03 The Princess of the Chalet School (4 page)

Madge was furious. To begin with, there was a covert insolence in the Matron’s manner to which she was quite unaccustomed. She was very young, she knew, to be a headmistress, and she looked much younger than she was. Nevertheless, she had never yet met with anything but the utmost respect from anyone. Apart from that, she was wildly indignant that such a charge as tale-bearing should be made against the three, more especially as not one of them had ever been guilty of such meanness.

However, she controlled herself, and said quietly, ‘I am sorry, Matron; but it is my wish that the girls should make themselves useful to those members of the staff whom I have mentioned, and I shall be glad if you will not interfere.’

‘Very well,’ replied Matron. ‘I will carry out your wishes.’

Then she swept off, leaving her young Head wishing devoutly that Miss Wilson’s sister-in-law had not died when she did, and mentally resolving that never again would she engage anybody without a personal interview.

The Robin soon recovered from Matron’s tongue, and took care to keep out of that lady’s way. It puzzled her, all the same. In all the seven years she had lived she had never met with anything but the tenderest love, and she had never dreamed that anyone could speak so unkindly when she was only trying to help. She referred the question to her beloved Jo. ‘It wasn’t naughty, Zoë, was it?’ she asked anxiously when the two were in bed that night. ‘I didn’t never mean to be naughty. Tante Marguerite sent me with the soap. She truly did.’

‘It’s all right, Bübchen; you weren’t naughty a bit,’ declared Joey lovingly. ‘And, Robin, you mustn’t repeat what I called Matron to the others, or it will make Madge unhappy. I shouldn’t have said it to you.’

‘I won’t tell the others,’ promised the Robin.

The door opened, and Matron came in. ‘Talking, Josephine?’ she said. ‘What do you mean by keeping that child awake at this time of night? How dare you break the rules like this? I suppose that you think because the headmistress is your sister you can do as you like!’

Joey’s temper flared up at this unfair accusation. ‘I wasn’t breaking rules!’ she said furiously. ‘School rules don’t begin until Thursday. And I never behave like that – my sister wouldn’t allow, even if I thought of doing it!’

‘Does she allow you to be impudent to older people?’ snapped Matron.

‘I wasn’t impudent!’ retorted Jo. ‘At any rate, I didn’t mean to be. And it
is
true that school rules don’t count in the holidays. My sister knows the Robin and I talk in bed then, and she doesn’t mind, so long as we stop when Juliet comes up. We always sleep till eight in the morning, so it doesn’t matter, she says.’

Jo may not have meant any rudeness, but her tones certainly belied her in that case; and Miss Carthew, who was passing, may be forgiven if she thought that the child was ‘playing up’ Matron. She came in quietly. ‘Joey,’ she said, ‘what do I hear you say?’

Jo was tongue-tied. Matron saw her change, and rushed in. ‘This child is most impudent to me, Miss Carthew,’ she declared. ‘She is breaking the rules by talking after she has gone to bed; and when I come in to put a stop to it, she answers me in the rudest manner.’

Miss Carthew did not like Matron any better than any of the others, but, as a member of the staff, she was obliged to uphold her, so she replied, ‘Jo, I am surprised to hear this. You must apologise to Matron for your rudeness.’

At this, no less a person than the Robin chimed in. ‘Zoë just told Matron that we didn’t have school rules in holiday-time,’ she said.

‘Matron did not know that,’ said Miss Carthew gravely. ‘Joey had no right to speak rudely to her. – Come, Jo! I am waiting. Apologise to Matron at once!’

If the Robin had not been there to notice all she said and did, Joey would have refused point-blank. As it was, with her sister’s words ringing in her ears, she mumbled, ‘I’m sorry if I spoke rudely to you, Matron.’

‘I’m glad to hear it,’ replied Matron. ‘I will overlook it this time, but another time you will not get off so lightly, if I have anything to say in the matter.’ With that she rustled out, leaving an indignant trio behind her.

Miss Carthew knew better than to let the two children guess what she was feeling. She merely made them lie down, and tucked them up before she said, ‘Good-night, you two. Don’t talk after Juliet comes up’; and left them.

Downstairs, however, she poured out her feelings to Mademoiselle, who sympathized with her. ‘The truth is, we have all got on so well up to this,’ declared Miss Carthew when she had spent her wrath, ‘that we don’t quite know where we are when we meet with anything unpleasant. I backed her up, of course; but I’m convinced that Joey had some right on her side. Impertinence is not a failing of hers. If it had been that monkey, Grizel Cochrane, I shouldn’t have been in the least surprised. Grizel has cheeked me more than once, and doesn’t seem to mind anyone. But for Joey it’s almost unthinkable.’

‘It does not seem possible,’ said Mademoiselle reflectively. ‘I agree with you that there must have been something more than you heard. All the same,
ma chère
, you could only do as you did. I regret that neither Madame nor I saw Matron before she was engaged. But it was impossible, as you know, and her letters of credit were good.’

‘Well, I only hope she doesn’t set the whole school by the ears,’ returned Miss Carthew.

Upstairs, the pair most concerned lay in silence. Joey was trying to recover her temper, and the Robin was grieving because Jo had got into trouble. The baby adored the elder girl with her whole warm little heart.

She looked up to Jo as an elder sister who petted her and looked after her, and any punishment of her idol meant sorrow for her. The people who had charge of the pair had soon found that the surest way of keeping Joey out of mischief was to remind her that the Robin was almost invariably heart-broken when she was in trouble. As Joey returned the baby’s adoration, it was always a safe deterrent.

Juliet, coming up half an hour late in blissful ignorance of what had occurred, was so startled by the thick silence in the room that she nearly went for Madame, under the impression that the two must be ill. Then she saw the tears on the Robin’s cheeks and the black scowl on Joey’s brow, so she said nothing, but undressed and got to bed as fast as she could.

The next day the children were all right again – outwardly, at least. Joey was still brooding over Matron’s unfair accusation, and the Robin had firmly made up her baby mind to hate Matron for being so horrid. They avoided her, of course. Madge got the shock of her life when Joey begged to be set free from any more helping in the house. Never since the Chalet School had been a school had she done such a thing, and the elder sister could not understand it. When the Robin quite independently made the same request, and gave as her reason that she didn’t want to be where Matron was, Miss Bettany realized that there were wheels within wheels here. She said nothing about it, however, merely keeping them employed for an hour or so in the schoolrooms, and then sending them out with Juliet for a ramble up the valley. It was very warm for the end of April, so she gave them sandwiches, cakes, and milk, and told them to stay out till tea-time. The weather had completely changed, and there was no fear of storms.

They had a glorious time together, making the most of this last day of the holidays. To-morrow the boarders would arrive, and on the next day school would begin.

They came in to tea, which they had with Miss Bettany in theh study, and then she chased them into a little room off the
Speisesaal
, where they found the walls were lined with open bookshelves, and there were piles of books standing about. ‘This is our library,’ explained the Head. ‘I have been wanting to arrange some sort of thing before this, but there has never been any chance. Now, Herr Mensch, Herr Marani, and Herr von Eschenau have sent me all these books as leaving gifts from Bernhilda, Gisela, and Wanda, so I got the men to put up these shelves and brought all the books we had for the library in here. I want to get the all put in order to-night, and I thought you three would like to help me. Mademoiselle is busy with Matron, and Miss Carthew, Miss Maynard, and Miss Wilson are hard at work on the games time-table, so, if you can’t help me, I must do it alone.’

‘We’ll help, of
course
!’ exclaimed the three. And help they did.

At seven o’clock the Robin trotted off to bed, but she refused Joey’s offer to come with her, as it was the last night. ‘No, Zoë; we might talk again,’ she said sorrowfully. ‘Matron would be cross if she heard us, and she doesn’t understand about holidays.’

Madge heard, but took no notice. She was not going to interfere between Matron and the children more than she could help.

Jo was half-inclined to go after all, but there her sister did interfere. ‘No, Joey. If the Robin doesn’t really want you, I should like you to stay and help me,’ she said. ‘Besides, I want to see you later on.’

That settled it, of course; and Jo went to work with a will. When everything was done, the Head sent the girls to get their
Abendessen
, telling her sister to come back to her in the study when she had finished.

Matron passed them in the passage, but she took no notice of them, and Jo hurried through her meal, and was in the study in record time. ‘I’m here, Madge,’ she said.

Madge held out her hand. ‘Come and sit down beside me,’ she said.

Jo collapsed down beside her on the floor, laying her black head against her sister’s knee. ‘Why do you want me, Madge?’

Madge made no reply at first, but simply sat there, her hand on the silky hair. ‘Joey,’ she said at length, ‘I want to ask you to be very careful this term. It is going to be a little bit difficult, I’m afraid. You see, we shall have Elisaveta, who has never been accustomed to anyone like Matron. Then we have Matron herself. I know she does not quite understand us yet, but I hope she soon will, and you can do a lot towards helping her to do so.’

Joey wriggled uneasily. ‘Madge, I don’t think so. Of course, I’ll do as I’m told, and I won’t say things before the little ones – if I can help it. But I – she doesn’t like me, and she thinks I take advantage ‘cos you’re my sister.’

‘Did she say so?’ asked Madge, startled.

“I – I didn’t mean to say that,’ mumbled Joey. ‘Forget it, Madge; can’t you?’

Madge nodded. ‘Yes.
We
know it isn’t true, and that’s all that really matters. Do your best, Joey. It’s going to be the hardest term we’ve had yet, and I shall want all you can do to help. Remember, I’ve always trusted you as if you were grown-up, and I shall go on doing so. Avoid trouble with Matron, and help Elisaveta to be happy.’

‘Righto!’ replied Joey. Then she suddenly wriggled to her knees. ‘Madge, whisper! Isn’t her voice
horrid
?’

‘Hush, Joey! You mustn’t say things like that.’

‘I shan’t after to-night,’ replied Jo readily; ‘but
unofficially
, Madge, isn’t it?’

Madge laughed. Then she gave in; it was safe enough with Jo. ‘Yes, Joey; it is trying. Whatever you do, don’t develop one like it! And now we’ll say no more about it. It is nearly nine o’clock, and there’s a hard day before us tomorrow, you know. Kiss me, and run off to bed.’

Joey got to her feet, and, flinging her arms round her sister’s neck, bestowed on her a hug that completely disarranged the silky ripples of hair. ‘Good-night, Madge. You’re a dear, and I love you!’

Then she went off, and fell asleep, making all sorts of good resolutions for the coming term.

The term was not three days old before Matron had succeeded in making herself the best-hated person in the Chalet School. The seniors all loathed her, and the middles ran whenever they saw her; the juniors, having next to nothing to do with her, were the best off, but even they fled round corners when they saw her in the distance. More and more Miss Bettany saw that she had made a bad mistake.

The staff said nothing to her, but a great deal amongst themselves.

Miss Maynard, as the senior member – Mademoiselle was a partner in the school – held the floor one evening when the lady under discussion was busy in the dormitories.

‘It isn’t only her voice,’ said the mathematics mistress; ‘it could be put up with if everything else weren’t so bad. But her manner!’

‘She makes me ill!’ declared Miss Durrant. ‘She has such awful ideas! Actually thinks that folk dancing is rot!’

In a school so devoted to all things ‘folk’ as the Chalet School, this opinion was nothing short of heresy, and the staff said so in no unmeasured terms.

‘I dislike her manner with the children,’ said Miss Carthew. ‘She speaks to them as if they – or the foreign children in all events – weren’t fit to breathe the same air as herself.’

‘She’s a cat!’ remarked Miss Wilson, who taught geography and science.

‘It may not be lady-like to say so, but I agree with you,’ returned Miss Maynard.

‘She seems to have taken a special dislike to Joey, the Robin, and the new child Elisaveta What’s-her-name,’ put in Miss Durrant. ‘Why, I cannot see. They’re three of the most harmless children we possess.’

‘I can explain Joey, anyhow,’ said Miss Carthew. ‘She thinks Madame favours her because Jo is her sister.’

‘What rot!’ cried Miss Wilson. ‘Why, Madame is stricter with Jo than with anyone else. And that doesn’t explain her dislike of the Robin. I never thought
anyone
could do anything but like her. She’s a dear little thing!’

‘Of course, it’s easy to see why she detests Elisaveta,’ observed Miss Durrant. ‘It’s that little princess air of hers that riles the good lady so much.’

‘Yes. – What do
you
make of Elisaveta Arnsonira?’ inquired Miss Maynard.

‘How do you mean?’ asked Miss Durrant.

‘Well – she’s not our type of child, is she?’

‘No; now that you mention it, she isn’t. But except for that funny air of being one of the royal family of somewhere, there isn’t anything you can take hold of.’

‘English as she is spoke,’ laughed Miss Maynard. ‘I’m going to see the young lady herself about a matter of algebra. – By-the-by, that is one thing in which she differs from our girls; she knows an extraordinary amount about most things. Maths, I don’t believe she will ever do well.’