01 The School at the Chalet (28 page)

‘Be quiet! If you interrupt, I won’t read it to you at all!’

‘Sorry! I’ll be good! Do get on! I’m dying to know what it’s about!’

‘Where was I? Oh, yes! “It is with the greatest diffidence that I venture to approach you on such a subject, knowing, as I do, the delicacy with which it should be treated, especially to a high-up lady like you-” What on earth- Is the man mad?’

‘Oh, get on!’ implored Joey impatiently. ‘Don’t be so aggravating!’

‘All right! It’s my letter, remember! Let’s see-”lady like you. Believe me, honoured Madam, I should not have the-the-oh-the temerity to approach you thus were it not that I feel–” ‘ Her voice died away as her eyes wandered down the page. Then she suddenly sat bolt upright with horror. ‘Joey! It’s a very private letter!

‘I s’pose you mean it’s a proposal!’ Joey interrupted her. ‘Oh, I knew what was coming after the very first sentence! Oh, I say!’ And she went off into fits of laughter.

Madge shook her slightly. ‘Joey, behave yourself! It’s not a thing to laugh at! If I’d known, I’d never have read it to you. I thought it was just an ordinary letter. You must give me your word of honour never to mention it to a soul!’

‘What do you take me for?’ Joey was righteously indignant. ‘Of course I sha’n't.’

‘Oh dear! This is dreadful!’ Madge had turned over the page and was reading on.

‘But of all the weird things to happen!’ Joey got up and strolled over to the window. ‘I scarcely ever thought of him again. He was awfully sweet and kind, of course; but I must say it seems a mad thing to do when he’d only seen you once. Why, he couldn’t know if you were good-tempered, or a decent housekeeper, or-or truthful, or anything!’

‘Oh, Joey, be quiet!’ exclaimed the exasperated Madge. ‘You’d talk the hind-leg off a donkey! Oh dear!

Why does everything come at once?’

‘It’s rotten luck, old thing!’ Joey’s teasing mood had suddenly vanished. ‘You have had a time of it since we came to Austria! Let’s hope next term is quieter than this has been! One thing, Grizel can’t go off climbing mountains!’

Madge got up, folding her letter and putting it back into its envelope.

‘Joey, I don’t want you to think I’m always saying “don’t,” but I’d rather not talk about that affair just yet.

It’s too soon after!’

‘Poor old thing! You had the worst of it, ‘cos you had all the awful waiting! It was hard luck on you! ‘

replied Joey, rubbing her head against her sister’s shoulder rather like a big dog.

Madge cast a thought to those dreadful hours when it had been doubtful what was going to happen to the speaker, and suddenly hugged her. ‘It was all very horrible. We won’t talk about it at all, Joey. Let’s see what the other letters are.’

There was nothing exciting in them. Two of them were from the aunts in England, one from an old school-friend of Madge’s, and the last asked for a prospectus of the school.

‘Which I haven’t got none!’ said its headmistress, relapsing into schoolgirl language. ‘We’d better draw one up some time; and now, let’s go for a saunter by the river.’

They sallied out, and strolled along by the banks of the rushing stream.

‘It’s been a weird affair all round!’ said Jo presently, as she stood throwing in pebbles, trying to make them skim the surface of the water.

‘What has?’ demanded her sister, turning from a dreamy contemplation of the bastions and battlements of the great mountain wall.

‘Why, all this-coming to Austria, and having the school, and Juliet, and-and James H. Kettlewell’s letter, and everything!’

‘Yes; but I don’t see why you call it a weird affair!’ Madge was deeply interested. Jo’s imagination often helped to throw new light on matters, and she wondered what new light was going to be thrown on the Châlet School.

‘Why, it’s this way. We come out to Tiern See because we’re frantically poor. You decide to start a school, and it goes like- like fun. We do heaps of things in one term, and we grow from three to eighteen. Then, when the school is just going like everything, you get a chance to chuck it if you want to, and get married.

We’re jolly lucky, I think!’

Madge nodded. ‘Yes, that’s quite true. But oh, if we’re going to have the same sort of excitements each term that we’ve had this, I shall want to give it up!’

‘Still, they haven’t been bad excitements, ‘cept the last-not really bad! Madge! Did you ever! There’s Frau Berlin!’

‘Frau Berlin? Where? Joey, don’t point! It’s frightfully rude!’

‘There! By that house! Well, I be gumswizzled!’

‘Joey!’

‘Well, but did you ever! Glory! She’s coming along! Wonder if she’ll know me?’

But she passed them without a look, while Joey gazed at her with wide-open eyes.

‘She’ll recognise Grizel,’ she said, when the tartan-clad lady had finally waddled out of hearing. ‘Oh, Madge, if she does!’

‘I’m not going to risk any more fusses,’ said Madge with determination. ‘If there’s the slightest chance of that, back we go tomorrow.’

‘P’r'aps it would be best. I say, I’m awfully hungry! Let’s go back an’ see if we can get anything to eat. It must be nearly dinner-time.’

As Madge was hungry too, she agreed, and presently they were enjoying a substantial meal. Just as they had reached the dessert stage the door opened, and in rolled Frau Berlin!

‘That settles it!’ murmured Miss Bettany. ‘You may pack up to-night, for as soon as Grizel and Juliet arrive we go back to Tiern See. I think I must go to Rome after all, so that will be all right. It will just fit in nicely.’

As soon as they could, they left the Speisesaal and retired to their room.

‘That’s the finish!’ said Jo, as she finally rolled into bed at about half-past nine. ‘There can’t be anything more after this.’

However, Miss Josephine Bettany was no prophetess, and the morrow was to bring them just one surprise more.

Chapter 26.

A Grand Wind-Up.

‘What do you think? An old pal of yours is here, Grizel-a very dear friend!’

Grizel, thus greeted by a wildly excited Joey on her arrival at Paneirimo, looked at her suspiciously. ‘Is it a plant?’ she demanded.

‘Rather not! It’s an honest fact! We met her yesterday, and she’s staying in the hotel.’

‘Who on earth is it?’

‘Guess!’

‘Can’t! Can’t think of a soul likely to be in Austria! Who is it, Joey?’

‘Think, Griselda! Think of someone you met a short while ago!’

‘But I haven’t met anyone except people you have too. Why is it a pal of mine?’

Grizel was so thoroughly puzzled and bewildered that she passed the hated version of her name.

‘Someone you had a fearful row with,’ Joey prompted her, jumping tantalisingly up and down.

‘I can’t think-Joey! You don’t mean Frau Berlin? Oh, it is-it is!’

‘Well done you! Yes, it is. Well, what do you think of it?’

‘My dear! It’s awful! Has she seen you yet? Does she know, d’ you think?’

Joey shook her head till it resembled an O-Cedar mop. ‘Don’t think so! Anyway, we’re not staying. Madge won’t risk it. You know, you were awfully rude, Grizel.’

‘I s’pose I was. Well, I couldn’t help it- she was such a pig! But what d’you mean by not staying? Where are we going?’

‘Home! Oh, you don’t know yet, of course’ Joey cast a wary eye at Madge and Juliet, who were walking ahead. ‘Come on down to the river. We aren’t going till the afternoon train, and we’re to spend the night at Innsbrück. It’s rather awful in some ways, but, on the whole, I think it might be worse. My sister had a letter from Rome yesterday, and Juliet’s father and mother are dead.’

Grizel gasped. ‘Joey! Oh, how dreadful! Poor Juliet! What will she do?’

‘Her father’s asked Madge to look after her, and he’s left her some money to do it with,’ said Joey. ‘That’s one reason why we’re going home. Madge has to go to Rome to get it. We’re going back to Briesau, and Miss Maynard is coming to look after us. She was coming anyhow, so that’s all right. What sort of a time did you have in Vienna?’

‘Tophole!’ And Grizel plunged straightway into an account of her adventures.

When, finally, they turned their steps towards the hotel, they saw Madge coming to meet them. She was by herself, and was walking rather slowly.

‘Have you told Juliet?’ said Joey in hushed tones as she reached them.

‘Yes; I want you two to be very kind to Juliet. She’s been through a good deal lately, and, naturally, she is very much upset. I needn’t tell you not to hang round her or do anything silly like that, but just be as nice as you can to her. We are going back to Innsbrück this afternoon, and then tomorrow we shall go up to Tiern See, and I shall have to leave you there, as I must go to Rome to settle up affairs for her. Miss Maynard will be with you, and I want you to give her as little trouble as possible. I’m sorry I can’t send for her to come here, but, under the circumstances, I’m afraid it’s rather impossible.’

Grizel coloured furiously, although her headmistress had not attempted to make the last remark specially pointed. She knew well enough, however, that her behaviour at the Alte Post was mainly the cause of their leaving Paneirimo that afternoon. She said nothing, but followed Joey into the hotel with unaccustomed meekness. Madge, herself, had said nothing about what had occurred on that Saturday when Grizel had followed her own wilful way and tried to climb the Tiernjoch; but Frau Marani had had no scruples, and she had told the child very plainly of what they had feared for Joey during the two long days which had followed. Grizel had had a dreadful shock, and she was never again so thoughtless, even though the worst of the subduedness wore off after a time.

‘Where is Juliet?’ asked Joey, as they reached the foot of the stairs.

‘Upstairs in our room,’ replied Madge. ‘Yes, go to her, you two. Take them both out and show them the place, Joey. There are one or two odds and ends of packing I want to finish up, and I’d rather not risk a fuss with that Frau Berlin, as you call her. So keep out of the way till luncheon. Our train goes at three, so you won’t have much time here. Make the most of it.’

Upstairs in the big airy room with its twin beds they found Juliet standing at the window staring listlessly out at the mountains. She was not crying, as Joey had half feared, but she had a white, worn look, as though she had been ill, and her eyes were heavy and weary.

‘Come an’ see the mountains, old Ju!’ said Joey, slipping her hand into the elder girl’s. ‘They’re topping, though not a bit like ours at home, of course!’

‘Yes, do come!’ urged Grizel. ‘And oh, Juliet, that awful old woman’s here!’

‘Which one?’ asked Juliet, though with a complete lack of interest in her voice.

‘Frau Berlin – the one who was such a pig the day we went to Innsbrück to get Madame’s birthday gift.

Don’t you remember?’

‘Oh, yes, I remember. All right, Joey, I’ll come.’

But though she let them pull her downstairs and out into the sunshine, it seemed as though she didn’t really care much what she did. The shock of hearing what Madge had told her, even though the news had been broken to her with great gentleness, had dazed her for the time being. Through all the chatter of the other two she was conscious of just one thought- ‘If only I could have felt they loved me!’

However, the fresh air and sunshine did her good, and when, finally, Miss Bettany came to summon them to lunch, she looked better than she had done.

No contretemps occurred with Frau Berlin, for she did not appear. Nevertheless, Madge felt very thankful when she found herself safely in the Innsbrück train without having had a scene. Juliet settled herself in a corner with a book, but she did not appear to read much. Most of the time she was gazing unseeingly out of the window. The other two had retired to the far end of the compartment, which they had to themselves, and at Joey’s bright suggestion embarked on a game of Roadside Cribbage. Madge, sitting with one eye on the silent girl opposite her and the other on the
Wien Zeitung
, occasionally heard exclamations of ‘Three goats-thirty!’ ‘Waterfall-five!’ ‘Mule-oh, bust it! Back to the beginning!’ but paid no attention. She was not desperately interested in her paper either. For the most part, her thoughts were with the coming term. She would have twenty-six girls this time, and of these, twelve would be boarders. If the school went on growing, she knew that she must either build on to the present Châlet, or else take another somewhere near.

She was not quite certain what to do. Herr Marani and Herr Mensch were very good friends to her, but she wished heartily that Dick were at hand to advise her.

As she was thinking of this, she suddenly became aware that the train was slackening speed, and even as she looked up to see where they were, it began to rock violently backwards and forwards with a sickening motion. She had barely time to leap to her feet before, with a mighty crash, the carriage gave a final lurch and collapsed on its side. Above the noise she heard the screams of the three girls, mingling with shrieks from the other passengers. Mercifully, Joey had flung herself on the floor, dragging Grizel with her; and, by a positive miracle, neither Madge nor Juliet had been badly hurt, though the former was, like everyone else, slightly stunned, and Juliet, as they found out after, was badly bruised. Also, being thoroughly English, they had had the window wide open, and so had a means of exit. The door, when Miss Bettany tried it, was jammed.

‘It’s a good thing none of us are fat,’ she said with a shaky laugh. ‘ Come along, you three; I’m going to push you through the window. Grizel first.’

Grizel had the sense to make no protests; besides, she was still rather dazed, so she allowed her headmistress to push and tug till she was through, and then, as the fresh air began to clear her stupefied brain, she reached down and helped to pull Juliet up. Joey was an easy matter, and she was soon standing on a heap of stones, looking very white and scared, while the two big girls dragged her sister out. They had just pulled her clear when, from the front of the train, came the dreaded cry of ‘ Fire!’

‘Das Feuer! Das Feuer!’ shrieked a fat woman, who was badly jammed in the window-frame of the next compartment.