A Genius at the Chalet School (12 page)

   She hustled the boys off the boat and on to the little pier where the watching staff saw a much older lady come to greet them. Winifred waved and then the gangway came up and they were off again, heading round the lake towards Geneva.
   Nancy summed up the general feeling of the staff when she said pensively just before they called the girls to be ready to leave the steamer, "You never know who or what you may meet in the course of the day's doings! I'd forgotten all about the Silksworths, though we all liked Winnie at school - and Irene, too, for that matter. Of course,
she
had left school when I got there - she's about four years older than Winnie who must be about thirty-five or six -"
   "No," Mdlle said with decision. "She will be no more than thirty-one or two."
   "Then her husband did a bit of cradle-snatching at that rate," Biddy o'Ryan laughed. "Fancy her being around Joey's age. She looks a good ten years older."
   "That's the size of her," Nancy was still pensive, "I'm plumpish myself. I think I'd better keep an eye on my weight. Someone remind me to ask Dr. Jack for a dietary when we get back. And what's more," she added as they neared the great lake-port, "I'll stick to it! I don't mind being chubby, but seeing Winnie makes me realize what sort of a house-end I might become if I don't take steps to check it!"

CHAPTER 13

Mary-Lou and Co. had seen to it that Miss o'Ryan was their escort mistress. She found them waiting for her when she came off the steamer while the remnants of the Sixth thronged round Miss Annersley, begging for her company. What was left of Va made a beeline for Mdlle and Miss Dene and Nancy Wilmot laughed and divided Vb between them. The prefects had already gone off after a final reminder from the Head about keeping together and avoiding alleyways and side-streets. The rest parted after Miss Annersley warned them once more about meeting at the postal coach station in time.
   "Where are we going first?" Vi Lucy demanded as they walked along the Quai.
   "Where do you
want
to go?" Miss o'Ryan asked amiably.
   No one was very sure. Finally, Mary-Lou suggested that it might be a good idea if they did their shopping, so she agreed and they went on, for the Grand Quai is one of the main shopping centres of Geneva. Indeed, all around there are streets of wonderful shops, including the Rue du Rhone, Rue du Marché and Rue de la Croix d'Or.
   "What marvellous brooches!" Verity sighed as they gazed into the windows of one of the great jewellery stores. "Look at that turquoise and filigree one, Mary-Lou!"
   Mary-Lou looked. "It's lovely - just what Mother would love. What do you say, Verity? Should we fix on that? Miss o'Ryan, do you think it would cost too much for us to buy between us?"
   "That all depends on what you have to spend. Your mother wouldn't want you two to spend all your earthly wealth on one brooch for her. And don't froget the Sale comes off next week. How much have you?"
   "We-ell," Mary-Lou replied, "we both drew out practically all we had in Bank. You see, it's Mother's birthday the week after next and we thought we might be able to get her something decent between us while we were here."
   "Oh, I see. In that case, how much have you? And do answer my question directly."
   "We've been saving all the term," Verity explained in her tiny voice. "We did so want to give Mother something really nice, especially when she's been so ill. With what we had in Bank and what we've saved from our pocket-money, we have 103frs. between us - oh, and fifty-three centimes," she added with conscientious accuracy. "Could we manage the brooch, do you think?"
   Miss o'Ryan considered. The brooch was very dainty and she knew that both girls really wanted to give Mrs. Carey something good. Verity's own mother had died when she was a baby and to have a second mother - and one as sweet and dear as her step-mother - was a joy to the girl that none of the others could realize; not even Mary-Lou. "We'll go in and ask the price, anyhow," she said. "No harm in doing that. Only don't be too disappointed if it's beyond you. Remember what we've all told you all along; that prices in Geneva are higher than anywhere else in Switzerland except possibly Zurich. Girls, you'd better come in, too. Anyone else want to buy anything?"
   Nina did. The party followed the mistress into the shop and, in her fluent French, Biddy o'Ryan proceeded to deal with the very polite gentleman who served them. The brooch cost 30 frs., so Mary-Lou and Verity bought it. Nina invested in a pretty, slender bangle, studded with rhinestones. She had what Miss Annersley had privately considered a ridiculous sum for a schoolgirl in the school Bank. However, Sir Guy had explained that he wanted the girl to learn to handle her own finances as soon as possible since it would be almost impossible for him to tackle them in the roving kind of career she had chosen for herself. In justice to her, it must be said that she showed very little sign of being extravagant.
   "It's lovely," Vi said when they were outside once more. "I do love sparklies so much! But when on earth will you wear it?"
   "Not at all," Nina replied brusquely. Then, feeling that she had been rather too short, she added, "I want it for my cousin Alix - a kind of welcoming present when she reaches the Platz."
   "That's a jolly decent idea," Mary-Lou commented. "I should think a thing like that would buck her up no end. Good for you, Nina! As our one and only Emerence would say, it's a bonza idea!"
   Nina flushed, even while she laughed. She had liked Mary-Lou immensely and her praise was worth having to the girl who had never had a girl-friend before in her life. She expanded a little as a result. "Cousin Guy gave Alix a gold bangle for Christmas and she was thrilled with it. He and Cousin Yvonne don't let the girls have much jewellery, you know, so it was the first bangle she had ever had. I thought she'd like another to wear on the other wrist." She paused before she added, "I'd loathe it myself! I can't bear things messing on my hands. Still, Alix didn't seem to mind."
   "Alix isn't going to be a professional pianist," Miss o'Ryan pointed out. "All very well for her to have jingles on her wrists, but you'd find them an awful nuisance at the piano. What's that, Lesley? Collars and cuffs? We'll turn in here, then. You'll find plenty of choice, I think."
   They did their shopping, buying mainly trifles, for they had the Sale to consider and they found what they had been told about Geneva prices was all too true. However, they got presents of collars and cuffs of Swiss embroidery, little knickknacks, tiny flagons of perfume and sweets and chocolates. Nina bought some music for herself when she saw something she had long wanted, and a huge three-pound box of chocolates when they were all in one of the big confectionery shops. This last, she brought to Miss o'Ryan who was standing back, leaving the girls to manage for themselves.
   "Would you ask Miss Annersley and the rest to share these with you, please?" she said half-shyly. "You've been so very good to us all and so kind, this week-end."
   Biddy looked at it with dismay. "Oh, Nina! You simply mustn't do things like that!" she exclaimed. "It's very sweet of you, but after all, it's part of our job and we enjoy doing it."
   Nina flushed but she stood her ground. "I know all that, but I'd like you all to know how grateful we all are to you for it, just the same - we all would. Do please take it - this once, anyhow. I won't do it again if you'd rather not."
   "And will the lot of ye be telling me what else I was to do?" Biddy o'Ryan demanded of her colleagues that evening when she had produced the box and handed it round. "Sure the child was doing it with the best meaning in the world! But she's promised me 'twill be the last time. We can't have the girls making us presents in that style!"
   "No; you couldn't do anything else," Miss Annersley agreed. "But I'm glad you made her give you that promise. From all you say, Nina is a generous soul; but she has really too much money to allow her to scatter it like this. I must talk to her. for in her future life, she will have to rely on herself and she must learn to be just before she is generous or she may land herself into trouble!"
   At the moment, Miss o'Ryan took the box and dropped it into the shopping-bag she had had the foresight to bring, in company with all the other parcels. The packets of chocolate and boxes of sweets were added and then the mistress proclaimed that shopping was over for the day. She pulled the zip fastener tight, handed the bag - by request - to Lesley who was a careful creature, and informed them that the rest of the time must be devoted to sight-seeing.
   "Come along!" she said. "We'll turn up here to the Promenade des Bastiens and you shall see Geneva's monument to international Protestantism. It's world famous and everyone goes to see it - and the great sculptured figures of the four Reformers, Farel, Beza, Calvin and John Knox. I can't say I admire any one of them and I should hate to have got across any one of them if those sculptures are true to life. All the same, you ought to be able to say you've seen it."
   They went from the Rue du Rhone to the Place Neuve where she pointed out the Opera, the Rath Art Gallery and the Conservatoire, at which last Nina gazed eagerly.
   "And now," Miss o'Ryan said, "look ahead of you. You see that high wall? That is part of the ancient ramparts. Those houses up there used to belong to the quality. We go into this park which belongs to the University and keep left and - there! That's the Monument!"
   The girls gazed at the great wall with its four huge figures turning their backs on Rome, flanked at either side by other great names from the Protestant Reformation, in silence which was broken, as might be expected, by Mary-Lou.
   "So that's old Knox!" she said. "Well, the Swiss may think he was the cat's pyjamas, but in my opinion, he was one of the rudest, most unchristian old men who ever lived! It makes my blood boil when I think about how he treated Mary Queen of Scots! I call him disloyal, as well as ill-bred! It's a pity no one ever taught him better!" With which scathing indictment, she turned her back on the four and turned to examine the other carvings.
   "You couldn't call any of them
handsome
," was Barbara's contribution. "Still they're a great part of history, so I suppose we ought to see this."
   Lesley, who was as great an admirer of the "Bonnie Queen" as Mary-Lou, laughed. "And the funny part of it all is that Mary's own son, though he was a firm Protestant, seems to have been no greater an admirer of John Knox than his mother was."
   "My dear girl, Knox died when James I was a tiny boy of six of so - of a stroke of apoplexy, I believe. I don't suppose the kind worried very much about him."
   "Really? I'd no idea of that. Well, they're all dead, so why worry?" was Hilary's remark. "Is the University famous, Miss o'Ryan?"
   "Very famous. It was established somewhere around 1559, though it did not take the title of University until 1873. It includes three museums, but I don't think we've time to visit them to-day. But a great many famous men were there, including Rousseau and Frédéric Amiel whose
Journal
has been translated into a number of languages. Now we'll go back and have a look at the Rhone. Across the Place Neuve, Lesley, and turn down the Rue de Racite. We'll take a look at the dam."
   They were thrilled with the great dam which has been flung across the Rhone near the place where it flows into the lake, Miss o'Ryan told them that by its means the level of the lake is properly controlled, and they stood for some minutes watching the foaming water pouring tumultuously over it into the lake.
   "It's - rather marvellous," Hilary said at last. "Not to be compared with the Falls of Rhine, of course; but still, quite good."
   "You couldn't expect it," Lesley remarked. "Look at the difference in the drop. And then the Rhine Falls are natural and this is artificial - if that's the right word. What do you say, Nina? D'you know the Rhine Falls by the way?"
   Nina had been standing with a rapt expression on her face. She started as Lesley addressed her. "Oh, sorry!" she said in some confusion. "I'm afraid I wasn't listening. What did you say?"
   "I asked you if you knew the Falls of Rhine. And what
were
you listening to if not to us? For you certainly were listening."
   "Oh, nothing!" But Nina's crimson cheeks belied her reply.
   Lesley gave her a keen look, but let the matter drop and Miss o'Ryan decided that it was time to move on.
   "Déjeuner!" she announced. "We'll find a restaurant where we can have fondue - and luckily that's easy enough. This way; we turn down here. Go straight on down, Barbara and Vi, if you mean to lead. Turn right when you come to the end and half-way along the street there's a little restaurant your sister Beth and I patronized last Easter hols, Barbara, when she was out here the week before you folk came back. the fondue there is delicious!"
   Delicious it was, although as Mary-Lou complained, you soon had enough at one time.
   "It's so
filling
!" she sighed, as she speared her last square of bread coated with the luscious mixture. "If I lived here, I'd want it every day!"
   "I should think you'd soon put on all the weight you want at that rate," Vi giggled. "What a tub you'd be!"
   "Tub - with
her
length?" Hilary added. "You mean a
vat
, don't you?"
   Mary-Lou grinned at them and refused to rise. "Whatever it was, it 'ud be worth it!" was all she had to say.
   At this point, Prunella Davidson, who was with them but, being a silent person, had left most of the talking to the others, was moved to observe, "Did you two really think she'd come up for that? You ought to know Mary-Lou better!"
   "Squashed!" Vi exclaimed. "Hilary, I hope you feel a mere blackbeetle!"
   Hilary grinned. "Not I! It's something to have got a speech out of Prunella."
   Prunella laughed. "I can talk when I've got something to say. If not, I prefer to keep silence and not go nattering on about nothing."
   "Squashed all round," Lesley said mournfully. "Still, it's nice to be sure you're here, Prunella! Sometimes you make me jump when you barge in on our chat."
   "Have you all had enough fondue?" Miss o'Ryan interrupted them. "Then we'll have it removed and see about a sweet. What would you all have?"
   "May we choose or must we all have the same?" Verity asked cautiously.
   "Oh, choose, by all means. There's plenty of choice; only don't be too long over it. We want to see the cathedral and one or two other places as well."
   They chose in turn, some of them voting for the huge, airy buns filled with whipped cream; some, méringue Chantilly - méringues with mounds of stiffly whipped cream hiding them - Miss o'Ryan herself was satisfied with millefeuille which are layers of very thin pastry, also hidden beneath whipped cream. They would up with cups of coffee as a treat, though it added substantially to the cost of the meal, since it costs about a franc a cup in Geneva and a franc is worth about 1
s
. 8
d
. at the present time.
   "I
suppose
I can walk," Mary-Lou said as they finally left the restaurant. "I hope we haven't very far to go though for the next half-hour or so!"
   "We're going to the cathedral," Miss o'Ryan said briskly. "That's not very far, and a walk after the sort of meal you've eaten, Mary-Lou, is the best thing in the world. We'll go up one of the towers so that you can see the view. It really is wonderful on a clear day like this. You can see the entire city
and
the lake spread before you. Only make sure your berets are pulled right down. It's calm enough down here, but at the top of the tower there may be quite a breeze blowing. Come along and we'll try it."
   "Is it very far to the top?" Hilary asked.