A Genius at the Chalet School (10 page)

   Nina took the letter. "I never missed it. Thank you, Emerence."
   "You've had a letter all this time and never opened it?" Emerence exclaimed. She herself could hardly wait to rip open her own letters.
   "It's only from my cousin and there's never anything important," Nina said.
   "Oh, I see." Emerence turned away to join Margot Maynard, her bosom friend, and Nina once more tucked the letter into her blazer, meaning to read it when she was seated, and took her chair and cushion and went to her usual corner.
   Talking during the rest period was strictly forbidden. The girls might read if they liked. Otherwise, they had to rest in their chairs. Nina settled down, took out her letter with a regretful look at
Shirley
which was her current book just now, and opened it. For once, Lady Rutherford had filled four sheets without difficulty, for she had a great deal of news for her young cousin. Nina read slowly to their end, her eyes widening. Then she read it again and the distress in her face caught Mary-Lou's quick eyes.
   Rules were rules, so nothing could be done about it just now, but the moment the bell rang for afternoon school, Mary-Lou asked Vi Lucy in a quick aside to see to her chair and Nina's and sped across to that young lady.
   "Nina! What's wrong?" she demanded. "Bad news from home?"
   "How did you know?" Nina exclaimed. "Yes; it's simply dreadful! I'm so sorry for them all - and especially Alix. She was quite decent to me when I was there at Christmas. I didn't think there was anything wrong, though."
   "It's your cousin Alix, then? Is she ill?"
   "Very ill, I'm afraid, from what Cousin Yvonne says."
   Mary-Lou looked round in a hunted way. "We can't wait now. It's singing and then prep. Look here, I'll see if we can be excused prep. and you can tell me then - if you will? That O.K.?"
   Nina nodded. "I'd like to tell - someone," she murmured unevenly. "I - I don't know what to do. And I ought to reply to this at once."
   "That'll be O.K. The Head will give leave when she knows," Mary-Lou said instantly. "Don't worry about that, Nina. Now we must fly. Plato can be a dear, but you never know when he'll blow up about something. Come on! The rest have gone." And she tucked a hand through Nina's arm and steered her off to the song-room.
   At the end of singing, she marched off to seek the Head and found her in the study, in conference with Miss Wilson - "Bill" to the girls - and Miss Dene. She made her request and Miss Annersley nodded.
   "Can you fit in all your prep. otherwise, Mary-Lou?"
   "Yes; I think so. I've done my essay already and I've only botany and French idioms. Miss o'Ryan told us to revise our history and I know it fairly well so I can let it go if I haven't time for it," Mary-Lou returned calmly.
   "Very well, then. Send Nina to me when you've finished if she wants to reply at once. I may be able to help her."
   "Yes, Miss Annersley." Mary-Lou made her curtsy and departed to call Nina out of preparation and pilot her to the St. Clare commonroom.
   "Is it all right?" Nina asked anxiously.
   "Yes; the Head said we might. You're to go to her later and she'll give you leave to write. Now tell me."
   Nina pulled out her letter. "You'd better see for yourself what Cousin Yvonne says."
   Mary-Lou took the letter and opened it.
   "My dear Nina," Lady Rutherford had written, "Thank you for your last letter. I hope the pantomime was a great success. It sounds very funny from what you have said about it. I am glad you are well and enjoying your school and getting on with your music.
   "You will be surprised to hear that when the term ends you will not be coming back for the holidays. We have a very sad reason for this and I know you will be sorry when you hear that Alix is ill. It is so bad that the doctors have ordered her to Switzerland at once and we - your Cousin Guy, Alix and myself - are all coming out next week. We must go by slow stages, for Alix is not strong enough to make the whole journey at once. We shall break it at Paris and Basle and come on to Interlaken where we shall have two or three days before going on to Grindelwald.
   "Do you remember that nasty cold Alix caught towards the end of the holidays? She has never thrown it off and a month ago, she got wet during a walk and didn't change at once. She has been in bed ever since with pleurisy and pneumonia and was so ill, that Reverend Mother rang up for us to go at once. When she began to recover, the doctor told your Cousin Guy and me that one of her lungs was badly affected and she must not stay any longer than we could help in England. He advised the high Alps and so we have all been rushing round making arrangements.
   "I'm afraid you will get a shock when you see her, she has gone so thin and she has a nasty little cough that gives her no peace. She is very good about it all, poor darling, but she is really ill. The only comfort we have is that the doctors can do such marvellous things nowadays.
   "The twins will come out to us for the holidays, but, unless Alix seems no better, they must go back to St. Cecilia's for next term, at any rate. We can't plan for them at present. If we have to stay in Switzerland for any length of time it may be as well to take them away and send them to your school.
   "Now, dear, I can't tell you when you are likely to see us. It will all depend on how Alix stands the journey. She certainly can't stay in England. We have had a dreadful winter with sleet, rain and fog and very high winds. At the present moment everything is blotted out with a thick fog and that is the worst kind of weather for a chesty invalid.
   "So when it comes to the end of term, remember that you will come to Grindelwald. The school will be able to see to an escort for you, I expect."
   There was another paragraph, but this was the important part of the letter. Mary-Lou read it carefully. Then she folded it up and returned it to its envelope.
   "Nina," she said, "haven't you told your cousins anything about the Sanatorium up here? Don't they
know
about it?"
   "I don't know," Nina owned. "I don't think I've ever said anything in my letters."
   "You haven't? How on earth did you manage that? Didn't you tell them why we have the panto and the Sale - both in aid of the free wards?"
   Nina shook her head. Her letters to Brettingham were very stiff and stilted affairs. She had had very few correspondents in her life and she did not find it easy to write to people she had never even known three months ago. One letter would serve as a sample for all that term's.
   "Dear Cousin Yvonne, Thank you for your last letter. I am quite well and my wrist is all right now though it still aches a little if I practise too long. I hope you are well and Cousin Guy, and that Alix and the twins are having a good term. Herr von Eberhardt says he is quite pleased with me, but I need to sing my legato more. The bell is about to ring for Break so I must finish. Please give my love to Cousin Guy and the girls."
   "No; I've said nothing about all that," she confessed.
   Mary-Lou gasped. "What on earth
do
you say in your letters, then?
   "Oh, I just mention my music and ask how they all are and tell them I'm all right." Nina stopped. Then she burst out: "You don't understand! Until just before Christmas I just knew they existed! I'd never seen one of them! You can't write much to people you hardly know - or
I
can't!"
   "Well, if you ask me, you'd better get hold of some paper, fill your fountain pen and write to your cousin and
tell
her. Ask her if Alix can't come up here instead of going to Grindelwald. We might be able to see something of her and it wouldn't be so bad for her. For," continued the experienced Mary-Lou, "I don't suppose if Mrs. - oh, Lady is it? - Lady Rutherford, then, can stay, her husband can. And Lady Rutherford may have to go back for a few days sometimes. But if that happened and Alix was at our San, we could visit her and so on and she wouldn't be so lonely."
   "Yes; I could do that," Nina agreed. "I must ask the Head. Where can I find her?"
   "Study, probably. She doesn't usually teach in the afternoons. And Nina, when you write, tell her - Lady Rutherford I mean - about Unter die Kiefern. They could stay there until something more permanent was arranged. My people are going to the Rosleinalp on Friday, so their rooms would be vacant, anyhow. Ask the Head about it, and she'll write herself, I expect. Now you hop off to the study and get leave to write. You can let your practice go for once, can't you?"
   "Of course I can." Nina went off and presently appeared in Va with her writing case and leave to write to her cousin. Miss Annersley had listened with deep sympathy and promised to write to Lady Rutherford herself.
   The result was a change in the plans for Alix. Cousin Yvonne wrote to tell Nina that they were coming to the Gornetz Platz with Alix and that their doctor thought it a very wise move.
   "So we shall hope to see a lot of you," she wrote. "And I may be able to be at your Sale" - Nina had told all about the Sale in a second letter she had enclosed to Alix on Mary-Lou's advice - "Alix was delighted to receive your letter, but she can't write at present. She sends her love and hopes to see you when she is better."
   "So
I
shall have people of my own at the Sale, too," Nina said to Mary-Lou when she showed her the letter.
   Mary-Lou looked at her thoughtfully. This was something fresh. So far, Nina had seemed to care very little that she was almost alone in the world. All she said, however, was, "Oh, jolly good! Especially as you are playing in the concert! I'm awfully glad of that, Nina!"
   "I am myself," Nina said, surprise in her face. "Oh, I do hope the doctors can cure Alix! It's such awfully hard lines on her and she really is an awfully decent sort!"

CHAPTER 11

A letter next week from Brettingham Park told Nina that the Rutherfords had started on their long journey to Switzerland. They were going by road, Sir Guy having chartered a motor ambulance for Alix. Cousin Yvonne said the patient was very cheery and hopeful, but she tired quickly so that getting to the Gornetz Platz was likely to be a lengthy affair. She had written from Dover which they had taken four days to reach. If the sea was calm, they hoped to cross next day and then would travel through France by stages. All being well, she thought Nina might hope to see them in about a fortnight.
   "I say! Your cousin must be pretty bad," Mary-Lou said gravely when she heard this. "Or else they want to get her to San in as good shape as they can."
   "I'm afraid it's the first," Nina replied. "I wonder they don't fly with her. That would be much quicker and, I should think, must easier."
   "Yes, but I rather think I've heard that people like her can't always stand flying. And B.E.A. mayn't agree to taking a T.B. patient, either."
   "Yes; that's true, I suppose. Oh, and Mary-Lou, Cousin Yvonne says that Mrs. Maynard has invited her and Cousin Guy to Freudesheim for the first fortnight. Alix must go straight to the Sanatorium, of course, and Mrs. Maynard wrote to say that she would be sure to settle more easily if she knew her people were close at hand. Isn't it marvellous of her?"
   "It's just Aunt Joey," Mary-Lou told her. "It's exactly the sort of thing she
would
do. Or if she couldn't have managed it herself, she'd have fixed them up with Mrs. Graves or Mrs. Peters or someone like that."
   All the same, she wondered to herself. April was just around the corner now.
   "Cousin Yvonne seems overcome at the kindness," Nina said pensively. "It'll make all the difference to her and Cousin Guy that if Alix should want them in a hurry for any reason they can be with her in ten minutes or so. Even at Welsen, it would take them quite half-an-hour to get there, even if there was a train due at the time. Cousin Yvonne will go to Unter die Kiefern after that, but Cousin Guy will probably have to get back to England. He'll have to go back and forwards for the summer, I'm afraid. The Park won't run itself, she says, and he's busy with improvements on some of the cottages and wants to be on the spot to look after them."
   "He certainly will," Mary-Lou agreed. "Still, at a pinch he can always fly - yes; I'm coming, Rosemary!" And she gave Nina a grin and sped off to find out why Rosemary was howling for her like a lost dog.
   A card came from Calais to say that the party were safely across but Nina must not try to write for the next week or two as they had no idea where they might stay or what breaks they might make so could give her no address. Her cousin would ring up the school as soon as they reached Interlaken, where they expected to stay for a day or two, before making the last lap of the journey.
   "Well, that's that," Mary-Lou said when she heard. "It's just a jolly good thing that we're keeping half-term this weekend. You won't have any time to worry yourself sick about them. Not that it would be much use to anyone if you did. Just make a complete pest of you to Matey and the Abbess and a misery to yourself. Don't you do it, Nina. I must fly! It's just on seventeen o'clock. The bell will be going for prep. in a sec and I haven't got a thing ready!"
   "And I must get my music," Nina responded. "The Head said she would excuse my prep. for the week-end so that I could put in extra time on the piano. I shan't have any chance of it till we get back again. That's the only part I don't like."
   "It won't hurt you," Mary-Lou retorted unsympathetically as she bounced off to get her books and left Nina to seek her music, thinking sadly that, understanding though she was, music was more or less of a sealed book to her.
   The next day saw the entire school scattered. The Seniors were booked for Vevey on Lac Léman, as the Swiss prefer to call Lake Geneva; St. Mildred's grandees were off to winter sports at Davos Platz; the Senior Middles to Lake Constance and the Junior Middles and Juniors to Basle where a treat awaited them in the shape of little Gretchen von Ahlen's birthday party. Gretchen was seven at the beginning of March, but when her mother, Joey Maynard's old chum and a former Chalet School girl herself, had heard about the week-end plans, she had instantly said the party would take place during the week-end the school was off and the entire Basle party must come to it.
   "We've got the pick of the staff with us, anyway," Hilary Bennet announced as she took her seat in the motor-coach next morning. "The Head - Miss o'Ryan - Miss Wilmot - Miss Dene!"
   "
And
Mdlle," Vi added. "She told me just now that she was coming with us."
   "It's a good thing we've got two coaches for our crowd," Lesley put in. "There must be over sixty of us altogether - counting the staff I mean."
   "I wish Matey was coming with us," Bess observed. She meant to follow in that redoubtable lady's footsteps and was very fond of her.
   "Oh she says she's bound to go with the Junior Middles crowd because it'll need her as well as the other folk to keep some of those kids in order," Mary-Lou remarked cheerfully. "Room for a little one between you and Verity, Jessica? Thanks a lot! Sure I'm not squashing you both too much?" as she squeezed in between them.
   "You're still a skinnigallee, as Daddy says," Verity returned in her silvery voice. "Why don't you try to fatten up a little? You're like the definition of a line, length without breadth!"
   "You talk as if I were a prize pig!" Mary-Lou said indignantly. "'Fatten up' indeed! I don't mind telling you I hope I don't get much fatter than I am now. I'm not skinny, but elegantly slender, I'd have you all know!"
   The people already in the coach shrieked at this and Mdlle, who entered it at that moment, had some reason for her look of surprise.
   "It's all right, Mdlle," Hilary hastened to reassure her. "It's just Mary-Lou saying that she's elegantly slender!"
   Mdlle's bright eyes glanced at Mary-Lou and she laughed. "I fear your bones are too much in evidence for elegance," she said in her own tongue. "We should all be pleased to see a little more flesh on them."
   Mary-Lou subsided with very pink cheeks and Mdlle took her seat. The Head appeared in the doorway to ask if all the girls were there.
   "Yes, I think so," said Katharine Gordon looking round. "Are you coming with us, Miss Annersley? Oh, do!"
   Miss Annersley laughed. "I'm going with nobody but Miss Dene. We're going in the car. And where would you put me, I'd like to know?" she added as she stood aside to make way for Miss o'Ryan and Miss Dene who came up at that moment. "Every seat is filled. No one is going to stand, let me tell you.
All
the roads aren't like billiard tables. You'll get quite a bit of joggling before you reach Vevey."
   Mdlle laughed up at her. "Then we will say au revoir to you and Miss Dene for the moment. We shall meet in Vevey. Is all well?" she asked of the latter lady who had been counting heads and making sure that no one was left behind.
   "Everyone present," the secretary answered as she went to the door. "Girls! Are you sure you have all you want? Remember, if you've forgotten anything, you'll either have to go without it till we return or use some of your spending money to replace it whatever it is."
   They assured her that they had everything and she nodded and followed the Head out of the coach and into the drive. The school was to be closed until the Monday, even the domestic staff going off for a day or two and they two had to see to the locking up before they left. The door was pulled shut and the coach rumbled off down the drive and out into the road where the first one was already well ahead.
   The girls knew the first part of the way quite well after two years or so of coming and going each term. But when they came to the fork that led down to the plain, instead of taking the right-hand way, they swung off to the left, much to their delight. The snow-covered mountain peaks towered above them as the coach took the road that had led through the Bernese Alps. At first, there was little to be heard but the noise of the coach as it rolled along, its heavily-chained wheels biting the frozen snow. Then they began to descend and presently the girls were pointing out to each other patches of bare rock or hints of green here and there. These became more and more frequent as they went on. Then someone realized that the silence of the snow was over and the air was full of the sound of water - falling water, rushing water, water babbling to itself, water thundering down over rocks and crags. Now they were running through forest where the pine needles were shedding their burden of snow every now and then. This ended and they were among fields that lay bare and brown where the snow had gone, though white streaks and patches were there in plenty. They had reached the plain and were heading for Reidenback where they paused long enough at the Gasthaus to have coffee and bread twists. Früstück had been at seven and by the time they reached the large village, it was after ten and they were glad of the snack. Not that they were given much chance to loiter. They were supposed to be at Vevey somewhere around noon and they still had some distance to go. However, now they were on the highroad and would stick to it, so once they were back in the coaches, they made better time and midday saw them rolling down the Route de St. Denis into Vevey itself.
   It was a lovely day at the end of March and March itself was at its most lamblike. The girls found the air of Vevey so warm after the bracing atmosphere of the Gornetz Platz, that there was a cry to know if they might cast their big coats.
   "Wait till we arrive at our
pension
," Mdlle replied. "We are almost there and le déjeuner awaits us, I have no doubt."
   "Is that what we call Mittagessen here?" Lesley asked with interest.
   "Mais oui, vraiment, ma petite. Ici, on est dans le pays de la Suisse francaise," Mdlle replied in her own tongue, her black eyes sparkling. "I shall expect to hear
very
good French here, mes filles. However," she added as Hilda and one or two of the others looked distinctly alarmed at this, "Vevey was one of the first of the Swiss cities to become well known to English tourists and you will find that English is spoken in most places."
   "What a mercy!" Hilda Jukes murmured to her great friend, Meg Whyte.
   "Isn't it just!" Meg replied in the same low tone. Neither girl was gifted in languages and it really was a relief to know that if their French failed them, their English would carry them through!
   The coach swung into the Avénue de Mont Pélérin and a few minutes later, they had turned again and were running westwards along the lake shore till they stopped at a tall house, four storeys high, with balconies at the ground and first floors. The school car was standing in the little courtyard and the Head and Miss Dene were waiting for them outside the
pension
.
   "Come along!" the former exclaimed. "I've just welcomed the first coachload and Mme Joevet, our hostess, assures me that déjeuner is ready when we are. Tumble out, all of you and Miss Dene will show you your rooms and where to wash. Don't take time to do anything more -
except
that I should like to see tidy heads at the table," she added with a meaning glance at some notably
un
tidy ones. "I'm sure you are all ravenous by this time!"
   They came tumbling out, stretching their legs thankfully, even the elfin Verity. It had been a delightful run but, as Mary-Lou pointed out to someone later on, sitting still for hours at a time has a stiffening effect on the legs!
   Déjeuner was indeed waiting, as they found when they came down to the big salle-a-manger, very spick and span. Piping hot consommé came first, served with great chunks of delicious holey French bread. This was followed by a fried lake perch in a delectable butter sauce, accompanied by bottled mushrooms and sauté potatoes. As a finish, cheesecakes arrived for the last course - melting pastry cases, filled with a savoury cheese mixture. The girls revelled in them and when they got back to school, one of the first things proclaimed to the others was that Hilda and Mary-Lou had each made away with
five
! Hilda shrieked and hid her face, but Mary-Lou merely grinned round and said she was trying to pick up a little extra weight as everyone said she was still too bony for grace and elegance! But then, you had to get up very early in the morning if you hoped to catch Mary-Lou out!
   "What do we do after this, Miss Annersley?" Betsy Lucy asked as the meal ended.
   "Go and sit on the balcony and have our coffee. After that, you may unpack your cases and settle in. At half past two we are all going for a walk along the lake-side promenade. That will help you to recover from the effects of your meal. Really, girls, I'd no idea we had such a lot of Gargantuas in the school! However, a six miles walk will do away with any ill effects. It will also give you a chance to see the lake and the mountains since it's such a clear day. We'll go in parties and you can have your Kaffee und Kuchen in any café that takes your fancy. the only think I ask is that you will remember that we are here as a school. I don't expect monkey tricks from girls of your age, but I do beg you not to shriek too much. Also remember that le diner here is at seven and you much change for it, so don't be too late." Then she turned to those of the staff who were with her, "I think that covers it?"
   "Oh, please, Miss Annersley, may we cast our big coats and just wear our blazers?" Mary-Lou asked eagerly. "It's boiling hot down here after the Platz and we'll be melted if we have to wear winter coats for a walk!"
   "Yes; you may. But take scarves with you. Remember that this is just the end of March and though it's warm enough in the sunshine, it'll grow cold after dark. However, you all ought to be back by six o'clock - or quarter past at latest. I don't think it will hurt any of you."
   A chorus of "thank-yous" rose at this.
   "Then is that all? Anyone got anything more to ask?"
   Nina rose. "May we do any shopping, please?"
   "I don't mind; but I think you'll be wiser to wait for that till the last day."
   Nina said no more, though when they were upstairs, the three people with whom she shared a bedroom were anxious to know what she hoped to buy.
   "Nothing in particular," she said. "I only thought it would be a good idea to have permission in case we saw anything we wanted specially."