A Genius at the Chalet School (4 page)

   She vanished and Nina removed her beret and coat and settled her cream silk blouse with dainty fingers, by which time her shepherd had returned with a soap, towel and comb.
   "Here you are! I'm sure you're dying for a wash and brush-up after the journey."
   "Well, I am," Nina confessed. "Thank you so much, Maeve. You
are
kind."
   Maeve grinned. "Not kind - merely polite. And in this place, we put every farthing of tuppence on good manners, I can assure you."
   Nina looked bewildered, but Maeve gave her no chance to discuss it. "Come on and I'll show you where to wash - though I warn you," she added, "that during the day we wash downstairs in the splashery. No galloping up- and down-stairs just as we like! Now let's see." She ran to a list pinned to the door, "O.K. You bath in III cubicle 2. Come on!"
   She marched Nina off to a cross passage. "Here we are. This is your cubey. You always bath here. In the mornings you can either have your bath cold
or
chill-off. No hot baths except at night. The list will tell you which bath you go for each morning. I mean," as Nina quite frankly gaped at her, "whether you're first, second or third on the list. Go ahead!"
   With her head whirling with all the information Maeve was ramming down her throat, Nina washed face and hands and they went back to the dormitory where she unloosened the long thick plait of black hair and combed it out before replaiting it into a shining tail. Maeve, perched precariously on the window-sill, watched her enviously.
   "What a gorgeous mop you have! My sister Peggy has long hair, too, but Bride has hers bobbed and - well, you see what mine's like!" She pulled a short curly tress over her shoulder. "Never any longer than that, no matter how hard I brush it."
   "But it's a lovely colour," said Nina, who had been admiring the gleaming bronze. "And it's so curly. Mine's as straight as - as - a bar-line.
   "You could always have it permed when you grew up," Maeve said. "I like it straight on you, though. It goes with your face, same as Clare Kennedy's." Nina went scarlet at this frank comment. She finished her hair and having returned Maeve's possessions with thanks, waited while that young woman raced back to Wallflower, of which she was one of the ornaments, to put them away. Then she came back and led the new girl off downstairs to a pleasant sitting-room where three or four girls were sitting talking eagerly. Maeve led Nina up to them.
   "Hello, folks!" she said. "This is Nina Rutherford. She's to try Va. Felicity, you're there, aren't you? Then will you look after her till Vi and Co. come along. She's a pal of theirs, Barbara told me." She gave Nina a friendly grin and added, "See you later! Best of luck!" before she shot out of the room, slamming the door after her with a good-will that set the ornaments on the shelf that ran round the room above shelves lined with books, rattling.
   "
That
will have to stop to-morrow," said Felicity, a pretty brown-eyed girl of nearly sixteen.
   "It's only Maeve," observed another, a big, rather clumsily-built girl who was plain, but pleasant-faced. She added to Nina, "I'll introduce us. Felicity is Felicity King and she and Rosemary Lamb - this is Rosemary - are in Va and so am I - I'm Hilda Jukes. And this is Penelope Drury who's in Vb. We five all came back earlier which is why we're here. Pen's been here all the hols - her father lives up here just now - and Felicity and Rosemary have fathers who have jobs in Holland so they can get here earlier than people from England. And Dad had to go to Paris on business, so he said he'd take me with him and give me a couple of days and then shoot me off here the day before if the Head didn't mind."
   "But you went to stay at Freudesheim instead," Felicity interrupted. "Lucky you! Sit down, Nina. It's as cheap as standing. Are you really in Va or was Maeve jiggling us? She's a demon and she loves pulling people's legs."
   Luckily for Nina, the door opened just then to admit Vi and Barbara and before long the room was full and Nina had been introduced to so many people that she felt bewildered. Mercifully for her, a bell sounded five minutes later and the noise of laughter and chatter ceased with what, to the new girl, was uncanny suddenness. She had yet to learn that while rules at the Chalet School were comparatively few, they were obeyed implicitly as a rule. The girls lined up at the door, Vi pulling Nina into place in front of her. A second bell sent them marching from the room and along the corridors to a very long room where tables, laid with gay cloths, coloured glasses and napkins to match the cloths ran in three rows of three tables each, while a tenth stood across them at the top of the room. Pretty peasant chairs were set at each place and Vi pushed Nina to one between herself and Mary-Lou, who gave the new girl a broad grin as she took her place.
   There was a silence, followed by the arrival of the staff to the top table. Miss Annersley, sitting in the middle, bowed her head and spoke a brief Latin Grace and they all sat down to bowls of thick vegetable soup, very savoury and smoking hot. The baskets of rolls and twists were handed round and the girls fell to with appetite. They were hungry after the long journey and all their excitement.
   Only Nina regarded her portion with dismay. She had a small appetite at the best of times and the prefects at the head of the tables served generously. When the soup was followed by risotto, the new girl's face caught Mary-Lou's attention. She had been talking eagerly to everyone. Now she turned and touched Nina gently.
   "What's wrong?" she asked. "Don't you like it?"
   "Oh, yes," Nina said. "But I'm so very sorry, I really can't eat all this. The soup was so - so - "
   "So very filling," Mary-Lou finished for her with a friendly grin. "I know. Don't look so floored. Eat what you can and leave the rest. I'll speak to Katharine in a moment. Anyhow, it'll be only stewed fruit or something like that to follow."
   Nina looked her gratitude as she took up her fork. But it really was too much for her. She was finished long before the others. Mary-Lou accounted for her own share and then calmly rose and went to the head of the table where she had a word with the prefect who laughed and nodded. As a result, when the bottled gooseberries and custard were served, Nina was able to clear the small portion that reached her.
   Supper, or Abendessen as they called it here, was followed by Prayers, when Nina had to part from her friends. Vi put her in charge of Clare Kennedy, a girl of misleadingly nun-like appearance, and when Miss o'Ryan had finished Prayers for the Catholic girls, she marched them all back to Hall where Miss Annersley told them that she had nothing to say to-night. Many of them were very tired and they would all go to bed in a few minutes.
   "That is, all but the prefects," she added with a smile at those stately young women. "They have another half-hour. I hope you'll all sleep well and wake up fresh and ready for unpacking after Früstück. That is all, girls. Stand! Good-night, everyone. Sleep well! Thank you, Miss Lawrence."
   Miss Lawrence at the piano struck up a march and the school marched out to bed.
   Nina was so muddled with all the new impressions she had received, that she was thankful to undress, say her prayers and snuggle down under her plumeau from which Vi had helped her to remove and fold the blue counterpane. She was asleep almost at once and she never stirred until the clanging of the bell woke her at half past seven next morning to a realization that Cousin Guy had got his way after all and she was at school and felt she was going to enjoy it.

CHAPTER 5

"Hello, folks! Here we come!" Thus Mary-Lou in her breeziest fashion as she headed the group of girls who had been promoted from Vb at the end of the previous term.
   "Heaven help us!" retorted Bess Appleton, the form prefect. "Those five desks left vacant are yours, my loves. We've put Nina at that one so that she can have one of you beside her, seeing your Gang seems to have decided to look after her. 'Sort yourselves!' as the sexton said after the parson had married six couples at once!"
   Mary-Lou looked thoughtful. "I don't know so much about the Gang nowadays. It seems to me that we'll have to give up going round in a bunch now that we four have been wished onto you and five are in B and the rest are all still Middles in IVa Upper. However, that's something we can discuss at another time."
   "I should just think so!" Vi said severely as she dived into the seat beside Nina. "I'll sit here and Mary-Lou can come next to me. Hilary and Lesley, you bag those two end seats. Squattez-vous, everyone!"
   "Who told you to arrange it all?" Lesley demanded as she sat down.
   "No one," Vi admitted. "But Mdlle will be landing in a minute and you know what she is if you're not absolutely ready for her." She opened the desk-lid and shot in her books. "That's done! Buck up, you three! Dump your loads!"
   As a result, when Mdlle de Lachennais arrived five minutes later, it was to find her form in a
very
tidy room and all sitting straight and looking abnormally good. They rose at her entrance to chant, "Bon jour, Mdlle," to which she responded, "Bon jour mes filles. Asseyez-vous, s'il vous plait!" After which they all sat down.
   Her next remarks were in English. "I will take register first. After Prayers, Matron wishes Bess Appleton and Hilda Jukes to go to her for unpacking. Nina Rut'erford," she flashed a smile at Nina, "you will go to ze office to Miss Dene for your timetable. And now, mes cheres, register, if you please!"
   She took the register and signed it and send Bess with the little paper-covered book to the office. When Bess returned, Mdlle was informing the five girls new to the form that they must take certain of their textbooks to stockroom after the afternoon rest. Others would be given them in exchange. Nina, of course, would have everything to get. However, the stationery monitress would see to her stationery during the course of the morning and someone would help her with the textbooks.
   "I will, Mdlle!" announced at least half-a-dozen voices, whereat Mdlle beamed.
   The next moment, she exploded a bombshell under them. "For the future," she said, speaking in her own language, "I shall speak to you in French always - but
always
!"
   The form gasped. This was something entirely new. Not that it held terrors for most of them. By the time they reached Va, most of them could talk, if not freely, at least with a certain degree of fluency. Some of them
were
fluent, notably Vi Lucy, whose mother's early years had been spent in France with her sisters so that all the Lucy-Chester-Ozanne clans grew up trilingual. Mary-Lou, with a gift for languages, had decided a year previously that since they were in Switzerland partly to learn French and German thoroughly, it would be wise, to quote herself, to "hoe in" at them, and was almost as good. Yvonne de Gramont, being French, beamed happily at the announcement. Only Hilda Jukes looked horrified. She had little ear for languages and she still found it difficult to construct her sentences to Mdlle's satisfaction and was wont to declare that never as long as she lived, could she get her tongue round the uvular R on which everybody insisted.
   "Must we answer you in French, Mdlle?" she asked anxiously.
   "Mais oui, vraiment," Mdlle said inexorably; and Hilda heaved a deep sigh that nearly blew Felicity, sitting in front of her, out of the seat.
   "Ecoutez! La cloche qui sonne!" Jill Ormsby exclaimed as the bell for Prayers rang out.
   Mdlle gave the command and the girls lined up at the door, Vi taking care that Nina, whom she seemed to have adopted completely, got into place with the rest. They marched away to Prayers, parting at the corner round which the Catholics had to go for their own morning offering.
   There were three more Catholics in the form, besides Nina, and Clare Kennedy gave her a smile as they entered. Miss o'Ryan took the little service very reverently and Nina enjoyed it. She particularly liked the English hymn with which they began - "Just for to-day" - and the girls' voices rang out very sweetly in it. Prayers ended, the mistress marched them all to Hall for Miss Annersley's promised talk and when both staff and girls were sitting quietly in their places, the Head left the chair where she had been chatting quietly to some of the others and came forward to stand before the lectern on the dais.
   "I welcomed you all last night," she began in the beautiful voice that rejoiced Nina's heart every time she heart it. "This morning, I want to tell you about some changes we have made."
   There was a little rustle at this and every girl looked intently up at her as she went on: "So far, though you have always been divided for games into your Houses, with the exception of St Mildred's who are a branch to themselves, you have lived together and have been well mixed in to dormitories and commonrooms and so on. This term, that is ended. I don't know how many of you have realized that you are now in dormitories belonging to your own House?" She gave them a smiling look, and nearly everyone shook her head. "Well, it is so. Ste. Therese girls are sleeping in Ste. Therese; St. Agnes, St. Hild and St. Clare, you are all in your own Houses. Furthermore, instead of you all using the commonrooms in St. Clare, you will use the ones in your own Houses. On Saturdays, each House will take it in turn twice a term to entertain the others. The remainder of your Saturday evenings will be spent as usual in Hall - I imagine they must be given up to Hobbies Club and your work for the Sale this term."
   There was another murmur and she laughed outright before she went on, "Yes; we must think of our Sale. We made an excellent start out here last year, and we don't want to fall short of that this term, so I hope you'll all do your best for it. The prefects are having a meeting to-morrow, so I expect we shall be hearing what form it is to take before long - Monday, perhaps?" She gave Betsy Lucy, the Head Girl, a questioning look, but Betsy only shook her head.
   "No one seems to have an idea to bless herself with so far, Miss Annersley."
   "Well, you have till to-morrow to find some and I hope you'll manage it!" Miss Annersley said with mock severity. "Now I must go on. There pantomime sponsored by St. Mildred's will take place on the last Saturday in February so I expect rehearsals will be the order of the day. This means that you have a very full programme, especially if we are to be allowed to have a School Certificate Centre here this year and most of the Seniors will be taking either that, Higher, or London Matriculation."
   One or two people groaned at this prospect and the staff laughed. However, July was more than six months away, so they calmed down and the Head continued.
   "Mr. Denny has sent word that he will be along to-morrow at eleven to take some of the choruses for the pantomime and after Mittagessen, if it is fine, we will go off for a ski-run."
   The girls clapped at this and she laughed again. "Yes; I thought that would be the jam for the pill! But this is our winter sports term and we must make the most of the snow and ice. It doesn't, as a rule, last much beyond midway through March. However, in March we are hoping for an expedition somewhere. Several places have been suggested, including Zermatt and the Matterhorn; Lake Annecy and, in quite another direction, St. Moritz. I can't tell you yet which we shall choose, but I'm sure you'll all enjoy whichever it is."
   There was a fresh outburst of clapping at this and the Head waited a minute before she held up her hand for silence which, much to Nina's amazement, came with almost stunning suddenness.
   Miss Annersley resumed. "I have one alteration for you there. Hitherto, we have taken our expedition in a body. This term, we are dividing up - Seniors, Middles and Junior Middles and Juniors. We really are too many to parade about the streets of any town and it will be easier all round."
   This statement was met with silence, but one or two of the elder Middles pulled long faces. These were the members of The Gang who had not seen as far as Mary-Lou and had no idea that in future they would be going about in smaller groups, though a special sense of friendship would always remain among them.
   Miss Annersley knew all about it, of course. She had fore-seen it last term. She had even heard Mary-Lou on the subject while that young woman was in the big Sanatorium at the other end of the Gornetz Platz, recovering from what might have been a tragic accident though, being Mary-Lou, once she found that there was no serious damage, she had set herself to recovering at top speed and had done it far faster than anyone had expected. No one had thought she would be ready for school at the beginning of the term, but she had turned up as usual, her old insouciant self to all appearances, and both Head and staff were thankful to see that she had clearly suffered no lasting harm.
   At the moment, the Head contented herself with a few final remarks about the need for keeping such rules as there were and then dismissed them to their formrooms with the reminder that Matron would be sending for them for unpacking and they must go as soon as they were summoned and not keep her waiting. More than a hundred girls take some unpacking and "Matey", as they all affectionately called her, always overlooked it herself so as to make sure that all inventories were correctly fulfilled.
   She dismissed them, but Miss Lawrence at the piano, came forward and said something to her in an undertone. The Head's face filled with dismay which changed to amusement, she then broke into laughter and swung round to the interested school.
   "Girls! Just a moment! I nearly forgot to make one of the most important announcements of the lot! As you are now definitely to live in your own Houses, you will want to know who are your matrons. Your House mistresses will be with you of course, but we have had to provide three new matrons who have just arrived. One of them is an Old Girl whom a good many of you will remember - Barbara Henschell. She will take charge of St. Agnes. She is bringing two other people with her, Matron Wood and Matron Bellenger who will go to Ste. Therese and St. Hild - in that order. Now, that really is all, except that I would like to remind you that while you must be loyal to your House, your entire loyalty must be given to the school. The House is only part of the whole and while we all want you to be ready to stand up for your own, the school comes first all the time. That is all. Turn!"
   Miss Lawrence had sat down at the piano again and at the word, she crashed into one of the
Pomp and Circumstance
marches and the school marched away to its several form-rooms having plenty to think about.
   The Va people, mindful of the fact that they were very senior Seniors, went to theirs in silence, though rules about not talking on the stairs or in the corridors were not strictly in force until Monday. But once they were safely in their own room, their tongues were loosed and they commented fully and freely on the Head's speech.
   "Well!" Bess Appleton exclaimed as Lesley, the last, shut the door behind her. "What do you think of all that about the Houses?"
   "It's just going back more or less to what the school was in Tirol, isn't it?" Mary-Lou said.
   "Is it? I wouldn't know. Who told
you
, anyhow? - Oh, but of course, you'd have got it all from Joey - I mean Mrs. Maynard."
   "Right in one! Aunt Joey told me yards during the hols. Verity and I spent Christmas at Freudesheim as Mother and Dad didn't come out here till the New Year. Mother was rocky after the 'flu and couldn't risk travelling until then. So Aunt Joey had us two to spend Christmas and we had a marvellous time. She told us reams about her own school-days." Mary-Lou stopped and thought a moment. "I wonder! She knew about this, of course. She was probably trying to give us a leg up about it all -"
   "Bess Appleton and Hilda Jukes! Matey wants to know if you mean to come and unpack to-day or to-morrow," said an exasperated voice from the doorway.
   The culprits looked up with horror while Katharine Gordon, the Games prefect, stalked into the room looking as exasperated as she sounded. "I wish you people would try to remember messages!" she said tartly. "Now, perhaps, you'll go if you don't want your heads bitten off - "
   She stopped there for, so far as the six mentioned were concerned, she was talking to thin air. They had fled without ceremony. To keep Matron waiting when she had sent for you simply wasn't done if you valued your peace of mind.
   "Heavens!" cried Mary-Lou, giving up the question of Joey Maynard's schooldays for the time being. "Where's Nina? Come on, Nina! Miss Dene said you were to go to her after Prayers. Come on! I'll go with you and explain that it wasn't
your
fault you're late!
   She grabbed Nina by the shoulder and hustled her out of the formroom and along the corridor to the office. "What're you going to do that you have a special time-table?" she found time and breath to ask as they reached the last winding passage.
   "Music," Nina panted. Mary-Lou had raced her along and she only hoped that young woman intended to wait for her, for she would never find her way back to the formroom.
   "Oh, I see. You must be jolly good. Here we are. Tap on the door and you don't have to curtsy to her - we only do it to the Head. I'll hang about here until you come out." And Mary-Lou made for the window-seat at the end and curled herself up comfortably while Nina nervously gave the door a fumbling rap.
   "Come in!" said an abstracted voice; and Nina entered to find the pretty secretary rapidly opening envelopes, stripping them of their contents and examining those before she dropped them into one or other of the two flat baskets that stood in front of her. She looked up with a smile.
   "Please," Nina said, "I've come for my timetable."
   "Oh, yes. Pull up that chair and sit down. I'll be finished with this in a minute." And Miss Dene went on with her letters, working at a speed that amazed Nina, who had never seen a secretary at work before.
   She was as good as her word. The new girl had just sat down when she picked up the last letter, glanced at its contents and consigned them to the right-hand tray. Then she pushed both to the far side of her big desk, opened a drawer and drew from it a big sheet of paper which she spread in front of her.