03 The Princess of the Chalet School (26 page)

‘Interfering giraffe!’ was Joey’s comment after they had left Innsbruck and were hurrying southwards through the Tyrol.

‘
Joey
!’ exclaimed Juliet as reprovingly as she could for smothering a giggle at Joey’s choice of an epithet.

Her Melnarti was nearly as broad as he was long, so the comparison wasn’t very apt.

‘Well, he
is
!’ retorted Joey.

However, she changed her mind presently. Herr Melnarti was a most delightful man, who adored children, and before long they were listening to his stories of Hans, and Meuda, and Friedel, and Klara, and Karl and Kâtchen, who were twins, and Gretel, the baby.

‘They sound awfully nice,’ said Joey approvingly, when he had finished an account of how Friedel and Klara, who were
Junge Taugenichten
, had dressed up the stump of an old tree in one of their sheets, and everyone had declared that the garden was haunted! Herr Melnarti laughed.

‘I whipped Friedel for that,’ he said, ‘and then Klara cried, and said it was her fault as much as Friedel’s, so I had to forgive them.’

He was very good to them, and when night came he took the Robin into his arms and let her sleep there, as the elder girls were still wide awake. They would reach Verona early in the morning, and they had to spend the night in the train. When finally he rose to go, insisting that the other two should try to get some sleep too, he tucked them up in their rugs, and he came along to see that they were all right several times during the night. They were quite sorry to part with him when he left them in Signor di Ricci’s care at Verona, and had promised them that he would tell his wife to send Klara to the Chalet School next term. As she duly arrived, and Kâtchen was promised for the following September, it may be gathered what
he
thought of
them
!

Signor di Ricci was ‘nice, but dull’ – this was Juliet’s verdict when they were telling their adventures at the palace. He gave them a good breakfast, and saw that they were in a carriage with pleasant people. Then he presented them each with a packet of chocolate, and said, ‘
A rivederci
!’ and left them. At Padua they saw Captain Trevillion on the platform waving his hat to them, and they set off on the last stage of their journey.

It was very late when they arrived at Firarto, and they swept through wide silent streets, with mounted policemen here and there, and tall electric lamps.

The Robin slept through the whole of the arrival, and was undressed and put to bed all without awaking her, but Joey managed to open her eyes long enough to clutch her sister in a mighty hug and kiss her. Then she, too, went off to sleep once more, and was tucked up without so much as moving an eyelash. Juliet was properly awake, as became a young lady who was to become a college student in two months’ time, and she ate the soup they brought her, and answered Mrs. Russell’s questions before she, too, sought her bed.

Then they all slept till the sun was shining brightly on the palace gardens, and Elisaveta had had her breakfast and was wandering anxiously up and down the long corridor, wishing they would hurry up and get dressed, for she had heaps to show them, and the afternoon would be completely taken up.

Joey woke up first, to meet her sister’s eyes. She rolled over, and then sat up. ‘Hallo!’ she exclaimed.

‘Whatever time is it?’

‘Nearly ten,’ replied Madge, showing her watch.

Jo glanced at it casually, and then stared at her sister.

‘What
is
the matter?’ demanded Madge, thinking that she must have got a smudge on her face.

‘You don’t look a bit different,’ said Jo.

‘May I ask
how
you expected me to look different?’ demanded her sister.

‘We-ell, I don’t know. I thought you’d look –
married
!’

Madge coloured furiously. ‘Joey! You really are the edge! Of course I don’t look different! To hear you, anyone would think I’d some idiotic disease!’

Joey grinned. ‘Not sure that it isn’t! Oh, keep your hair on! I say, can I get up?’

‘You’d better have breakfast first,’ decided Madge; ‘and here it comes.’

Joey looked approvingly at the tray borne by a pretty girl in the Belsornian native dress. ‘It looks topping!’

she remarked. ‘I’ll wash my hands and face, if I may, and then I’ll wire in! Where’s the Robin?’

‘Over there in the corner,’ replied her sister, waving her hand to a little bed in the opposite corner of the room. ‘Don’t yell, Joey. I want her to have her sleep out. She was fearfully tired, poor baby!’

Joey lowered her voice obediently, but when on, ‘Where have they put Juliet?’

‘Next door,’ returned Madge. ‘Elisaveta is on the other side of you, so you are all together. The schoolroom is beyond, and her own sitting-room beyond that. She was showing it all to me yesterday. There are four huge book-cases, all full of books. Yes,’ as Joey’s eyes grew bright, ‘you like that, I know; but do remember, Jo, that you are a visitor, and don’t read
all
the time!’

Joey chuckled. ‘I won’t! There are heaps of excursions to places where things happened – murders, and assassinations, and
oubliettes
, and things – and we are going to see them
all
!’

Madge laughed. ‘What a blood-thirsty collection! Yes, you may get up now if you have really finished your breakfast. The bathroom is over there, through that door. I have put out a clean white frock for you to wear this morning, and you must be careful not to tire yourself too much.’

Joey looked up from the floor, where she was sitting putting on her bedroom slippers. ‘Why not?’

‘Because – we are going to the city this afternoon, and you won’t enjoy yourself if you aren’t fresh.’

Joey wasn’t watching her, or she would have seen an indescribable expression on her sister’s face as she said this. As it was, she trotted off to the bathroom and took her bath without troubling about the afternoon’s expedition in the least; while Madge, after a look at the Robin, who still slept soundly, slipped away to see if Juliet had roused yet.

The morning was spent quietly in the garden, where Elisaveta showed her guests her one little plot, and the famous fountains, which were not playing that morning, and introduced them to various people, as ‘My chums from school.’

Everyone was very nice to them, and everyone looked reventially at Joey, much to her amazement. She couldn’t imagine why they should all gape at her like that! After lunch, which they had in the King’s private apartments, the children were sent to get ready for their drive.

‘Venetta will come and help you, Juliet,’ said the Princess, ‘and Madame will dress the Robin, ‘cos she said so. Alette is coming to you, Joey.’

Joey opened eyes like saucers. ‘Why?’ she demanded. ‘I can dress myself.’

Elisaveta looked rather funny for a minute, and Jo was afraid she had hurt her friend’s feelings; but before she could get out an apology Alette appeared on the scene and whisked her off.

‘I can manage, honour bright!’ Joey informed her.

Alette appeared to think not. She poured out hot water into the bowl while Joey was taking off her plain linen frock, and told her to wash her hands and face. After that she examined her nails carefully and performed a little manicuring, after which she brushed Joey’s hair till it shone like raw silk. Then she went to a cupboard and took from it a dainty little petticoat, all lace and muslin, and required her new charge to get into it.

Jo did as she was bidden; it seemed the easiest thing to do, but she wondered very much why all this fuss was necessary for a drive through the capital. However, she supposed it had to be done, and there didn’t seem any use in arguing with Alette, who treated her as if she were no older than the Robin. When she was ready, the maid produced another white frock – but such a frock! Jo nearly gasped when she saw it. It was of white georgette, very simply made, and trimmed with cobwebby lace. Nothing could have been much plainer, for the lace only edged the neck and short sleeves, but it was exquisitely delicate, and she had never had one like it in her life. Alette slipped it over her head and adjusted it very carefully. Then she cast a glance at the dainty black silk stockings and shoes which Joey had put on before she washed; gave her hair a final touch with the brush, and then put on her head a big white hat with a twist of white silk round the crown. It was the simplest outfit, but Joey felt that she had never been so dressed as she was now.

‘It will do, mademoiselle,’ said Alette as she gave her a pair of long white gloves. ‘Put them on! So! Now that is all. His Majesty requests that you will go to the White Salon, and speak with him.’

‘But I don’t know where it is,’ said Jo dismayedly.

‘Venetta will have finished Mademoiselle Juliet,’ replied Alette, ‘and she will show you the way.’

She opened the door as she spoke, and there was Venetta, a pretty rosy girl, who bobbed a curtsy as Jo appeared.

‘Venetta, you will please take Mademoiselle Joey to the White Salon,’ directed Alette. ‘Then come back to me, as I shall need you.’

Venetta bobbed another curtsy. ‘Will you follow me, miss,’ she said to Joey.

Jo meekly followed her along passages and down stairs to a great door, where two of the royal footmen promptly came to attention when they saw her.

‘It is Mademoiselle Bettany,’ said Venetta.

The footmen saluted the startled child, and then flung back the doors, the older one announcing

‘Mademoiselle Bettany!’ in tones which rang out.

‘Mademoiselle Bettany’ entered the great room, looking, as she felt, rather scared. The King, clad in a white uniform, with orders on his breast, and a glittering helmet, rose from a seat at the other end. Near him was Madge, looking prettier than ever in a white frock, too. Jem was standing behind her, wearing what Joey mentally termed ‘his gladdest rags,’ and the Crown Prince, in all the glory of his colonel’s uniform, was on the other side of the King, who stretched out a hand to her.

‘Josephine,’ he said gently. ‘I have asked you to come here so that my people may do honour to the girl who helped to save the Princess Elisaveta from the hands of Cosimo. The whole country knows what you did, and at what risk to yourself.’

‘But there wasn’t any risk!’ gasped Joey. ‘At least, not much – your Majesty.’

‘There was a terrible risk,’ replied the King. ‘Cosimo was mad, and what he might have done to you had he caught you, I shudder to think. It is the wish of my people and of the Government that we should show you how deeply grateful we all feel to you; so this afternoon you are to drive through the capital so that the people may see you, and then, at the Grand House – our Parliament House, you know – you are to be presented with a little remembrance of your courage.’

Joey went white. What a horrible thing to happen. Perhaps the King understood, for he added gently, ‘You will do it, will you not? We hope to have Guides here in Belsornia, and the girls of Belsornia will like to see a Guide who had upheld her order so well.’

‘Yes, your Majesty,’ said Joey, looking up at him. ‘B-but I’d rather face Cosimo three times over, really!’

The King laughed kindly. ‘I am sure that you would. Never mind! It will soon be over, and you won’t mind for the time it will take, will you?’

Joey said nothing, though she rather thought she
would
. Then the other three came in, all as beautifully dressed as she was, and they went out through two lines of footmen and entered the carriages. The King and the Crown Prince sat in the first with Elisaveta and Joey facing them, and Madge and Jem came in the next, with Juliet and the Robin. After them followed the chief ministers of the Household, and then the Royal Household Troops fell in behind on their find white horses, and the procession began.

The streets were lined with people as they drove slowly through, and all the people were cheering.

‘That is for you, Joey,’ said the Crown Prince. ‘Wave your hand to them, dear.’

Joey did as she was told, and waved again and again, while the cheers thundered forth for the girl who had saved the Little Lady of Belsornia from what might have been a dreadful fate, for everyone knew now that Prince Cosimo had been insane, and not responsible for his actions.

At length they came to the Grand House, where they were received by the Ministers of the Crown, and Joey was led into a huge hall, where someone made a long speech, telling what she had done, and someone else followed with a longer. Then the King smiled t her, and she moved forward amidst more cheering and clapping, and the Prime Minister presented her with an illuminated address in a carved ivory casket.

Jo summoned her prettiest French to her aid. ‘Thank you so much,’ she said shyly. ‘It is so kind of you –but I couldn’t have left the Princess without help, and I only did what anyone would have done.’

There were more speeches, but she heard not a word of them, and then they were all back in the carriages and going through the streets again. When they finally reached the palace, Joey felt more tired than she had ever done in her life.

‘Well done, Joey,’ said Prince Carol when they were all having tea – a sumptuous tea! ‘You did splendidly.’

Joey fingered the string of pearls he and the King had given her when they had returned. ‘It’s awfully kind of you, sir,’ she said, ‘but I’m glad I sha’n't have
that
to do anymore!’

‘You wouldn’t like to be a princess, then?’ asked the King.

Jo shook her head. ‘Oh
no
! I’m going to be an authoress!’

His Majesty smiled. ‘I hope you will. At the same time, when Elisaveta is older she will want a maid of honour, and I hope you will not refuse to accept the post when the time comes.’

‘If it doesn’t interfere with my writing,’ replied Joey.

‘It sha’n't,’ said Elisaveta. ‘But I’ll want you, Joey, so you must promise.’

‘Oh well, if Madge says I may, then I will.’

Madge looked at her with a smile. ‘I shall be very glad. And I think,’ she added, ‘that we are all very glad that Princess Elisaveta came to the Chalet School.’

Joey rose to her feet, her tea-cup in her hand. ‘Here’s long life and good luck to Princess Elisaveta of the Chalet School!’ she cried.