to the school, dried herself and changed. she had beenpublicly scolded by katherine. nobody had backed her up at all, not even alicia. she had shouted atthe head-girl of her form. she had behaved just as badly to gwendoline as gwendoline had behavedto mary-lou—except that it must have been sheer cruelty that made gwendoline almost drownmary-lou, and it was anger, not cruelty, that made her slap gwendoline so hard. still—anger wascruel, so maybe she was just as bad as gwendoline.

she felt sorry she had slapped gwendoline now. that was the worst of having such a hot temper.

you did things all in a hurry, without thinking, and then, when your temper had gone, you wereterribly ashamed, and couldn't manage to feel better until you had gone to say were sorry to theperson you had hurt, and whom you still disliked heartily.

darrell heard somebody sniffling in the changing- room. she looked to see who it was. it wasgwendoline, dole-fully examining the brilliant red streaks down her thighs. that was where darrellhad slapped her. gwendoline sniffed loudly.

'1 shall write and tell mother,' she thought. tf only she could see those red streaks—why, you can seeall darrell's fingers in this one!'

darrell came up behind her and made her jump. 'gwendoline! i'm sorry i did that. i really am. i wasjust so awfully angry i couldn't stop myself.'

gwendoline was neither generous nor gracious enough to accept such a natural apology. she drewherself up and looked at darrell as if she smelt nasty.

'i should hope you are sorry!' she said contemptuously. ' i shall write and tell my mother. if shethought girls at malory towers would behave like you do, she'd never have sent me here!'