04 The Head Girl of the Chalet School (30 page)

Jem set her down and hurried across to the little group. Then Joey found herself seized by a weeping Mademoiselle, who kissed her over and over again – rather to the young lady’s disgust – and called her

“
Cherie – ma mie – ma bien-aimee!”
till unsentimental Jo simply didn’t know where to look. It was Grizel’s turn after that, and while Miss Maynard helped the doctor to bandage Cornelia rather more scientifically than Herr von Gluck had done it, the two girls were passed round among the company, and made to tell their story. Then the big, vaguely familiar man grabbed Joey – “Just as if I was a pickpocket!”

grumbled Miss Jo later on – and demanded whether they knew where was the road to the other caves.

“Friedel knows,” returned the young lady, dropping all formalities. “You’d better ask
him
!”

“What! Young Friedel
here
?” roared the big man. He let Jo go, and the next minute she saw him pouncing on Wanda’s betrothed, and pouring out a perfect flood of questions. By this time Dr. Jem had finished his work, and Miss Maynard was rolling Cornelia in a big shawl she had brought with her.

“Come,” said the doctor, lifting up the bundle. “We must get back now.”

“But I will stay!” roared the big man. “I am assured that we have the way, and I doubt not but that we shall make some marvellous discoveries! Here!” he turned to the men with the ropes and pickaxes, who had been standing to one side looking on. “Come, you! We go forward now! Do not wait for me, Herr Doktor! Take that imp of a child home, and those others, too. You may look for me some time on the morrow!”

With that he plunged down the path where Friedel had found Cornelia, the men following him, and was soon lost to sight. Jem laughed as he turned to the other entrance. “I suppose we must leave him to his discoveries. These children should be got to bed as soon as possible, and if I know Herr Professor von der Witt, no power on earth would turn him back now when he knows that the caves
must
be near!”

Joey and Grizel looked at each other. So that was who it was! No wonder he seemed to be familiar to them!

They had no time to discuss it, however, for Herr Braun approached them, and with a “Pardon,
gnadiges
fraulein
!” picked up Joey in his arms and strode off in the wake of the doctor, leaving Herr August to treat Grizel in precisely similar manner. The rest trooped after them, and they were carried in safety up the passage, and across the bush-grown turf till they came to the road where the path leads to the Tiern Pass, where they found three motors awaiting them. They were all bundled in, and then they set off. It was daylight by this time, and the sun was shining when Joey and Grizel, after a good meal, were finally tucked up in bed in their cubicles, and left to sleep off the effects of their latest escapade.

“Three Cheers for Grizel!”

“I hate end of term when it’s the summer term!” Thus Joey, viciously.

Grizel Cochrane, to whom she was speaking, looked at her seriously. “It’s worse when it’s your last term, Jo! And don’t say anything to make it worse, my lamb! I will not make a sentimental ass of myself, but I can’t answer for the consequences if you rub things in.”

Jo cleared her throat. “Righto! Oh, there’s Rosa with David! Come on and see him!”

She turned and raced across the grass to where Rosa Pfeiffen was wheeling Master David Russell along in his white pram. Joey came up panting, for the day was hot, and hung over the pram, and made cooing noises to her small nephew, who lay looking at her with bland indifference, though when she slipped a finger into his dimpled paw he gripped tightly. “Isn’t he a darling?” said his adoring aunt.

“Jolly little chap,” replied Grizel, peeping at him over her shoulder. “He’s going to be awfully like Madame, Joey.”

“Yes; isn’t he? I think he’s very like young Rix, too,” replied Jo. Her brother had brought his family to the Tiern See three weeks ago, and the entire school had gone in for a course of baby-worship. Mrs. Russell had come down with her small son to join them in the chalet Dick had taken for three months, and the girls had revelled in having their beloved Madame so near. Peggy and Rix were delightful small people, full of original sin; Baby Bridget proved to be “the
image
of Dick!” to quote Joey; and little David was declared to beat them all by every girl in the school.

After that eventful night when they had rescued Cornelia the term had gone on fairly evenly. Cornelia had had a sharp attack of rheumatic fever as the result of lying in a damp place for many hours, but she was a tough little mortal, and had come through all right. The next event of importance had been Gisela’s wedding, which had taken place in Innsbruck. The entire school had gone down for it, and had had a remarkably good time. Then, on his mother’s birthday, David had been christened, and his christening feast had been the treat for this holiday. Finally, Wanda and Herr Hauptmann Friedel von Gluck had been wedded a week ago, and were now enjoying their honeymoon at Partenkirchen in the Mittelwaid.

The big event of the term, however, was the opening up of the caves, which proved to be wonderful beyond expectation. Herr von der Witt had found that the passage led right down to the first, which had the most marvellous stalactite formations, and thence to three others. In the last one were discovered relies of what must have formerly been a great city. Pavements and fragments of walls, all encrusted with lime, were there; excavations were going on, and more was being found every day. Jo was wildly excited about it all, for it proved that the legend of the lake’s origin was no legend, but a statement of fact. Experts who had come to see the place agreed that the lake must have risen quite suddenly and overwhelmed the city, though not, perhaps, quite as awfully as the old story said.

“It’s been a full term,” said Jo, when they at last turned away from the pram and strolled on to the chalet.

“What with one thing and another, I think it’s been the fullest we’ve ever had.”

“We’ve managed to crowd a good deal in,” agreed Grizel. “I say! There’s the bell for
Mittagessen
! Come on!”

They hurried in to take their places at table, for there was to be a garden-party that afternoon, and no one had much time to spare. Grizel took her place as head of the junior table for the last time, and Jo went off to her own seat, where her beloved friend the little Crown Princess of Belsornia was waiting for her. Princess Elisaveta had gone to Vienna for Wanda’s wedding, and then had come back to the school for the last week of the term, to wait for her dear Jo, who was to spend the summer holidays with her. She had come in to lessons, and had lived with the girls, just as she had done two terms ago when she had been one of themselves, and had delighted them all by vowing that it was a relief to be at school again. “Hurry up, Joey!” she said now. “We’ve got to dress yet, you know.”

“I should think so,” retorted Jo, with a glance at the crumpled pink frock the princess was wearing. “You look as if you had been to bed in that cotton thing you’ve got on just now!”

“Well, you look as if you’d been washing the floors in yours!” returned the princess.

“More potatoes, please, Simone.”

Mrs. Russell, in her old place at the head of the staff table, glanced down the room with a smile. “How excited they all are! just listen to Evadne screeching!”

“A good many of the others are doing their best to rival her,” laughed Miss Maynard. “It must sound like a parrot-house to anyone passing!”

“Oh well, it’s the end of term,” said Miss Carthew tolerantly. “You’ve got to allow for that.”

“Oh, I don’t mind,” Miss Maynard assured her. “I’m so thrilled about going home once more that I don’t really mind what they do today.”

“I also,” put in Mademoiselle. “I know that our girls will never forget that they are of the Chalet School, and must do nothing to disgrace it, so I do not trouble if they are excited.”

“Yes; even Cornelia seems to have learned that lesson,” agreed Miss Maynard, with a glance to where that young person was sitting, much thinner than she had been, and still rather pale, but evidently very happy, and thoroughly one of them.

“I think we’ve all finished,” said Miss Wilson at that moment.

Madge Russell nodded, and said grace. Then the girls were dismissed to their rooms to change into their prettiest frocks and make themselves as dainty as possible. There was a great deal of chatter as they changed, for many of them would he going home with parents at the end of the afternoon, and all had much to say about holidays.

“Be sure you let us have your Florence address, Grizel,” said Gertrud upstairs in the prefects’ dormitory.

“You must write to us every week, and let us know what you are doing.”

“And you must write to
me
,” said the head-girl as she rapidly put a gloss on her short curls. “I shall be coming to Innsbruck for Bernhilda’s wedding in December, you know, so I shall hope to see most of you then.”

“And we will all come here for Madame’s birthday next year,” added Rosalie, who was going home to England, where her father had obtained a living in Kent. “We couldn’t miss
that
!”

“Rather not!”

“Even Miss Carthew is coming for that, if she possibly can,” put in Mary, who was looking forward to being head-girl next term, and was wondering if she would ever be so good as any one of the four who had preceded her.

Grizel threw down her brushes and proceeded to wriggle into her frock. “Hurry up, you people,” she said, as she emerged and began shaking its folds into place. “We mustn’t be late.”

They made haste, and presently they were all out in the flower-garden, where most of the middles were already. Madge Russell, looking at them as they wandered about, sighed to herself. This term’s outgoings would be large, and many of her own girls would have left them. The school would go on flourishing, she felt sure. They were firmly established, and she knew that the vacant places were already more than filled, for the fame of the school was spreading. But after this it would not be her school, as it had been. Perhaps it was as well, for her hands were full as it was, and would probably grow fuller as the years went on. Joey would have only another year at the school, for she was to go to Belsornia when she was seventeen, as lady-in-waiting to the princess. Her education would be continued there by masters and governesses with Elisaveta, but she would cease to be a schoolgirl. After that, no one knew what the future held for her.

Madge hoped that her writing gifts would bring her something. That was all she would think of at present.

She finished her dressing, and went down to join her girls, looking scarcely older than they did, in her dainty white frock and big shady hat. The first guests began to arrive shortly after this, and the afternoon was full and very busy.

Dick and his wife and babies were there, of course, and so were Gisela and her husband. Wanda and Friedel had come from Partenkirchen for two days, so as not to miss this event; and all the old friends were there, as well as some new ones, among whom were Herr von der Witt, highly delighted with everything and everybody; and, of all people, “the Stuffer” and “Maria.” They had appeared at the Tiern See two nights before, and had been invited to come to this festival day of the school’s. “The Stuffer” actually forgot to sniff once at “foreigners,” and “Maria” was as amiably agreeable as possible.

The girls gave a concert in the garden, and sang some of the lovely old madrigals that Mr. Denny revelled in. Margia and Grizel both played, and Frieda enchanted everyone by her lovely harp solo. Joey sang two folk-songs, and, of course, they showed some of the folk-dances.

“The Stuffer” sat well to the front, and beamed benignly on them all, and Herr von der Witt was actually heard to say that it was a very pretty sight. As his two ideas in life were fresh air and geology, they all felt that this was a great compliment.

Then
Kaffee
was served, the girls acting as waitresses, and after that people began to make a move homewards. In the playing-fields, whither they had wandered, the girls clustered together for a last speech from their head-girl.

Grizel looked round them all. “You are all dears,” she began uncertainly. Then she stopped. She felt that if she went on she would break down.

Joey guessed what she was feeling, and sprang into the breech. “Three cheers for Grizel, one of the best head-girls the school has ever had!” she yelled at the top of her voice. They were given with a vim that made those of the guests who still remained literally jump, and sent Grizel flying to a place of refuge before she should disgrace herself in front of them all by crying.

Jo found her later, looking rather red about the eyes, but very happy. “Good for you, old thing!” she said.

Grizel looked round at the lovely lake with the huge mountains towering all round it; the flower-garden, quiet now that all the guests were gone; the chalet, where she had spent four happy years; finally at the girl who had stood by her through so much. “It’s been a good time, Joey,” she said. “All my life I shall remember how much I owe you, and Madame, and the Chalet School.”

THE END