13 half-term at last!

the girls became very excited at the beginning of half-term week. many of them would see theirparents on the saturday—and miss remmington, the games-mistress, had suddenly decided to have asmall edition of the swimming sports for the benefit of the parents. everyone who visited malorytowers was struck with the beautiful natural pool, and loved to see it.

'so it would be nice this half-term, as it's so hot, for your people to go down to the breezy pool, andsee not only the beauties of the water, but the way their girls can swim and dive!' said missremmington. 'we will have a pleasant time down there and then come back for a strawberry andcream tea, with ices!'

what fun! darrell hugged herself with joy whenever she thought of it. she had got on so well withher swimming and diving, and she knew her parents would be pleased. and strawberries and ice-cream afterwards. how simply wizard!

but she was rather taken aback on wednesday when the half-term places were read out. instead ofbeing in the first three or four, as she had hoped, she was tenth from the bottom. she could hardlybelieve her ears! katherine was top, alicia was fifth, betty was fourteenth, gwendoline was bottom—mary-lou was sixth from the bottom, not very far below darrell!

darrell sat very quiet whilst the rest of the marks were read out. there were thirty or so girls in herform—and more than twenty of them had done better than she had. surely, surely there must be somemistake?

she went to miss potts about it, looking worried. 'miss potts,' she began, rather timidly, for themistress was correcting papers and looked very busy, 'miss potts, excuse my interrupting you, butcan i ask you something?'

'what is it?' said miss potts, running her blue pencil across a line of writing.

'well—it's about the form order,' said darrell. 'am i really so low down as that?'

'let me see—what were you? quite a long way down,' said miss potts, pulling the list to her andlooking at it. 'yes, that's right. i was surprised and disappointed, darrell. you did so well in the firsttwo weeks.'

'but miss potts,' said darrell, and then stopped. she didn't know quite how to say what she wanted tosay. she wanted to say that she had much better brains than at least half the form, so why was she solow? but somehow that sounded conceited.

however miss potts, who was very quick-minded, saw her difficulty. 'you have come to ask me howit is you are nearer the bottom than the top when you could so easily be among the top ones?' shesaid. 'well, i'll tell you, darrell. there are people like alicia, who can play the fool in class and wastetheir time and everyone else's, and yet still come out well in their work. and there are people likeyou, who can also play the fool and waste their time—but unfortunately it affects their work and theyslide down to the bottom. do you understand?'

darrell flushed very red and looked as if she could sink through the floor. she nodded.

'yes, thank you,' she said in a small voice. she looked at miss potts out of her clear brown eyes. 'iwouldn't have been so silly if i'd known it was going to affect my place in the form,' she said. 'i—ijust thought as i had good brains and a good memory i'd be all right, anyhow. daddy and mother willbe disappointed.'

'they probably will,' said miss potts, taking up her pencil again. 'i shouldn't copy alicia and bettytoo much if i were you, darrell. you will be a finer character if you go along on your own, than ifyou copy other people. you see, what vow do, you do whole-heartedly—so if you play the fool,naturally other things will suffer. alicia is able to do two or three things quite well at one and thesame time. that certainly has its points—but the best people in this world are the whole-hearted ones,if they can only make for the right things.'

'i see,' said darrell. 'like my father. he's whole-hearted. he's a surgeon and he just goes in for givingback people their health and happiness with all this heart—so he's marvellous.'

'exactly,' said miss potts. 'but if he split himself up, so to speak, and dabbled in half a dozen things,he would probably not be nearly such a remarkable surgeon. and when you choose something worthwhile like doctoring—or teaching— or writing or painting, it is best to be whole-hearted about it. itdoesn't so much matter for a second rate or third-rate person. but if you happen to have the makingsof a first-rate person and you mean to choose a first-rate job when you grow up, then you must learnto be whole-hearted when you are young.'

darrell didn't like to ask miss potts if she thought she had the makings of a first-rate person in her,but she couldn't help hoping that she had. she went away rather subdued. what a pity she hadn't beenwhole-hearted over her work and got up to the top, instead of being whole-hearted over playing thefool with alicia and betty, and sliding down towards the bottom.

gwendoline's mother and her old governess, miss winter, were coming on saturday too. gwendolinewas very much looking forward to showing off in front of them. how small she would make misswinter feel, when she talked of her lessons and how wonderful she was at everything!

mary-lou's people were not coming and she was disappointed. gwendoline spoke kindly to her.

'never mind, mary-lou. you can keep with me and my mother and miss winter all day. 1 won't letyou feel lonely.'

mary-lou didn't much want to keep with gwendoline. she was tired of being pawed about bygwendoline, and tired of the never-ending stories of her family, in all of which gwendoline herselfshone out brightly as someone really too marvellous for words.

but gwendoline thoroughly enjoyed such a quiet listener as mary-lou, though she despised her forbeing weak enough to put up with so much.

when darrell heard that mary-lou's people could not come on half-term saturday she went to her.

"would you like to come and be with my mother and father and me all day?' she said. 'they aretaking me out to lunch in the car.

we're having a gorgeous picnic.'

mary-lou's heart leapt. she gazed at darrell in adoration and delight. to be asked by darrell to sharethe half-term— could anything be nicer? darrell had ticked her off so much lately, and found hersuch a nuisance—but now she had been decent enough to give her this invitation.

then she remembered gwendoline's invitation, and her face fell. 'oh,' she said, 'gwendoline's askedme to join her—and 1 said i would.'

'well, go and tell her i've asked you, and that my father and mother would like to meet you,' saiddarrell. 'i shouldn't think she'd mind.'

'well—i don't know if i dare say that,' said timid mary- lou. 'she might be very angry—especially asshe doesn't like you, darrell.'

'i suppose that means you'd rather go with gwendoline than with me,' said darrell, unkindly. italways irritated her when mary-lou put on her 'scared' look. 'well, go then.'

'darrein how can you say that?' cried mary-lou, almost in tears. 'why—i'd—i'd—i'd give anythingto come with you.'

'well, go and tell gwendoline then,' said darrell. 'ifyou want a thing badly you can surely pluck upenough courage to get it. you're a terrible little coward.'

'oh, i know,' said mary-lou, in despair. 'don't keep on and on saying that! it only makes me worse!

you tell gwendoline, darrell.'

'certainly not,' said darrell. 'i'm not going to do your dirty work! anyway, i'm not sure 1 want such asilly baby tagging on to me all half-term.'

she walked off, leaving mary- lou looking after her in despair. jean, who was nearby and hadoverhead everything, felt a little sorry for mary-lou. she walked after darrell.

'i think you're a bit hard on her,' she remarked, in herforthright scots voice.

'well, it's all for her good,' said darrell. 'if i can make her have a little courage, she'll thank me for it.

i said those things purposely, to shame her into going to gwendoline and asking her.'

'you've shamed her all right, but not in the way that will make her pluck up her courage.' said jean.

'you've given her the kind of shame that puts people into despair!'

jean was right. mary-lou was quite in despair. the more she thought of going to gwendoline andasking her if she minded her going with darrell at half-term instead of with her, the more terrified shegot. in the end she did go to find gwendoline, but found that she didn't dare to ask her; which made itworse than ever! poor mary-lou!

gwendoline got to hear that darrell had asked mary-lou for half-term, and she was pleased thatmary-lou had not apparently wanted to go with her. she spoke to her about it.

'fancy darrell having the cheek to ask you, after i'd asked you!' she said. 'i'm glad you had thedecency to refuse, mary-lou. you'd surely not want to go off with a girl like that, who thinks you'resuch a poor worm?'

'no.' said mary-lou, and couldn't say any more. if only she could have said yes, boldly, right out!

but she couldn't.

the morning of half-term dawned bright and clear. it was going to be a super day. the sea glinted inthe sunlight, as calm as a mirror. it would be high tide at two o'clock. the pool would be just right.

what luck!

girls took loads of camp-stools down to the pool and set them up on the high rocky place above thepool, where the tide seldom reached. it was a fine place for watching. darrell sang loudly as she wentup and down, her heart leaping because she would see her parents that day. mary-lou did not sing.

she looked sober and down-hearted. sally hope looked sober too—her face more 'closed-up' thanever,

thought darrell.

alicia was in high spirits. her mother and father were coming and one of her brothers. betty's parentswere not coming, so she was, of course, going to be with alicia.

darrell, catching sight of sally trudging up the cliff, after taking down some camp-stools, was struckby the sad expression on her face. impulsively she hailed her.

'hi, sally! sally hope! your people aren't coming, are they? wouldn't you like to join me and myparents today? i can ask anyone i like.'

'i'd rather not, thank you,' said sally, in a stiff little voice, and went on up the cliff without anotherword.

'well, she is a funny girl,' thought darrell, feeling rather annoyed that the two girls she had so farasked hadn't either of them agreed to come with her. she went off to find someone else whose poeplewere not coming. she really must get somebody, because her mother had said she would like to takeanother girl out too. 'your own particular friend, if possible,' her mother had written.

but darrell hadn't got a 'particular friend.' she would so much have liked alicia, but alicia wasbetty's friend. she liked irene, too, but irene never seemed to feel the need a friend. her music madeup to her for everything.

'oh, well—what about asking emily?' thought darrell. she was not at all interested in the quiet,studious emily, who always seemed to be sewing most industriously every evening. but emily'speople weren't coming, and no one had asked her to go out to lunch with them.

so she asked emily, who blushed with pleasure and said, yes, she would be delighted to come. sheseemed surprised that darrell had asked her. mary-lou was almost in tears when she saw the two ofthem going off to get ready to meet darrell's parents. she couldn't bear to think that emily was goingto have the treat she would so much have loved herself—but hadn't enough courage to get.