First Term at Malory Towers (16 page)

“Time to go, Mary-Lou,” said Matron, coming in. “Tell Darrell she can come in half an hour's time, and bring a simple game with her Happy Families or something. Not Snap.”

So Darrell came, armed with Happy Families. But the two girls didn't get beyond dealing out the cards. They talked about Mary-Lou and Gwendoline.

“Gwendoline's poisonous,” said Sally. “She's always talking against you and Alicia, making out you play those rotten tricks on Mary-Lou.”

“I wonder who does them?” said Darrell. “One of the other Tower girls, do you think? What about Evelyn from West Tower? She's always doing silly, teasing tricks.”

“No. I should think it might be Gwendoline herself,” said Sally, looking at the cards in her hand.

Darrell stared at her in surprise. “Oh,
no
,” she said. “Why, Gwendoline and Mary-Lou are
friends
.”

“So Gwendoline says. But Mary-Lou says different,” said Sally.

“Yes, but—no one could be so awful as to pretend to be friends with someone and then to play rotten tricks on them all the time!” said Darrell. “It would be a disgusting thing to do.”

“I think Gwendoline is disgusting!” said Sally, “I never could bear her. A real double-faced person who doesn't care tuppence for anyone in the world but herself.”

Darrell looked at Sally. “ I think you're very clever,” she said. “You seem to know all about people—much more than I do. I'm sure you know more about Mary-Lou than I do, already.”

I like Mary-Lou,” said Sally, if only we could get her to be not so scared of everything, she'd be fun.”

“But how can we?” said Darrell shuffling all the cards together absent-mindedly. “Oh, dear—look what I've done. Never mind, it's more interesting to talk than play cards just now. How
can
we cure Mary-Lou? I've tried to buck her up and make her ashamed of herself, but it doesn't seem to do any good.”

“Can't you see that she
is
ashamed of herself already?” said Sally unexpectedly. “But being ashamed doesn't give her any courage. Nobody can give her pluck except her own self.”

“Well—think of a way to make her give herself pluck!” said Darrell. I bet you can't!”

“I'll think tonight, before I go to sleep.” said Sally. “And when you come and see me in the morning, I'll have a plan— you see if I haven't!”

DARRELL went to see Sally at Break as usual the next morning. Sally greeted her eagerly. “Well, I've thought of something! It's not a
frightfully
good plan, but it will do as a beginning.”

“What is it?” asked Darrell, thinking how pretty the plain little Sally looked that morning, with colour in her cheeks, and twinkles in her eyes.

“Well, listen. What about you pretending to be in difficulties in the pool, when you get the chance, and yelling out to Mary- Lou to run and get the life-belt quickly and throw it to you?” said Sally. “If she does that, and feels that she has saved you from going under, she'll be awfully bucked. We all know how to chuck the belt into the water. It would be quite easy for her to do.”

“Yes. It's a good idea,” said Darrell. I might try it out tomorrow. I'll give the tip to the others not to throw it to me, but to let Mary-Lou. At least, I'll tell the people I can trust— not dear Gwendoline, for instance! Do you really think it will help Mary-Lou not to be so scared of things if she does that?”

“Well, it seems to me that Mary-Lou will never be able to face up to things unless she thinks she's got a bit of good sense and courage in her to start with!” said Sally, seriously. “You can't possibly do anything if you
think
you can't. But you can do impossible things sometimes if you think you can.”

“How do you know things like that?” asked Darrell, in admiration. “I wish I did!”

“Oh, it's not very difficult really,” said Sally. “All you do is put yourself into the place of the other person, and feel like them, and then think how you could cure yourself if you were them. That sounds muddled—but I can't very well say exactly what I mean. I haven't the words.”

“Oh, I know what you mean, all right!” said Darrell. “You do what Mother is always telling
me
to do—get into somebody else's skin, and feel what
they're
feeling. But I'm too impatient to do that. I'm too tightly in my
own
skin! You're not. I think you're clever and kind, Sally.”

Sally went red and looked pleased. She also looked rather shy. “I'm not clever—and you know I'm not kind, by the way I behaved to Daphne,” she said. “But it's nice that you think so, anyway! Do you think you can work the idea out all right, Darrell?”

“Oh, yes, I think so,” said Darrell. “I'll try it tomorrow, when we're in the pool. Mary-Lou has got a bit of a cold and isn't allowed to bathe this week, so she'll be watching by the side. She can easily go and get the life belt and fling it to me. Won't she be bucked!”

“I guess she's glad she's got a cold this week,” said Sally, with a chuckle. “She does so hate the water! I bet she'll never learn to swim.”

“It was funny when Matron said Mary-Lou had a cold and wasn't to go in the water,” said Darrell “because dear Gwendoline immediately began to sniff like anything in class, hoping Miss Potts would report it to Matron, and
she
would be told too that she mustn't bathe. She's even worse than Mary-Lou at getting into the water!”

“What happened?” asked Sally, with interest. “Oh, I do wish I was back in school. I'd die of boredom if I hadn't got you to come and tell me things.”

“Well, Miss Potts got angry with Gwendoline's sniffs and sat on her properly,” said Darrell. “And then Gwendoline said she was sure she had caught Mary-Lou's cold, so Miss Potts sent her to Matron—and Matron gave her a large dose of awful medicine, and was most unsympathetic—and she didn't say Gwendoline wasn't to go into the water, she said the salt in it would probably do her good. And I heard her tell Miss Potts that the only way to take Gwendoline's tales was with a pinch of salt, so she might as well swallow some in the pool!”

Sally laughed heartily. She could just picture Gwendoline's anger at having medicine for no real reason, and not getting her way after all. Darrell got up.

“There's the bell,” she said. “I'll come back after lunch and tell you all the tit-bits. I haven't told you yet how Alicia and Betty tied thread to a pile of Mam'zelle's books on her desk, and Alicia pulled the thread and jerked off the books under Mam'zelle's very nose! I thought Irene would die of laughing. You know how she explodes.”

“Oh, yes, do come back and tell me everything,” said Sally, who looked forward to Darrell's visits more than to anything else. “I do love hearing you talk.”

It was strange how completely different Sally seemed now. When Darrell looked back and remembered the quiet, self-contained, serious person Sally Hope had always appeared, it seemed impossible that she had turned into the laughing, eager, twinkling-eyed girl in the bed—a sensible, kindly girl with a real sense of fun.

“She's not such good fun as Alicia, of course,” said Darrell to herself, “but she's more
trustable
, somehow. And she isn't as sharp-tongued, though she's just as clever in what she thinks about people.”

Darrell carefully thought out the plan for tricking Mary- Lou into sudden good sense and a bit of pluck. It should be quite easy. She would tell Alicia and Betty to take the others to the other end of the pool, so that she, Darrell, would be alone in the deep end. Then she would struggle and yell and pretend she had cramp.

“I'll yell out to Mary-Lou and shout, “Quick, quick, throw me the life-belt!”“ she thought. “Then surely Mary-Lou will do that, and I'll clutch it and pant and puff, and call out, “Oh, Mary-Lou, you've saved my life!” And if after that Mary-Lou doesn't have a better opinion of herself, it'll be queer. Once she knows she can really do something like that, maybe she'll pull herself together and be able to face up to some of the silly things that scare her!”

It really did seem a very good plan. Darrell let Alicia and Betty into the secret. “It's really Sally's idea,” said Darrell. “It's a very good one, don't you think so?”

“Well—why ever should you want to bother yourselves with that silly little baby of a Mary-Lou?” said Alicia in surprise. “You'll never make her any better. She's hopeless.”

“But we
might
make her better,” argued Darrell, rather disappointed with the way that Alicia took the idea.

“Not much chance,” said Alicia, I expect what
will
happen is that Mary-Lou will be too scared stiff to do a thing, and will simply stand blubbing by the pool and let somebody else run for the life-belt. And that will make her worse than ever, because everyone will despise her.”

“Oh,” said Darrell, feeling damped. “That would be sickening. Oh, Alicia, I didn't think of that.”

Darrell told Sally what Alicia had said, I quite see what she means,” she said. “And it might make Mary-Lou worse instead of better, because everyone would laugh at her. You see, Alicia is awfully smart, Sally—we never thought of that, did we?”

“Yes. Alicia
is
very smart,” said Sally, slowly. “But sometimes she's a bit
too
smart, Darrell. She's forgotten something important.”

“What's that?” asked Darrell.

“She's forgotten that it's
you
who are going to struggle and yell for help,” said Sally. “Everyone knows that Mary-Lou thinks you're wonderful and would do anything in the world for you—if you'd let her. Well, here is something she
can
do—and
will
do! You see if I'm not right. Give Mary- Lou a chance, Darrell. Alicia sees her as a weak little crybaby. But she could be something more than that, for the sake of someone she loved.”

“All right, I'll give her a chance,” said Darrell. “But I can't help thinking Alicia is right. She really is smart, you know, and can always size people up. I wish she wasn't friends with Betty. I wish she was
my
friend!”

Sally didn't say any more. She played dominoes with Darrell and was rather quiet. Matron came and shooed Darrell away soon after that, and she had to go off to her prep.

I'm going to try out Sally's idea on Mary-Lou,” she told Alicia. “So you and Betty will take the others off to the shallow end, won't you, when you see Mary-Lou standing by the deep end? Then I'll yell out, and we'll see if Mary- Lou has the nerve to throw me the belt. It's not much to do!”

“It'll be too much for
her
,” said Alicia, rather annoyed that Darrell should still think of going on with the idea after she had poured cold water on it. “Still, we'll see.”

So, the next afternoon the plan was carried out. The first- formers went chattering down to the pool in their bathing costumes and beach-gowns. Gwendoline went too, looking sulky because the form had teased her unmercifully about her pretended cold!

Mary-Lou had not changed into her bathing-things, and was pleased. She did so hate the water! Darrell called to her. “You can throw pennies in for me, Mary-Lou, and watch me dive for them in the deep end!”

“All right.” said Mary-Lou, pleased, and put some pennies into her pocket. Her cold was almost better. What a pity! She had so much enjoyed not having to bathe!

Into the water plunged the girls. Some jumped in, some dived in. Only Gwendoline went cautiously down the steps. But even she went in quickly for once, because somebody gave her a push and down she went, spluttering and gasping. And when she arose, angry and indignant, not a single girl was near her, of course, so she had no idea at all who had pushed her. Darrell or Alicia she supposed. Beasts!

Mary-Lou was at the deep end, watching the others. At least, she watched Darrell mostly, admiring the way she swam, cutting the water so cleanly with her strong brown arms, and thrusting through the waves like a small torpedo. Mary-Lou put her hands into her pocket and felt the pennies there. It was nice of Darrell to ask her to throw them in for her. It was always nice to do anything for Darrell, even if it was only a little thing.

“Come down to the other end and let's have a race!” cried Alicia suddenly. “Come on, everyone.”

“I'll just stay here for a bit and dive for pennies!” yelled Darrell. “I'm puffed for racing. I'll get out of your way when you start. Hi, Mary-Lou, have you got the pennies?”

Alicia and Betty, who were the only girls in the plan, watched what would happen. Both girls felt certain that Mary-Lou would weep and remain rooted to the rocks w hen Darrell called out. She wouldn't have the nerve to rush for the life belt!

The other girls were splashing about, getting into position for the race. Mary-Lou threw a penny into the water and Darrell dived for it.

She brought it up in triumph. “Throw another, Mary-Lou!” she cried. Splash! In went another penny. Darrell dived again, thinking that now was the time to pretend to be in difficulties. She came up, gasping.

“Help! Help!” she cried. “I've got cramp! Quick, Mary- Lou, the life belt, the life belt! Help, help!”

She threw her arms about and struggled, letting herself sink under a little. Mary-Lou stared, absolutely petrified. Alicia nudged Betty.