Second Form at Malory Towers (11 page)

She tried to stuff some food down her throat at suppertime, in case Miss Parker noticed she wasn't eating anything. Miss Parker did not often take any notice of Ellen. She was usually a quiet girl, with a name for bad temper, and Miss Parker was not at all interested in her, though sometimes surprised that her work was not better.

It was Sally who noticed that Ellen seemed ill that night She heard her quick, rather hoarse breathing and looked at her in concern. She remembered how Ellen had coughed in prep. Poor Ellen—was she feeling simply awful, and not wanting to make a fuss?

Sally was both sensible and kind. She went to Ellen and took her hot hands. “Ellen! You're not well! Let me go with you to Matron, silly!”

The little act of kindness made the tears start to Ellen's eyes. But she shook her head impatiently.

“I'm all right. Leave me alone! Just got a headache, that's all.”

“Poor old Ellen,” said Sally. “You've got more than a headache. Come along to Matron. You ought to be in bed!”

But Ellen wouldn't go. It was not until Jean came up and sympathized with her that she broke down and confessed that yes, she really did feel awful, but she couldn't possibly go to bed with all that work to do before the tests! “I must do well, you see.” she kept saying. “I must” The tears ran down her cheeks as she spoke, and she suddenly shivered.

“You won't do any good by keeping up when you should be in bed,” said Jean. “Come along. I'll keep you well posted in what we do in lessons, I promise you! I'll make notes for you and everything!” I “Oh, will you?” said poor Ellen, coughing. “AH right then. If you'll help me to catch up, I'll go and see Matron now. Perhaps just one day in bed will put me right”

But one day was certainly not going to put Ellen right! She was very ill and Matron put her to bed in the San. at once. Ellen was so thankful to be there that she couldn't help crying. She was ashamed of herself, but she couldn't stop the tears.

“Now don't you worry,” said Matron, kindly. “You should have been in bed days ago by the look of you! Silly child! Now you just lie still and enjoy a week in bed.”

A week! Ellen started up in horror. She couldn't possibly miss a week's work. She stared at Matron in dismay. Matron pushed her back.

“Don't look so horrified. You'll enjoy it. And as soon as you feel like it, and your cold is not infectious, you can choose a visitor.”

“Poor Ellen's really ill,” said Jean, as she went back to the others. “I don't know what her temperature is, but I saw Matron's face when she took it, and it must be pretty high.”

“She coughed like anything in prep tonight,” said Sally. “I felt sorry for her.”

“Well. Alicia didn't,” said Gwen maliciously. “She told her to shut up! Dear, kind Alicia!”

Alicia glared. She was always making sharp remarks about Gwen—but this time Gwen had got GBQ back at her—and Alicia didn't much like it.

“On, we all know that Alicia can't bear to give a little sympathy out,” said Darrell, unable to stop herself. She had felt annoyed with Alicia lately, because she had been so offhand with Sally. Also she had thought that Alicia should certainly have owned up that it was she who had known Mam'zelle Rougier was going to take the lesson instead of Mam'zelle Dupont. She had made Belinda get into a row, when she could have prevented it.

Alicia, too, was ashamed of this now. But it was too late to do anything about it. There was no point in owning up now that the matter was closed. But she kept kicking herself for not doing so at the right tune. She had been too obstinate.

She was sorry too that she had been bard on Ellen that evening—but how could she know she was really ill? She hadn't any time for that silly Ellen, always snapping and snarling at everyone! Let her be ill! A good thing if she was away from the class for a while.
She
wouldn't miss her!

Ellen felt very ill for four days, then she felt a little better. Her temperature went down, and she began to take a little more interest in things. But alas! Her old worry came back immediately she was well enough to think clearly!

Those tests! She knew that on the result of the tests depended her place in form. And it was very important that she should be top or nearly top. Her father and mother were so very proud that she bad won the scholarship to such a fine school. They were not well-off, but they had told Ellen they would do anything they could to keep her at Malory Towers, now that she had won the right to be there by her own hard work.

The uniform had been so expensive. Even the train fare was expensive. It was a good thing she had been able to get a lift down in somebody's car. Mother had bought her a new trunk and a new suitcase. More expense. Oh, dear - was it really a good thing to win a scholarship to a school like Malory Towers if you had to count your pennies? Perhaps it wasn't.

Then another thought struck her. She had had to have the doctor. That would be another expense on the bill. And all the time she was losing her schoolwork, and would do badly her first term. Her parents would be bitterly disappointed.

So Ellen worried and worried. The Matron and the Nurse couldn't think why she did not throw off her illness as quickly as she should. Every day she begged to be allowed to get up, but Matron shook her head. “No, you can't, dear. You're not quite right yet, but would you like a visitor now? You can have one if you like.”

“Oh yes, I'd like Jean, please,” said Ellen at once. Jean bad promised to take notes for her. Jean would tell her all about the lessons she had missed. Jean was dependable and reliable.

So Jean came to see her, bringing a pot of honey. But it was not honey that Ellen wanted. She hardly even glanced at it.

“Did you bring the notes you said you would make for me?” she asked, eagerly. “Oh. Jean—didn't you?”

“Good gracious me—what do you want notes of lessons for already?” demanded Jean, in astonishment “You're not even up!”

“Oh. I do. I do.” said Ellen. “You promised, Jean.

Well, bring them next time. You tell me all the lessons you've had now.”

Jean screwed up her eyes and tried to remember. She thought Ellen queer to want to talk about lessons instead of games or fun. She began to tell Ellen.

“Well, in maths, we did those new sums again. I can bring you some to show you. And in French we learnt that long piece of poetry on page sixty-four. I can recite some of it if you like. And for geography we learnt...”

Matron bustled up. “Jean! Ellen mustn't hear a word about lessons yet I She mustn't start worrying her head about work. She couldn't help missing it, and Miss Parker and Mam'zelle will quite understand that she will be a bit behind when she comes back.”

Ellen stared at her in consternation. “But, Matron! I must know it all. I must! Oh, do let Jean tell me. And she's going to bring me some lesson notes she's made for me too.”

“Well, she certainly mustn't. I forbid it,” said Matron. So that was that. Ellen took no more interest in Jean's conversation. She lay back, desperate. She'd be near the bottom now I How unlucky she was!

Nobody missed Ellen very much. She hadn't any of Darrell's high spirits or friendliness, none of Alicia's mischief or fun, she hadn't even the shyness and timidity of Mary-Lou, that made her missed when she wasn't there.

“You don't much notice Mary-Lou when she's there under your nose—but you do miss her when she's not,” said Darrell once. And that was true.

Darrell was missing Mary-Lou quite a lot these days, for Mary-Lou was attaching herself firmly to Daphne. Nobody could quite understand it Nobody believed that Daphne wanted Mary-Lou's friendship—she only wanted her help in French. Even when Darrell pointed out that it was almost cheating for Mary-Lou to do such a lot for her, she would hardly listen.

“I can't do much to help anybody.” said Mary-Lou. “It's only in French that I'm really good—and it's so nice to help somebody who wants it. And besides—Daphne does really like me, Darrell!”

“Well, so do I like you, and so does Sally,” said Darrell, really exasperated to think that Mary-Lou should attach herself to such a double-faced person as Daphne.

“Yes, I know. But you only put up with me out of the kindness of your heart!” said Mary-Lou. “You've got Sally. You let me tag along behind you like a nice puppy—but you don't really want me, and I couldn't possibly help you in any way. But I can help Daphne—and though I know you think she's only using me for her French, she's not”

Darrell was certain that Daphne only put up with Mary-Lou because of the French—but she wasn't quite right. Daphne was very fond of Mary-Lou now. She couldn't quite think why, because it wasn't like her to be fond of anyone—but Mary-Lou was so unobtrusive, so shy, so willing to help in any way. “She's like a pet mouse, that you want to protect and take care of!” thought Daphne. “You can't help liking a mouse.”

She poured out her tales of wealth to Mary-Lou, and Mary-Lou listened in the most gratifying manner. The younger girl was proud that someone as grand as Daphne should bother to notice her and talk to her and tell her things.

Ellen was away from school eleven days and bad worried terribly the last six or seven because Jean had not been allowed to bring her lesson-notes or to tell her about the lessons. Now she came bade, pale, a little thinner, with an obstinate look in her eyes. She was going to catch up somehow I If she had to get up at six in the morning, and learn her lessons under the sheets by means of a flashlight, she would!

She asked Miss Parker if she would be kind enough to give her extra coaching in what she had missed. Miss Parker refused in a kindly manner.

“No, Ellen. You're not up even to your ordinary work at the moment, let alone taking extra coaching. I shan't expect much from you, nor will anyone else. So don't worry. “

Ellen went to Mam'zelle Dupont and even to Mam'zelle Rougier. “I do so want to know what I've missed so that I can make it up,” she said. “Could you give a little extra coaching?”

But neither of the Mam'zelles would. “You are not yet quite strong,
mon enfant
!” said Mam'zelle Dupont, kindly. “No one will expect you to do brilliantly now this term. Take things more easily.”

So poor Ellen was quite in despair. Nobody would help her! They all seemed to be in league against her—Matron, Doctor, Miss Parker, the two Mam'zelles.

And in ten days” time the tests began! Ellen usually liked exams, but she was dreading these. She couldn't think how it was that the girls joked about them so light-heartedly.

Then an idea came to her—a bad idea, that at first she put away from her mind at once. But it came back again and again, whispering itself into her mind so that she had to listen to it.

“If you could perhaps see the test-papers before they were given out! If you could read the questions and know what you were going to be asked!

Ellen had never cheated in her life. She had never needed to for she had good brains and she knew how to work hard. People didn't cheat if they could do as well or better without cheating! Ah, but when you couldn't, when something had gone wrong, and you didn't know your work—would you cheat then if it was the only way to gain a good place?

It is not often that a test like that comes to a person with good brains, who has always scorned cheating -but now it came to Ellen. It is easy not to cheat if you don't need to. It is easy not to cheat if you do need to? When that test comes, you will know your character for what it is, weak or strong, crooked or upright.

Ellen could no longer push the thought out of her mind. It was always there. Then one day she was in Miss Barker's room and saw what she thought was a test paper on her desk. Miss Parker was not in the room. It needed only a moment to slip round and look at the paper.

Ellen read swiftly down the questions. How easy they were! Then, with a shock she saw that they were questions set for the first form, not the second. Her heart sank.

Before she could look for the second-form questions and see if they were there she heard Miss Parker's footsteps and slipped round to the other side of the desk. She must never let anyone guess that she was thinking of doing such a dreadful thing.

Ellen was always slipping into Miss Parker's room, or Miss Potts' room after that. She chose times when she knew they would not be there. She even went through Miss Parker's desk in the second-form room.

Ellen was rummaging through Miss Parker's desk one morning after school hoping to find something there in the way of test questions. Alicia found her there and looked surprised. “What are you doing?” she said. “You know we're not supposed to go to that desk. Really, Ellen!”

"I've lost my fountain pen,” mumbled Ellen. “I wondered if perhaps Miss Parker had...”

“Well, even if she
had
got it, you shouldn't go sneaking in her desk.” said Alicia, scornfully.

Then another time Darrell found her in Miss Potts” room, standing at Mam'zelle's empty desk, running her fingers through the papers there. She stared in surprise.

“Oh - er - Mam'zelle sent me here to find a book for her.” said Ellen, and was shocked at herself. She had always heard that one sin leads to another, and she was finding out that this was true. She was trying to cheat—and that made her tell untruths. What next would it be?

“Well. I must say Ellen isn't much improved by being away for nearly a fortnight,” said Betty, one evening in the common room, when Ellen had snapped someone's head off, and gone out sulkily. “She's just as snappy as ever—and she doesn't look a bit well yet”

“Bad temper's her trouble.” said Alicia. I'm fed up with her. Always frowning and sighing and looking miserable!”

Gwendoline came in, looking bothered. “Anyone seen my purse? I'm sure I put it into my desk, and now it's gone. And I put a ten-shilling note in it only this morning, because I wanted to go out and buy something f Now I can't!”

“I'll help you to look for it,” said Daphne obligingly, and got up. “I bet it's still in your desk somewhere!”

But it wasn't. It was most annoying. Gwendoline screwed up her forehead and tried in vain to think if she had put it anywhere else.