the two form captains

The Two Form Captains

by

Elsie Jeanette Oxenham

THE TWO FORM CAPTAINS

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 - Miss Euclid........................................................................3Chapter 2 - The New Boarder..............................................................7Chapter 3 - Dressing For Dinner.......................................................12Chapter 4 - Herbert And Napoleon...................................................16Chapter 5 - Late For School...............................................................21Chapter 6 - ‘Mistresses’ Choice’........................................................26Chapter 7 - Gerda’s ‘Sort Of Rot’......................................................29Chapter 8 - ‘Girls’ Choice’.................................................................33Chapter 9 - Prep With The Boys........................................................35Chapter 10 - ‘The Old Mole’..............................................................39Chapter 11 - Names And Nicknames................................................43Chapter 12 - Karen’s Glasses............................................................47Chapter 13 - The Horrible Shock.......................................................53Chapter 14 - Making The Best Of It...................................................59Chapter 15 - Two Kinds Of Eyes........................................................65Chapter 16 - ‘Lady In The Dark.’.......................................................69Chapter 17 - Captain Bill...................................................................73Chapter 18 - Tazy’s Innings...............................................................76Chapter 19 - ‘The Jolly Red Herring.’.................................................82Chapter 20 - The Softness Of Svea...................................................88Chapter 21 - ‘Greenwood.’................................................................93Chapter 22 - Dumpy’s Bombshell.....................................................98Chapter 23 - Svea Comes Into Line.................................................103Chapter 24 - Settling Gerda............................................................108Chapter 25 - The Victor Pays..........................................................113Chapter 26 - Gerda’s Mistake.........................................................116Chapter 27 - Too Late......................................................................121Chapter 28 - A Surprise For Bill And Bert........................................126

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Chapter 1 - Miss Euclid

It was the evening study-hour in Madame Perronet’s boarding-house, and the boys settled to their homework with grunts or grins of satisfaction. Prickles grunted; the Spud grinned; Dumpy yawned and began to look bored already; old Boney opened his books and set to work in his usual grim silence.

It was the second evening of the term. They had all arrived the day before, but there had been no prep to do that first night. Their satisfaction now was not unnatural joy at getting back to Latin and maths, after a three-weeks’ interval-not that, by any means! The younger boys, at least, resented on principle the amount of prep set for them, no matter how little, it was sure to be too much and give excuse for grumbling. But it was a great cause for satisfaction that no outsider had turned up to share their room and disturb their comfort.

Madame Perronet’s house could hold six boarders. There had been six boys last term, but two brothers had left, and those remaining had speculated as soon as they met on the chances of the vacant places being filled.

‘Sure to be some bounders we can’t stick, and yet we’ll have to, somehow,’ was Prickles’s pessimistic opinion.

The relief had therefore been great when no fifth and sixth boarders appeared, and they were allowed to settle down to work at the four sides of the big study table. It was an oblong table, and there was ample space for two on each side, but Prickles and Dumpy managed to spread their books well over the surface, so that there seemed no room to spare. ‘I like stacks of room!’ said Dumpy, stretching himself and spreading out his elbows luxuriously.

‘I guess you’ve got it this time,’ said the silent boy at the end of the table.Dumpy gave him an astonished stare, and the other two looked up. Boney spoke

so seldom that any remark of his was likely to create a sensation, however slight it might be. He went every day to the college, as they all did but he was not in their set. He was not in any set, in fact, though no one could quite have said why the general impression was that he was too lazy to ‘do things,’ and therefore found himself an outsider. He had been in the college longer than any of the present boys, and he had been ‘Boney’, and nothing else, before their time: no one, even among the seniors, could say why. The name could hardly refer to his personal appearance, as Dumpy’s obviously did; for Boney was a big fellow, sturdy and broad, and not in any way thin or lanky. But why it had been given in the first place nobody could now remember.

Boney was one of the oldest boys in the college. As a rule, boys did not stay there after they were fourteen or fifteen, but went home to England to prepare for university life or to specialise for their future careers. But at present there were several of fifteen, including two of those who lodged with Madame Perronet, while Boney was well over sixteen. It was Dumpy’s last year abroad, and Prickles and the Spud, brothers, were to go home at Christmas. No one knew anything about Boney’s future plans; but, then, no one ever did know what he was thinking, and no one ever troubled to ask, knowing it would be useless to do so.

The college was always mistaken for a hotel by visitors to the valley, and so was St Mary’s, the great twin building across the river. Travellers stepping out of the electric cars at the little station were often surprised and indignant when, on asking for ‘The Bear’ or ‘The Jungfrau Hotel,’ they were driven to one of the palaces within the bounds of the village, instead of to one of these great buildings out among the fields at the foot of the mountains. Sometimes they remonstrated, and saying they had changed their minds, demanded to be taken ‘to one of those big hotels over there. It will be quieter than in the town.’ Then their driver, who was used to the situation, had to explain that these were the big schools for English boys and girls which had

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brought so much life and custom to the Alpine valley; and the visitors had to submit to being driven through the streets to the hotel they had chosen first.

St John’s College for boys, and St Mary’s School for girls, separated only by the wide grey torrent which came rushing and. fighting its way out from beneath the glacier just behind, were an unusual venture, but quite a family concern. Charles Braithwaite and his sister Margaret- both educated at Cambridge, he with the highest degree the university could give, she possessing a genius for gathering round herself, and inspiring with fervid devotion, a host of subordinates as gifted as herself, and often more so in their own special line-had visited the valley on a walking tour through Switzerland twenty years before, had seen a great opportunity, and had turned it to good account.

The valley lay on one of the routes through a range of snow-capped mountains; there was no railway then, though this had come later. In those early days tourists had passed through on their way to the high gap in the peaks, which was the pass to the next great valley, on mule, pony, or donkey back, or had been carried in curious chairs by the mountain-men. In summer they were many, for to have ‘done’ the pass was a favourite boast. Some few still went thus or on foot, so that they could boast of having done it; but there were bad places on the descent on the other side, where rope-ladders were necessary, so all who merely wished to reach the next valley and join the Italian express there with the least possible delay came by train and plunged through the mountains by the great new tunnel which was still a wonder to the peasants.

The Braithwaite brother and sister had not foreseen the making of the tunnel when they settled in the village, bought land a short distance away at the foot of the glacier, and built the twin schools, which had had to be enlarged again and again till they could reasonably be mistaken for big hotels. But there had been a reason for their venture, and it had been fully justified. From this little Swiss village a mountain-path started out among the pine-woods, easy and wide enough at first, but winding upwards in long zigzags, up and up, above the trees, to a high sunny plateau two thousand feet above the village. This was the Platz, high, healthy-famous for the wonderful strength of its air, its unusual amount of daily sunshine, its health-giving, life-producing qualities. To the Platz came visitors from all over Europe, some to go away cured in a short time, others to live for years in that marvellous climate though they must have died in one winter at home. Some came there every winter, others never went away at all.

Said Charles Braithwaite to his sister, ‘These poor folk must have children, and must wish to see them. The journey home is too expensive to be taken often. What about schools for them here-or, say, in the village below there-where they could have a thoroughly good education up to the point where they must specialise, and yet be near enough to their people to be able to see them at times and spend week-ends with them, or be sent for in case of sudden need?’

‘The schools would have to be good, of course. I like the idea, and think it promises well,’ Margaret had agreed. ‘Would you take only English children?’

‘I’d take any who wished an English education. But I should run the schools on English lines.’

And so St John’s and St Mary’s had come into being, and had prospered so greatly, meeting a real need, that, after enlarging their premises several times, the Heads had been forced, rather than begin building again, to appoint several houses in the village as recognised pensions, where extra pupils could live and attend school or college every day. Of these Madame Perronet’s was one, and she was rarely without her full number of boarders.

Dumpy yawned over his work; he had no power of concentration, and had never seen a book yet which did not bore him. Suddenly he sat up with a joyful start. ‘Cheerio! My sister stood me a packet of nut-milk choc. before I left the Platz

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yesterday. It might brighten up this festive scene. It needs it-not half!’ and he lounged away upstairs.

He came flying down in a very un-Dumpy-like fashion, and burst into the room startling them all. ‘Snakes alive, you chaps! It’s happened. We were chortling too soon! There is another chap coming, and tonight, too!’

‘Hang!’ said Prickles briefly.‘How d’you know?’ demanded the Spud. ‘Grandma tell you?’‘She’s up there with Louise, and-this is the rotten bit of it-they ‘re flinging all my

things out into the corridor, and shoving them into No. 2! You blighters!’ as the others laughed. ‘All your worldly goods aren’t kicking about the passage getting trodden on! There’s my new blazer looking like a dusting-rag!’

‘Well, but why should you expect to have a room for two all to yourself?’ the Spud asked mildly. ‘Just because last term you shared it with old Marchwood is no reason you should have it for ever.’

‘But Dumps always needs as much room as two,’ Prickles pointed out. ‘I guess poor old March had to tuck into a corner. You’ll have to stick it, old man, and squeedge yourself up into half a room. It’s only for two terms, anyway.

‘But why should this new man have the big room, and not me?’ Dumpy demanded wrathfully. ‘I’m as good as he is! Guess I’ll make him turn out jolly soon!’

‘Wonder what kind of an ass he’ll be!’ Prickles said reflectively. ‘He’ll be a jolly nuisance here, anyway.’

‘Must be two of them, of course, you idiot,’ the Spud said, with amiable logic. ‘That’s why they’re shoving Dumps out into the street. Wouldn’t be any sense in it if there was only one man coming. Grandma wouldn’t fag to change the rooms. Must be brothers; you know her weird notion that brothers like to sleep together-like Prickles and me! She can’t, or won’t, believe I’d every bit as soon have Dumps as old Bill.’

‘Yes, there must be two of ’em. What a plaguey nuisance!’ Dumpy groaned. ‘We’ll be overcrowded again.’

‘They say every house but ours is full,’ the Spud observed.‘Lafitte’s has room for several, I heard today,’ Boney remarked, as he turned up a

word in the dictionary.For once his contribution was received with acclamation. Dumpy did indeed

grumble. ‘Trust old Bones to put everybody right! Always knows everything, he does!’ But Boney only laughed, as the other two looked up hopefully.

‘Lafitte’s? Oh well, then, let’s make “ours” too hot for these new chaps, so that they’ll move heaven and earth to get transferred there! We could do without ’em, I guess,’ Prickles suggested amiably.

‘I’ve got my knife into them from the first second one of ’em walks in at that door,’ said Dumpy dramatically. ‘That’s my stunt! Wonder if they’ll be rotten Switzers, or Italian bounders! I can’t stand foreigners!’

Boney laughed as he scribbled away. The fact that he was left out of every conversation, and yet did not seem aware of the fact, was one of the most irritating things about him. If he had resented his isolation, there would have been some satisfaction in making him feel it; but, as Prickles said, ‘How can you rub it in when the chap simply takes no notice of you? You’d think it was he who had turned us down, and couldn’t be fagged to speak to us, by the way he goes on. There are three of us-and last term there were five-showing him as plainly as we can he’s an utter outsider, and we’ve got no use for him, and yet the bounder doesn’t seem to see it. He laughs now and then, as if we were infants and he was a thousand and five, and if he’s got anything to say he ups and says it without waiting to be asked; and he doesn’t turn a hair if nobody speaks to him for hours on end! What can you do with a chap like that? I’d give pounds to make old Bones squirm, just for once! Somehow it never seems to come off.’

‘Perhaps it’s the other chap who squirms?’ suggested the friend to whom he was relieving his feelings. But Prickles had nothing to say as to that.

5


‘What are you grinning at now?’ Dumpy demanded wrathfully at Boney’s laugh.‘Your reference to foreigners. Sounds a bit odd, somehow,’ Boney explained

mildly.The Spud had annexed the milk chocolate and helped himself to a bar, he flung a

ball of silver paper at Boney-otherwise Brown-who dodged it without apparently looking in his direction. ‘Say! Are you descended from that Euclid bloke, Bones?’

‘Never heard of it. Why, Spuddy?’‘You’re so-so beastly exact about things. You always fit, like a prop. in geometry.’‘Or an old maid. He ‘s as prim and precise and proper as a maiden aunt,’ Dumpy

said savagely. Miss Euclid!’‘Wish I could!’ Prickles yawned. ‘I’d miss it every single time!’‘Well, but isn’t he? Isn’t he just a triangle on legs?’ the Spud insisted. ‘Sits there

like a-like a gargle on a church tower’-‘Gargoyle!’ Boney’s face wrinkled in amusement. ‘Sorry, and all that, old bean! But

really, you know’-‘There he goes again,’ the Spud groaned. ‘Gargoyle, then! He’s ugly enough! Like

a gargoyle or a sphinx, and then grunts out something to put everybody else right. And his triangles fit every old time, that’s the worst of it!’

‘Miss Euclid!’ grunted Dumpy again. Boney turned a page and worked on placidly, but there was a gleam in his deep eyes as if the nickname, and the gibe which had called it forth, had not displeased him. ‘You fellows are wasting hours,’ he said mildly. ‘You’ll be kicking yourselves tomorrow.’

This, being true, was too much. Three separate hands seized books; three arms swung to throw them at him. With another laugh he ducked at the critical moment. ‘If one of you had only had the sense to reserve your ammunition!’ he chuckled, as three books clattered on the floor behind his chair and he sat up again, triumphant and untouched.

‘What are you doing?’ demanded a clear, high voice from the doorway.All four turned to stare at the girl who stood there. ‘Jeremiah! Is this the new

boarder?’ chuckled Boney, first of them all to recover his wits.The girl made an ironical curtsy. ‘It is! I mean, I am! How d’you think you’ll like

having me? It will be a change for you, anyway. Are you dumb, all the rest of you?’ she demanded, her eyes dancing. ‘Can you only throw books at people? Is he the only one that can speak?’

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Chapter 2 - The New Boarder

For the moment they were all three dumb; there was no doubt of it. The awful fact had quite taken away their breath, and it was several seconds before even the Spud could speak.

Boney chuckled again, and watched and waited. ‘We’re in for some merry moments!’ he murmured, as he looked from the staring boys to the laughing girl in the doorway.

She was tall and straight, with long yellow hair in a thick plait on her shoulders, and clear grey eyes; and she wore the neat blue tunic of silky alpaca, with demure little white collar and cuffs, and the big white hat with the blue band and white badge, which proclaimed her a St. Mary’s girl. The whole valley knew those blue tunics and white hats and the neatly-plaited hair, as they knew the scarlet blazers and caps and white flannels of the boys.

Prickles was the first to get his breath. He turned to Dumpy with a wicked grin. ‘You’d better get busy,’ he suggested. ‘What about Lafitte’s? That’s your stunt, you know. One of ’em’s walked in at the door; what? But you’re rather gone on girls, aren’t you, old bean?’

‘Oh, shut it!’ Dumpy stirred uneasily under the girl’s bright questioning look. ‘I didn’t bargain for this! Madame’s an old rotter to let us down like this!’

The Spud rose to the occasion, since Boney made no effort to help. ‘Won’t you-er-sit down?’ he suggested politely. ‘And won’t you tell us-well, just what you’ve come for, you know?’

The fifth boarder closed the door and accepted the chair the Spud offered. She did not sit in it, however, but only dropped her hat and brown leather case on the seat. Leaning over the back and resting her arms upon it, she looked round at the four boys. ‘What I’ve come for? To stop, of course. Did you think I’d come to call? On all the lot of you? Oh, I’m going to stop; I’m at St Mary’s.’

‘We can jolly well see that,’ Prickles admitted grudgingly. ‘What I want to know is, what Grandma means by it. She hasn’t had any-she’s only had boys for the last three years.’

‘Five,’ Boney said gravely. ‘I’ve been here five years, and nothing so-so ghastly has ever happened before.’ His eyes met hers in a grin of understanding, and she laughed. ‘I believe in the Middle Ages Grandma did take girls as well as boys, but I’d never have believed she’d- well’-

‘Sink to it again,’ the girl nodded. ‘It is rather a come-down, isn’t it? I’m awfully sorry for you all; I know just how you feel. But there’s no help for it. I’ve come to stop, and that’s that.’

‘Not half you don’t know how we feel!’ Dumpy groaned. ‘What about my new blazer?’

The big grey eyes turned on him severely. ‘Your blazer? No, I don’t know or care anything about your old blazer. Which are you? Madame-I suppose Madame is Grandma? It suits her!-Madame told me your names were Lorimer and Brown and two called Thistleton. You might just tell me who’s who.’

The boys looked at one another, and grinned. Was it really going to be necessary to address one another in this formal fashion?

Boney took command of the situation with startling suddenness. No one had invited him to do so, but the rest felt a sense of relief that he had ‘done the proper thing.’ ‘I say!’ he addressed their visitor. ‘If you’re really going to stop, I guess you’d rather feel at home, wouldn’t you?’

The girl’s eyes danced. She was not slow of understanding, and she had seen the look go round. ‘I’d much rather know what you really call one another,’ she admitted. ‘Just tell me which is which of your proper names; it would be so silly not to know! And then tell me what I’m to call you.’

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Boney had laughed in appreciation of her quick understanding. ‘I shall expect you to call me Mr Brown,’ he said seriously.

She looked at the other three, who said with one voice, ‘Boney! Old Bones!’‘But why, nobody knows,’ the Spud added.The girl cast a laughing, critical look over Boney’s broad shoulders. ‘No, it doesn’t

fit.-Why is it?’ she demanded of the owner of the misfit.‘Its origin is lost in the mists of antiquity,’ he informed her. ‘It dates back fifty

years or so, and nobody can remember why or whence it came.’‘Oh, rot! You must know!’Boney continued his introductions, ignoring her remark with his usual placid

indifference. ‘This is Edward Lorimer, Esquire, known to us as Dumpy, or the Dump.’‘That fits!’ she said instantly, her eyes on Dumpy’s squat figure.He glared at her, but could not deny it.‘Then the other two must be the Thistletons;’ and she turned to them. ‘What do

they call you?’‘Smart child!’ Prickles said approvingly. ‘This chap’s the Spud-because he is one,

you know.’And t’other’s Prickles, because he ain’t,’ Dumpy added resentfully. ‘Isn’t spuddy, I

mean. He’s a hedgehog, all spines, some days.’Her eyes ranged over them, and they could see her mentally repeating the

nicknames and seeking the characteristics which would account for them. ‘Boney-Prickles-Dumpy-the Spud! I can’t judge till I know you, of course,’ she said at last.

The Spud leaned forward. ‘Don’t you happen to possess a name yourself, by the way?’

‘Oh yes!’ she admitted. ‘I have one!’ and her eyes laughed at them again. ‘I’m Anastasia Kingston. I am English, in spite of it. My mother isn’t, but I am.’

‘Jeremiah!’ said Prickles, borrowing Boney’s exclamation. ‘Have we got to call you all that?’

‘Some mouthful!’ Dumpy groaned.‘I don’t mind if you cut it down!’ Anastasia laughed. ‘I’m not very often called by it

all at once.’‘Well, what’s the short for it?’ the Spud asked politely.‘Oh, you can’t expect me to tell you that!’ she retorted. ‘You can make it what you

like.’‘Ann?’ The Spud eyed her doubtfully‘Father calls me Ann,’ she admitted. ‘But there are others. It’s got lots of shorts.’‘Ass?’ grunted Dumpy. ‘Seems rather short notice, but it may be all right. We can’t

tell till we know you, of course.’Anastasia nodded gravely at this turning of her own words against herself. ‘All the

same, it’s rather early to call me that.’‘Shut up!’ said Boney suddenly, but very quietly, from his end of the table.Dumpy turned on him indignantly. ‘Shut up yourself! She told us to guess!’‘I’m not talking to you,’ Boney said placidly, and looked inquiringly at. Anastasia.Her eyes had danced in swift appreciation. ‘You aren’t slow! You’ve got it!’ she

said with approval. ‘I thought it would take you longer than that.’He laughed. ‘These other chaps haven’t seen it yet.’The other three were staring blankly. ‘What are you two talking about?’ Prickles

demanded. ‘What haven’t we seen?’‘Somebody please explain to little me!’ begged the Spud.‘Has old Boney gone and hit it off again? Miss Euclid!’ groaned Dumpy.Anastasia explained carefully, with the air of one making things plain to very little

children. ‘I’m often called Tazy. Rhymes with crazy, or lazy, or hazy, you know! Awfully useful name to have, if you want to make up limericks!-

There was a young lady called Tazy,

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Who always was frightfully hazy;When they said ’twas a sin,

She replied with a grin,“It’s because I’m so dreadfully lazy.”

Well, I suppose you speak French? I don’t know what they say to boys when they talk in class, but they tell us to taisez-vous!-“Be quiet!”-or, if they’re very rude-“Shut up!” When the girls don’t call me Tazy, they call me Shut-up. See?’

‘And does it fit you any better than Boney’s fits him?’ demanded Prickles, after a pause.

‘I’ll leave you to form your own opinion of that,’ Tazy said demurely. ‘Of course, I don’t mean the girls at St Mary’s! This is my first day there. But I’ve been at school in Geneva. Now I’ve come here, to be near my mother. She’s up there,’ with a jerk of her head towards the mountains beyond the open window, and sudden gravity in her tone.

The boys looked grave for a moment also. The Spud and Prickles had no father, but their mother was ‘up there’; Dumpy’s father was an invalid, and his mother lived up on the Platz beside him. It was generally understood that Boney, contrary to the usual custom, had no relations ‘up there,’ but no one was very sure; he never spoke of them.

He answered Anastasia’s grave remark now, however, in words which seemed to confirm the idea. ‘It’s rotten to know your folks have to be up there. Has she been there long? I know all about the air, and all that, of course; but it seems to me it must be so ghastly to be with shoals of other invalids all the time. Must take all the spunk out of you, I should think. If any one of mine was ill, I guess I’d want ’em to go off to some village where the air was just as good, but where there weren’t any others with the same ghastly thing. Would give ’em more of a chance, seems to me.’

It was a long speech for him, and expressed convictions carefully pondered. The other boys looked at him curiously; they had never heard him speak on the subject before. Then Prickles jerked out, ‘But in a village like that they wouldn’t get doctors and attention. They’ve wonderful doctors up on the Platz-the best in the world for this thing. Rennie Brown’s simply top-hole, an absolute marvel, every one says.’

‘Then you haven’t anybody ill up there?’ Anastasia asked curiously of Boney.He had reddened at something in Prickles’s speech; perhaps the criticism of his

cherished convictions. ‘No, I haven’t anybody ill up there. I know all that, of course, Prick. They wouldn’t get doctors. But I’d have ’em go before they got bad enough to depend on the docs. If they went early enough, the air would do it off its own bat, in most cases. They wait till it’s too late, and then they come hurrying to the Platz, and the doctors have to help the air to do what it can. I’ve heard ’em say that often enough.’

‘Who’ve you heard talking about it?’ the Spud demanded, wide-eyed. ‘And when?’‘Oh, everybody!-any old time!’ He turned to his books again, as if annoyed that he

had said so much.‘Were you doing your prep?’ Tazy’s eyes swept over the book-strewn table. ‘I’ve

got algebra and German, and a beastly French composition to do. I suppose there’s room for me?’ She began to take books from her case with a business-like air.

The boys looked at one another. Dumpy and Prickles, conscious of their double shares of space, groaned.

Anastasia looked up quickly. ‘It’s a big table!’ she said suggestively. ‘Do Boney and the Spud’-she used the names without a trace of hesitation-‘always sit at the ends? Well, there’s room for two on each side easily! Which of you will have me? Oh, one of you’s got to, you know!’

‘Couldn’t you-well, do your work upstairs?’ Prickles suggested hopefully. ‘It would be jolly and quiet. Awfully good for study!’ Dumpy added encouragingly.

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‘And she’s got a topping big bedroom all to herself!’ the Spud remarked, with intention in his tone.

‘Say!’ Dumpy had forgotten his grievance. ‘That’s my room you’ve got! They’ve been and chucked me out of it. My new blazer was kicking about like a duster when I went up just now.’

‘Oh, that’s what you meant, is it? Well, I can’t help it. Sorry if I’ve turned you out, and all that, but I didn’t arrange it.’ Anastasia came to the table, her arms full of books. ‘But if I’ve nabbed his bedroom, I guess it’s only fair I should take part of your table-room,’ and she dropped the books next to Prickles. ‘You and I will share this side. There’s plenty of room for two. Thanks awfully for your kind idea, but I don’t approve of sitting all evening in the room I’m going to sleep in. And, anyway, I always work best in a crowd.’

‘Jeremiah! We’re in for it! She’s taken possession!’ groaned Prickles. ‘Dumpy’s room, and my place-what next?’

‘Every old thing she sees that she fancies,’ the Spud said cheerfully. ‘We sha’n’t have a corner left to mess about in.’

‘Right-o!’ said Tazy happily. ‘Don’t you worry about me! I’m feeling quite at home already.’

‘You jolly well look it!’ the Spud grinned.And then for several minutes everybody worked in silence. What’s the German for

“today”?’ Tazy asked presently.‘Heute,’ Boney said absently, deep in his Latin again.‘I say! This is too much of a good thing!’ Prickles looked up to protest. ‘If we once

begin doing her prep for her, we’ll get no peace. Old Bones is just a walking dicker, and she’ll ask him words every two secs.-Haven’t you got a dicker of your own?’ he asked, turning indignantly to Anastasia.

‘Oh yes! But it’s quicker to ask,’ she said easily. ‘Now look here, Boney! If you let her begin that’-‘We mustn’t encourage the young in habits of indolence,’ drawled the Spud, who

was, Tazy learned later, a year younger than herself.‘And it isn’t really kindness. She’ll remember it twice as well if she looks it out for

herself,’ Dumpy added, quoting an oft-heard saying from school.‘Besides, she doesn’t know how to spell it now.’ Prickles made a grab at Tazy’s

notebook. ‘Bet you she’s got “oy” in it. That’s old Boney’s beautiful accent.-Steady, kid!’ as Tazy sprang up to recover the book. He held it above his head, and gave a shout of triumph. ‘She has, too! “Hoyte”! It’s no good, Bones, old chap. You’d best let her look it out for herself.-Chuck it, you-you bounder!’ as Tazy, unable to reach the book, grabbed him by the hair.

‘It’s a mercy we don’t sport a cloth on this old table!’ said the Spud, as he lay heavily across his own books lest they should vanish in the mêlée.

‘Oh, what a time we’re having!’ sang Dumpy, for the first but by no means the last time, as Anastasia and Prickles rolled on the floor together, he struggling to get her hands out of his hair and yet to keep possession of her book. He dropped it in his excitement, and she pounced on it, releasing him, and was in her place again and sitting on the book before he had regained his feet.

‘I got it, anyway!’ she said triumphantly. ‘And I thought boys didn’t fight with girls? When the girls ask me tomorrow how I got on with you all, they will be surprised!’

‘Well, I like that!’ Prickles cried indignantly. ‘Who flew at me like a-like a wild lunatic? Tell me that!’

‘Surprised at what?’ Dumpy demanded wrathfully.‘To hear we have stand-up fights,’ Anastasia explained. ‘They’ll be awfully

interested, but I guess they’ll think it’s rather funny-of you, you know.’Boney from his end of the table had watched the rough-and-tumble with mild

surprise. Now he looked at her with raised brows, while the other three glared.

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‘Do you mean to say that you’- began Prickles incredulously, for the school and the college were closely enough allied for tales told in the one to have unpleasant consequences in the other.

‘Are you going to begin giving us away?’ jerked Dumpy.Anastasia knew better than to do in earnest what, in order to scare them, she

threatened. She had, indeed, had a momentary intention of making a good story out of the incident for the benefit of certain friends; but she was quick to see and understand, and she knew in a moment that they would count this among the things which were ‘not done.’

‘Why shouldn’t I?’ she demanded teasingly, however. ‘You shouldn’t do things you don’t want to have known.’ Then her laugh rang out. ‘You are a silly lot! Every single one of you’s got the wind up, thinking I’m a sneak; even-even Mr Brown! I’m not, and you needn’t worry. You can do any old mad things you like; I sha’n’t give you away. ’Tisn’t worth while, anyway. But I’ll expect you to be decent to me too. If you don’t play up, I’ll maybe think better of it.’

Boney returned to his work with an air of relief, and she gave him a curious look, not having realised yet his recognised position as an outsider. She had naturally assumed them to be a quartette, whereas they were a trio and one. Whether she could win her place and change the grouping into a quartette and one, or whether they must remain a trio and two odd members, was yet to be seen.

‘Snakes! You scared me stiff!’ said the Spud frankly. ‘I thought you were going to trot along to St Mary’s every morning and babble about every mortal thing we’d said and done!’

‘She wouldn’t do it twice,’ Dumpy muttered, not yet quite recovered from his fright.

Tazy’s laugh rang out again. ‘I did scare you all that time! If you’re going to believe every single thing I say, I’ll scare you three or four more times yet!’

‘Not likely! You’ve given us warning. You won’t have us on again like that. Besides,’ Prickles returned to his grievance, ‘it was you flew at me first of all. You couldn’t expect any fellow to stand that, girl or no girl.’

‘Who grabbed my book, to make fun of it?’ she demanded hotly. ‘You couldn’t ask me to stand for that, boys or no boys!’

‘All the same,’ he grinned, ‘you’d best look that old word up in the dicker for yourself, and see just how it is spelt, or the whole jolly lot of them will howl at you tomorrow.’

‘Oh, shut up!’ said Tazy hotly, and then in spite of herself had to join in the shout of laughter from all four boys.

‘Taisez-vous! Well done, old chap! But thought we were to say “Shut up!” not you?’ the Spud mocked.

But Tazy’s fingers were in her ears, and she was learning German verbs at express speed. The boys winked at one another, and with grins of amusement returned to their work.

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Chapter 3 - Dressing For Dinner

‘Have any of you sisters at St Mary’s?’ Anastasia looked up from her algebra, in which, to tell the truth, she was not greatly interested-no more so, indeed, than Dumpy was in his Latin. They both looked bored, and she had already accepted a cake of chocolate to help her through the ordeal.

But not one of them could claim a sister. Lots of the chaps have, of course. But we aren’t among the unlucky-I mean lucky ones,’ Prickles explained.

‘D’you know any one at St Mary’s yet?’ the Spud asked politely. The strain of study-hour having once been broken by Tazy, an interval for conversation and refreshment seemed desirable.

‘Yes. Of course, I don’t really know them well yet, but I came up in the train with three girls who go there, and we got talking.’

‘You bet you did!’ said Prickles grimly.‘What d’you mean by that?’ she said, turning on him instantly.‘Oh, Shut-up!’ he grinned. ‘It doesn’t half fit you well, you know! It doesn’t take

long to see that. You wouldn’t travel up with three girls and not talk to them; that’s all I meant!’

‘It would have been silly,’ Tazy retorted. ‘I could see they were St Mary’s girls. They were from Sweden, and they had queer, pretty names; but they talked French, so we were all right. The big one was Helga, and the small one Inga; and Svea was about my age. They’ve been here for two years now, so they told me a lot. I’m in Svea’s form.’

‘Guess we’ll hear bags of stuff about Svea!’ the Spud laughed. ‘How does she spell it, anyway?’

‘She says, exactly as it’s pronounced. They’ve a cousin at the school, who’s in my form too. So I’ll have plenty of friends. But, then, I always do.’

‘You bet you do!’ Prickles agreed. ‘That’s your style; any one can see that. There’s no “Old-Bones-sit-in-the-corner” business about you!’

‘What do you mean by that?’ Tazy asked sharply, with a curious look at Boney, wrapped up in his work again.

‘Did you say you’d got work to do for tomorrow?’ the Spud asked politely. ‘So’ve we, don’t you know!’

Anastasia laughed, and took the hint. ‘Right-o! Tell me what he meant some other time. Oh, how I do loathe equations!’

Dumpy grunted in sympathy, and work was resumed by all.Once again Tazy looked up. She was no more of a student than Dumpy, and

though she could work in class, she found the temptation to conversation in this informal study-hour irresistible. ‘Svea said’-

‘Shut up!’ said the Spud briefly; his own equation was on the point of coming out satisfactorily.

‘That’s right, Spuddy One! Don’t you let her get going again, or we’ll none of us get anywhere tonight,’ Prickles agreed warmly.

‘If she gets started on “Svea said,” she’ll go on like a tap without a washer,’ Dumpy added inelegantly. ‘I bet you and Svea talked all the way up from Rosenthal. Choke her off every time, Spud! Keep her in her little place!’

And Tazy, with raised eyebrows and slightly haughty air, returned to her work in dignified silence.

‘I don’t wonder Dumpy was wild!’ she said to herself, as she ran up to her room for a first look at it and to brush and replait her hair before dinner. ‘It’s a jolly room; if he’d expected to have it all to himself, and I’ve turned him out, I don’t blame him, really! But, after all-ladies first, you know! And I don’t believe he’d appreciate the view a bit!’

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It was a big corner room, with wide windows on two sides. One gave a long view up the valley, past the outlying chalets and over the fields of flowers of every colour through which she must walk to school every morning; beyond these to the rushing slate-grey river, the two great school buildings, and, rising to close the valley in, the high rocky wall of the pass, its cliffs flushed with pink as they caught the afterglow of the sunset. The other window looked across the meadows and the river to the gigantic green hills which walled the valley in on that side; the snow-peaks above were hidden to view so close below, but directly opposite Tazy’s window the hills fell apart, and here, at the far end of a long, narrow gorge, rose a great white mountain-range with seven peaks, all glowing with evening fire as the snow-fields caught the last rays of sunlight.

Tazy drew a quick breath. ‘This beats Geneva! And how cool and fresh it is! I believe I can smell the snow! It’s sure to do Mother good! I wonder if she’s looking at those seven peaks at this minute! It’s more than likely; she’ll love them, I know. I must tell her my room looks that way. I’m jolly glad Dumpy was turned out for me!’

‘Anastasie!’ said a voice at the door.‘Oui, Madame?’ and Tazy threw open the door and found her landlady there. ‘Oh,

Madame! Thank you a thousand times for this beautiful room, and for turning Dumps out of it! It’s far too good for a boy!’

‘Dumps! Anastasie, my dear, that is not gentil for a young demoiselle; and so soon! You have known him perhaps half-an-hour; is it not so? That name is for his companions, if they so wish, but not for you, my child. He is Master Edward Lorimer.’

Anastasia’s lips twitched. ‘And I’m Miss Kingston, I suppose! Oh, taisez-vous! Shut up, you old dear!’-but this was strictly for herself alone. ‘I will remember, Madame. Did you want me?’ she asked politely.

‘Only to suggest that for dinner at night you dress a little, my dear. It would be well to lay aside your school frock in the evening. We must set these wild boys an example in what is comme il faut, now that they have a demoiselle amongst them.’

‘What an utter fag!’ Tazy murmured in English. Then in French, ‘Must I, Madame? Do you really wish me to change?’

‘I greatly prefer that you should, my child. Make yourself look’-‘Look pretty, n’est-ce pas?’ Tazy suggested wickedly.‘No! Not at all!’ Madame said sharply, knowing how little some fifteen-year-olds

would need any such suggestion. ‘Make yourself neat and presentable for the evening; that is all I mean. It is good and suitable for you, as well as for the boys.’

‘It’s a beastly fag, all the same,’ Tazy grumbled, as she changed hastily from her blue tunic. Then, with a wild impulse to shock Madame and horrify the boys, she began tearing off stockings and undergarments at express speed, sprang to the cupboard and the bureau drawers, and flung their contents recklessly aside in a wild search for what she wanted, disarranging all the neat piles laid there by Louise. Ten minutes later she stood exultant, if somewhat heated, arrayed in white from head to foot as if for a party or a dance, her hair brushed out and tied loosely with a big white bow. She surveyed herself in a long mirror with much satisfaction- not, however, with any reference to her personal appearance, but solely with a view to the impression her costume would create downstairs.

‘If that doesn’t make them sit up, I’ll be surprised!’ she said to herself. ‘The boys will simply hate me for it, and Madame will be wild. For she didn’t mean it, of course; she only meant a white blouse or a Sunday frock. But she can’t say she didn’t tell me to! And it’s such a topping chance to make the boys mad!’

And with this joyful thought to buoy her up, she went complacently downstairs, satisfied that, as the gong had rung three minutes before, she would be able to create a sensation by a dramatic late entrance.

She was not disappointed. The boys and Madame were seated at the table, an empty chair left for Tazy between Madame and the Spud. As she paused in the doorway, Dumpy’s jaw dropped, the Spud gazed open-mouthed, Boney’s eyebrows

13


nearly disappeared as he raised them in astonishment, Prickles gave vent to a startled, ‘Stars and garters! Just look at It!’ and Madame, with a distressed frown, exclaimed ‘Anastasie, my dear, I never intended you to-to dress to this extent! You have mistaken my meaning entirely, my child.’

‘Didn’t you, Madame? I-I thought’-But there Tazy thought it best to stop. ‘I thought, as there were to be so many gentlemen present, I’d better do my best to-to be comme il faut, you know!’ and she took her place with a grown-up air which stunned even Prickles into silence.

Madame looked distressed and uneasy. Had the child really misunderstood her, or was this a deliberate effort on her part to be irritating? It was difficult to say as yet; she might simply have made a silly mistake, Madam watched her sharply throughout the meal, and tried to draw some conclusions from her conduct.

But Tazy, with her best frock, had put on her best manners too; very much more than her best, in fact. She had grown suddenly five years older, and conversed pleasantly with Madame with an air of assurance which left the boys writhing in the knowledge of their own awkwardness. Bewildered and dismayed, they listened in silence, and wondered if they would have to endure this every evening. Not one of them but longed to tell her to ‘taisez-vous!’ but not one of them dared.

‘It is very warm for the time of year, is it not, Madame? Oh, thank you, Sp-er-Mr Thistleton!’ as the Spud, shy, but anxious to do his duty, handed her a plate of bread.

Madame responded stiffly that the weather was warm for May, but that the evenings were generally cool.

‘I presume that is due to the breeze blowing down from the ice-fields? I have been revelling in it. I am sure every one must enjoy the freshness of the evening after the heat of the day, especially those who have worked really hard; don’t you agree with me, Mr Lorimer?’

Dumpy grew scarlet, and Prickles choked over his soup, and earned a stony glare from Madame.

‘It’s not a subject on which Lorimer has much experience,’ said Boney dryly, from his end of the table.

‘Oh?’ Anastasia looked at Dumpy in innocent surprise. ‘I thought from his-his interest in algebra, you know-that Mr Lorimer must be an unusually hard worker.’

‘Quite a keen student, in fact,’ Boney said grimly, while Dumpy glared at them both.

‘But you all seemed to me very studious,’ Anastasia added seriously. ‘I am sure I shall find it easy to work in your company. I am very-very sensitive to atmosphere! I cannot work well in a room with any who are inclined to be lazy.’

Madame’s face cleared; this promised well for the future. Boney stared hard at his plate; Dumpy kicked Prickles under the table; the Spud was seized with a sudden fit of coughing, at which Tazy’s eyes gleamed joyously. Every one but Madame had seen a vision of the scrimmage on the study floor, Tazy’s fingers clutching Prickles’s hair, he waving her book wildly just beyond her reach. It was more than difficult to turn from that vision to the extremely demure and grown-up demoiselle staidly saying, ‘Not any more, thank you! It is really delightful soup, though. Your cook must be a treasure!’ in answer to Madame’s polite inquiry.

Madame beamed, her mind almost at rest now regarding her girl boarder. Tazy talked easily throughout the meal, addressing the boys as ‘Mr Lorimer,’ ‘Mr

Thistleton,’ or ‘Mr Brown,’ with an occasional lapse into ‘Mr Sp-er-,’ or ‘Mr D-Lorimer,’ at which Boney’s lips twitched. She could see ‘Taisez-vous!’ ‘Shut up!’ in every furious glance which the brothers and Dumpy cast at her, for they grew more silent and ill at ease as she grew more animated. Not one of them, except Madame, was deceived into thinking this was their newcompanion’s natural manner. They knew perfectly well what she was aiming at and succeeding in so thoroughly, and would have given worlds to be able to play up to her and defeat her at her own game. But Boney was the only who could ‘put up any kind

14


of a show at all,’ as Dumps said afterwards, and though he answered when Anastasia spoke directly to him, he would not take the trouble to talk her down and keep her in her proper place, as the Spud or Prickles would have been delighted to do. To the disgust of the younger boys, who were convinced he could have crushed her if he would, he was as indifferent to her as he always was to themselves, and enjoyed his dinner as if there had been no talkative damsel present.

‘And the blighter could have turned her inside-out in two shakes, if he’d only wakened up and put his back into it!’ Dumpy growled in the garden afterwards. ‘He’s the limit for laziness, is old Bones-the absolute end of all things!’

In her bedroom upstairs, Tazy laughed as she heard their voices below her window; she had no doubt that they were talking about her. She had said good-night as she left the table, by Madame’s suggestion, which, however, had had all the force of a command.

‘As your dress is not suitable for the garden or for further study, it will be well this evening for you to retire to your room at once, Anastasie, my dear. It is necessary that you change your dress, and it is not worth while to dress again so late. So say good-night to your companions, and I will go with you to your room and see that you have all you need.’

It was not much after half-past eight, but there was that in Madame’s tone which made Tazy turn suddenly very meek. She said good-night with impressive politeness to each of the boys in turn, holding out her hand, and waiting deliberately till the victim shook it awkwardly; and in their reluctance to do so, and their obvious resentment, she found some consolation for her premature departure. But she decided promptly that she would not dress so very extensively for dinner again, if it meant going to bed early.

And Madame, who was not quite sure of her yet, had her revenge.Tazy, left alone in her room, sat down on the bed and laughed. Then she

unfastened her dress and threw it aside, and paused at the sound of the boys’ voices outside to laugh again.

‘It hasn’t been quite a wasted evening!’ she said to herself, and was still laughing happily when she curled up in bed.

Then she sat up suddenly, shaking back her hair, as a voice just below her window, obviously the Spud’s, began to sing:

‘That talkative lady called Tazy,She drove all the boys nearly crazy;

She’d babble and chatter,And make such a clatter,

That at last they cried, “Taisez-vous, Tazy!”’

‘Not bad for a first attempt!’ she laughed, as she lay down again. ‘I sha’n’t let on that I heard him, though!’

15


Chapter 4 - Herbert And Napoleon

There was a feeling of expectancy, not to say doubt, among the boys as they gathered in the sunny breakfast-room next morning. Their new companion had seemed to promise excitement, or at least variety, during study-hour; but the Anastasia of the dinner-table had appalled them, and they were curious to see in which mood she would be this morning, and anxious lest it should be the one they dreaded.

But Tazy came running downstairs in the highest spirits. The big windows of the breakfast-room were thrown wide to the sunshine and the morning breeze, which came sweeping down from the bracing heights of the Platz above the pine-trees. She sniffed it joyously, and wondered if her mother were up yet. ‘Pinewoods-flowers-ice! I can smell them all! Oh, and isn’t that the finishing touch!’ as the deep music of distant cowbells came floating down from the upper pastures, mingling with the tinkle from a herd of goats.

‘What an absolutely top-hole morning!’ she said, saluting the boys merrily. ‘I suppose you lot are used to it, but I’m not yet. It beats Geneva and its streets into fits. I feel as if I could-could almost enjoy even algebra today, and that’s saying something. What time’s brekker? Has anybody got a ball? Come out on the lawn and have catches, Dumps. Be a spud, Spuddy, and scrounge me a ball somewhere!’

‘Good-morning, Miss Kingston!’ said Prickles, distantly polite.‘Thought you’d forgotten our names,’ said the Spud, forgiving her on the spot,

because she looked so jolly and full of life. ‘We did get the wind up no end, you know!’Tazy’s eyes danced. ‘Oh, you mean last night? Is that what Dumpy’s looking so

frosty about? I say, I apologise! I won’t go on like an idiot again, really; it’s too much fag, for one thing! I was bored stiff long before we’d got to pudding, but I couldn’t chuck it then, could I? I had to keep it up to-to the bitter end. It was all Madame’s fault, of course.’

‘Did she tell you to tog yourself up like that?’ Prickles demanded severely. ‘We simply loathed you. I suppose you knew that?’

‘I guessed it,’ she admitted. ‘I rather hoped you would. I meant you to. She told me to dress for dinner, but I-well, improved on what she meant a little.’

She sat on the window-sill, the breeze ruffling her hair, the sun turning her yellow plait to gold, and whistled to the goats in the field beyond the garden from sheer joy of life. Then she turned to the boys again. ‘I know I was a beast last night, and every one of you loathed me. But it was such a gorgeous chance! I simply couldn’t resist it. Do, please, get over it and be jolly again! You see, Grandma came to my room and told me to get out of my tunic and make myself comme il faut, as there would be so many gentlemen present-meaning all of you, in case you don’t recognise yourselves! I said something about having turned Dumpy out of his room’-Dumpy groaned-‘and she jumped on me like an avalanche for calling him that when I’d only known him half-an-hour.’ The boys laughed. ‘Of course, I didn’t dare to whisper that I’d already been scrapping on the floor with Prickles, and by great good luck I managed not to say anything about the Spud.’ The three laughed again. ‘She was properly shocked at “Dumpy,” so “the Spud” would probably have given her a fit.’

‘Not half!’ the owner of the name assented cheerfully. ‘I don’t know, though. She wouldn’t have understood it. But, I say, don’t you ever call me Herbert! I couldn’t bear it.’

‘I didn’t even know what your name was,’ Tazy said demurely. ‘You shouldn’t have told me. I thought Dumps was the only one who had any first name at all! No, I’ll call you ’Erb, as in a Cockney novel, you know.’

‘If you ever do!’ The Spud advanced on her threateningly.

16


With a laugh she dropped lightly on the grass outside the window and curtsied mockingly. ‘Come on, ’Erb! Catch me if you can!’ and was off round the lawn like the wind.

He vaulted through the window and dashed after her, and Madame, bringing in the coffee, was scandalised at sight of them dodging one another round her favourite rose-bed. The Spud was a good and strong runner, but Tazy was quicker on her feet, and he was not nimble enough to catch her in such a position. Whenever he leapt towards her she sprang away with a triumphant laugh, and the contest would not have ended till one of them was tired out but for Madame’s appearance at the window. ‘Anastasie! Anastasie! My dear child! At your age!’

‘All right, Taisez-vous! I’ll do you in some other time!’ the Spud said cheerfully. ‘I’m all out for coffee just now!’ and he returned to the room with another flying vault through the window.

That was all very well; but when Tazy followed in the same fashion, her cheeks glowing, her pigtail flying, and her eyes alight, Madame’s face set in a frown of stony disapproval. This was the type of English girl she did not like, the wild, undeveloped creature who was half a boy, who talked with boys as one of themselves with no trace of shyness, who cared only for games and outdoor sport. It was not Madame’s ideal of girlhood at all, and she had hoped Fate and Miss Braithwaite would not send her one of this sort when she consented to receive a demoiselle as one of her boarders. She had feared the worst on Anastasia’s arrival from her willingness-eagerness, in fact-to face the boys without any introduction, without Madame to give her courage. Tazy’s self-possession and mature air at dinner had revived Madame’s hopes, but they fell to the ground now as Tazy came flying through the window, and Madame felt that her worst fears were realised. She withdrew to think the matter over and decide what kind of rebuke would have most effect, and Tazy seated herself behind the coffee-pot, and, tossing back her plait, asked politely if ‘Mr Lorimer took sugar and milk,’ ‘She told me I’d got to call him Mr Lorimer!’ she laughed.

‘Oh, shut up! Come off it, Taisez-vous!’ growled Dumpy indignantly. ‘Yes, I take lets of both. But look here! I don’t want it all in the saucer! You pour it out properly, or let us do it ourselves, as we’re used to doing.’

Tazy gave her attention to the coffee-pot for a moment. ‘It’s time you had some one to look after you. But I don’t like it sloppy myself. I’ll take that first one, because I was laughing and I joggled it over. There! That’s simply beautiful, Mr-oh, well, Dumpy, then!’ she ended hurriedly, as he glared at her.

‘We shall be calling you “Ass” before long, if you go on playing the goat at this rate!’ Prickles said warningly.

‘I haven’t heard your name yet!’ she turned on him swiftly. ‘If you won’t have “Mr,” I must know what else to call you, you know, for Madame will get the wind up no end if she hears me call you Prickles.’

‘It’s just as well Madame doesn’t talk an awful lot of English!’ laughed the Spud. ‘Yours would give her fits, Ann! Oh, he’s old Bill-Wilfred, you know.’

‘Right-o!’ Ann said cheerfully. ‘Then, if I can remember, I sha’n’t call you Prickles and the Spud and Dumpy before her, because you can see it worries her, and she’s an old dear. But I can’t possibly call any of you “Mr” Anything, and that’s flat! It would be too awful. When she’s about I shall call you Ted,’ to Dumpy; ‘and you Bill,’ to Prickles. ‘As for you,’ to the Spud, ‘I sha’n’t call you anything unless I’m feeling wicked enough for ’Erb. If I simply have to refer to you, I shall try to call you Herbert, but I sha’n’t if I can help it. It’s so-so beastly proper! Why couldn’t they give you a decent name?’

‘It’s no worse than Ann! That’s the properest thing out,’ the Spud protested.‘Oh, I rather like Ann! And I’m not sure that it’s as prim as it sounds,’ Tazy

laughed. ‘Where’s Boney this morning? And what am I to call him? What’s his name?’‘Haven’t a notion. Don’t believe he’s got one,’ said Prickles.‘I never heard him called anything but old Bones,’ the Spud agreed. ‘Oh, he’s late!

He’s the laziest chap in coll.’

17


‘Miss Euclid!’ Prickles suggested. ‘He’s always just exactly right. We want to chuck books at him a dozen times a day.’

‘I can’t possibly call him old Bones in public!’ Tazy protested. ‘I don’t believe it would appeal to Madame a bit. I shall call him Nap.’

‘Nap?’ the Spud asked vaguely. ‘Why? I don’t see it.’‘He’s jolly fond of a nap, of course,’ Dumpy suggested.Tazy laughed. ‘Here he is! He’ll see it. He may be lazy, but he isn’t slow. He saw

through my name before any of you.’‘Says she’s going to call you Nap, old bean,’ Prickles remarked, as Boney took his

place, with a murmured, ‘Awfully sorry to be so late!’ to Tazy. ‘Says you’ll know why. We haven’t a notion.’

‘We’ve been deciding what I’m to call you all that will satisfy Madame.’ Tazy’s eyes met his a laughing challenge. ‘She simply can’t stand Dumpy, and Prickles, and “old Boney” from me! It wouldn’t be comme il faut at all, and she worships comme il faut. Any one can see that. Just my rotten luck to get a proper grandma to look after me! We’ve decided that she wouldn’t understand “the Spud,” but that she wouldn’t think it sounded nice. So I’ve been finding out their real names, but they can’t tell me yours. I said I’d call you Nap, and they can’t see why. What is your name?’

‘I guess Nap will do for me,’ Boney said lightly. ‘Oh, I see it, of course! Napoleon, you cake!’ in a tone of mild contempt to the Spud. ‘Boney-it’s obvious!’

‘Oh! That’s the idea, is it? Sorry I’m so woolly! I never do see things,’ the Spud said mournfully.

‘What is your real name?’ Tazy demanded.Boney’s cheeks reddened suddenly. ‘It’s-it’s a mad name, and there’s no need for

you to know it,’ he said brusquely. ‘You don’t want half-a-dozen names for each of us, do you? Shut up about it now, and don’t worry.’

Tazy looked from him to the rest with eager, curious eyes. ‘Don’t any of you know, really? How weird!’

‘It’s not a scrap of use, Ann,’ said the Spud. ‘He’ll turn into an oyster and not speak for days. He often does. You won’t get anything out of old Bones unless he wants you to.’

Boney went on with his breakfast in his usual grim silence, but there was a gleam in his eyes which had been there before, and which came when some comment on his behaviour had satisfied him, though often not meant to do so by the speaker.

Tazy looked at him curiously, and for the first time scanned his face critically, and noted the determined set of his jaw. ‘He looks as if he could make up his mind and stick to it,’ she said to herself. ‘If I want to know things about him, I’ll have to find them out. He won’t tell more than he wants to, that’s certain. But how weird about his name! If it’s a queer one, and he was like some girls I’ve known, I could understand it; but he doesn’t mind being laughed at and called names. He just takes no notice. You might as well try to-to make Mont Blanc feel sick by laughing at it, as old Boney; he doesn’t care! So it’s not that. Of course, some people have queer names, tacked on to them by silly parents; but I shouldn’t have thought he was the kind that would mind that.’ She had been gazing at ‘Napoleon’ in thoughtful silence while she ruminated thus. Suddenly she said aloud, ‘Is it anything as bad as Herbert?’

Prickles gave a shout of laughter, and Dumpy chuckled. ‘Good old Bert!’ he murmured. ‘Shut-up’s got her knife into him this morning-up to the handle!’

The Spud turned on her indignantly. ‘I say, Ann, can’t you drop it? ’Taint my fault. Taisez-vous! Kennel, don’t you know!’

‘I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings,’ she apologised hastily. ‘I was only thinking out loud, about-about Napoleon, you know.’

Boney raised his eyebrows in mild surprise. ‘What’s wrong with Herbert?’‘Oh, well, I couldn’t! Could you call any one Herbert, if you liked him at all?’

18


‘Might if I tried hard,’ Boney grinned, while the Spud turned crimson under a jeering laugh from his brother and Dumpy. ‘Don’t you like him enough to do that much for him? Sorry I was late this morning. I must have missed quite a lot.’

‘You missed Grandma’s face when she saw Ann and Spuddy playing tag round her La France bed. She looked as icy as the big glacier,’ said Prickles.

‘But she froze still more when Taisez-vous vaulted through the window,’ Dumpy added. ‘She’s retired to think it over; she’ll have a few words with you before school, Ann, or my name’s not’-

‘Mr Lorimer!’ Tazy retorted. ‘I saw her face. I’m going to butt in first, and smooth her down. Any one have some more coffee, not all in the saucer this time? All right! I’ll see you all at night, and I won’t dress for dinner this time!’

‘What a mercy!’ groaned Dumpy. ‘I say! Leave off those pretty-pretty manners while you’re at it, won’t you? What’s the good of pretending you’re ninety-five, and then vaulting through windows?’

‘Or scrapping with fellows on the floor!’ Prickles added reminiscently. ‘Don’t go and play the goat again tonight, Ann, there’s a good chap!’

‘All the same, she looked a treat in that white frock,’ the Spud remarked when Tazy had gone in search of Madame, with a mocking curtsy and a promise that their wishes should have her consideration.

Dumpy laughed jeeringly. ‘She likes you; she said so! Go in and win, old thing! That’s what comes of being the spuddiest of the lot.’

‘She didn’t!’ the Spud said indignantly. ‘I’m not keen on her, or any other girl; I’m not an idiot of that sort! I’ll leave all that kind of thing to you! We all know you’re an authority on girls! But she did look jolly fine last night, though I didn’t like the way she acted about any more than you did. You can’t say she didn’t look topping-unless, of course, you can’t see that kind of thing!’

‘Don’t want to.’ Prickles came to help himself to more coffee, in spite of his previous silence. ‘You leave all “that kind of thing” to Dumps, Spuddy; it’s more in his line than yours. You’re too much of an infant yet to know whether girls look topping or not! I’ll not have you begin that!’

‘Oh, go to bed, old chap!’ his younger brother jeered.‘Old Boney shall give the verdict,’ said Dumpy. ‘Did she, or did she not, look

topping, and jolly fine, and a treat last night, although she made such an ass of herself by the way she carried on? Speak up, Napoleon! Or perhaps you didn’t notice any difference? I bet you fellows he didn’t! He’s a regular old hermit!’

Boney said grimly, ‘She looked very pretty. She’s a pretty kid. But she doesn’t let it prey on her mind as some of ’em do. She’d think you were awful asses if she heard you just now. You’d better keep all that stuff to yourselves, if you don’t want her to turn you down as hopeless lunatics. Give her catches on the lawn; let her jabber all through study-hour; or-it’s only a guess, but I don’t think it’s far out-offer to bowl to her or take her on at tennis, and she’ll say you’re quite a decent crowd, and she can put up with you quite nicely. But if you talk any rot about “looking nice,” and she hears you, she won’t love you any more, Spuddy One. She’s got no use for that sort of thing;’ and he rose and went towards the door.

‘Great stars and garters!’ gasped Prickles, while the Spud stared after him open-mouthed, entirely crushed. ‘What a speech from old Bones! He has been watching and making notes!’-and Boney turned and looked back at him, his eyes gleaming in that curious way again.

‘I say, Napoleon! Tell us what you thought of her frock!’ Dumpy jeered. ‘If you’re an authority on what ladies think of their own appearance, perhaps you can give us points about their clothes as well. How did you like her dress, old bean? What was it made of? Did it suit her?’

‘Jolly well. That’s why you all thought she looked topping,’ Boney retorted swiftly. ‘But I like her best in the school frock, all the same. She’s more at home with herself in that;’ and he left the room quickly.

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‘I’m dumb with astonishment!’ the Spud announced weakly. ‘To think of old Boney seeing and knowing all that! For every word of it’s true. I never thought he’d see things like that!’

‘See! It’s my belief he sees every old thing, whether it happens when he’s in the room or not. It’s just his beastly exactness coming out in another way,’ Dumpy said savagely.

‘All the same, who could have expected old Bones to know how a girl felt in her different frocks, and what suited her best, and whether she thought about it or not!’ Prickles groaned. ‘It’s those eyes of his! They go through you like needles. He just looks once, and he’s seen you inside-out, and can tell you all about yourself, if he takes the trouble, which he generally doesn’t.’

‘No; he’s a disgustingly lazy bounder,’ the Spud agreed. ‘He wouldn’t half be brilliant if he’d wake up and take a little notice of the world in general.’

‘Oh, he takes notice all right! He took notice of Taisez-vous last night, sure enough! Trouble is, he doesn’t do anything with the things he sees, nine times out of ten,’ Prickles argued. ‘Today he did let on he’d been seeing things, but most days you’d never know, ’less you happened to see his eyes boring into people.’

‘Or feel ’em going through you,’ Dumpy amended, as one who had suffered. ‘Tazy hasn’t found him out yet. She just thinks he’s an old stick-in-the-corner, and a lazy blighter.’

‘He’s all that, but he’s more too, or my name’s not Spud Thistleton!’‘Herbert! ’Erb!’ Prickles mocked. ‘Come on to coll., or we’ll all get deten. for being

late. There goes Ann-whistling like a factory-hooter! Wonder what Grandma thinks of that!’ as Tazy, whistling certainly, but much more tunefully than his simile suggested, crossed the lawn swinging her leather case, and went out by the garden gate.

‘Wonder how she squared Grandma!’ Dumpy murmured. ‘Come on, Spud! You won’t see her again till this evening, old thing! She’s evidently going to have lunch at St Mary’s. But you can always look forward to dinner-to say nothing of prep!’

‘Prep’s the time to see Ann at her very best,’ Prickles added, with a reminiscent grin. She likes you too much to call you Herbert! Cheerio, old bean!’ as his brother sprang at him, intent on vengeance. And catching up their caps and books, they raced off to fetch their cycles, the Spud in close pursuit of his jeering elder brother, Dumpy panting in the rear, some way behind.

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Chapter 5 - Late For School

Tazy, flying upstairs from the breakfast-room, called up and down the corridor for Madame, on the principle of taking the bull by the horns. ‘I know she’s mad, but if I don’t let on that I know, and talk a lot, perhaps she won’t say much!’ she said to herself. So she hailed her cheerfully. ‘Madame! Madame! I’ve ten minutes before I need to start. Could I do anything to help you and Louise? I will, with pleasure, if you’ll only tell me what. Shall I make beds, or tidy bedrooms? I don’t suppose one of the boys has turned down his bed or folded his pyjamas. Shall I do that for you?’

Madame came hurrying out of her sitting-room. ‘No, no, my dear, there is no need. Louise will help me presently. Certainly you must not enter the boys’ rooms. It would not be’-

‘Not comme il faut! No, I suppose it wouldn’t,’ Tazy assented, with dancing eyes. ‘But can’t I do anything to help you, Madame? Could I leave any message for you in the village? Or shall I go and tidy up the study? The boys have left it in such a mess-terrible!’

‘All these things Louise and I will do when you have gone to school. But, Anastasie, my dear, I must tell you that I do not consider your conduct towards the boys at all becoming to your age. It is not seemly that you should romp with them as if you were a child-a tall girl like you!’

‘I can’t help being tall, Madame. And I’m not really old-or sensible! I’m only just fifteen!’ Tazy pleaded. ‘Perhaps I’ll settle down in time! But now I ought to hurry, I’m afraid, or I’ll be late for school;’ and she sped away, chuckling that she had escaped so lightly.

The garden gate offered a short cut to the road. She crossed the lawn, whistling cheerily, crossed the road also, and took the footpath she had discovered the day before on her way from school. It saved her a mile of dusty main road, and led through meadows, past groups of brown and yellow chalets, across streams by bridges of single planks-always with the noisy grey river a few yards away on the right. The meadows were wonderful, with larks trilling above in an ecstasy which Tazy could understand on such a clear, sharp, sunny morning; and below, a wide waving sea of grasses, columbines, poppies, wild geraniums, field-pansies, beautiful globe flowers, marguerites, scabious, clover, and hosts of other flowers she could not name. The air had a keen nip in it as yet, though at midday it would be very hot; it blew straight down from glaciers and snow-fields, and brought their bracing freshness to the valley; but it came laden also with the scent of flowers and pines, and of pastures where goats and cows were feeding, the sound of their many-toned bells drifting down to the meadows on the breeze as they tossed their heads and moved lazily along.

‘Bells-and bees-and bustling water!’ Tazy murmured, as she walked among the flowers. ‘What a topping way to go to school every day! Think of Geneva, and those burning white streets! Oh, I’m jolly glad to be here! It’s sure to do Mother good; it simply couldn’t help it! I’m afraid it’s going to be bad for me, though. I’ve absolutely got to whistle, whether dear old comme il faut likes it or not; and I could turn somersaults all day, just because everything’s so priceless! But she’d have two fits straight away, and that would be a pity. But-those mountains! My seven-peaked beauty!’ and she leaned on a low rail fence to gaze up and down in keen appreciation of a wonderful sight.

The seven-peaked range opposite her window had been her first sight in the morning, as it had been her last at night. In the early light it had gleamed with a dazzling brilliant whiteness that almost seemed to hurt, with a deep-blue sky behind. From out here among the meadows Anastasia could see the white caps rising behind the other green cliffs also, though they had been hidden from her while in the house;

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but they were small and dwarfed by her depth below them, mere hints at the wonders lying behind those rocky walls. She knew that to see them well she must climb some opposite height; she had seen them the day before, as she sat with her mother up on the Platz-a row of great stately giants, their snowy slopes outlined by ridges of black rock, over which a light veil of powdery flakes had fallen in places. Only hints of all this could be seen from the valley, which lay, a very flat tract of flower-filled meadow-land, on each side of the brawling river; one wide dusty road ran lengthways through it, from the gap by which road and railway entered, to the high pass in the southern wall of hills. Here, to the south, the mountains could be seen, for they were some distance off; on one side a huge round snowy head, on the other a sharp white tooth thrust up from a great mass of snow-clad shoulder; and between them the dip which was the famous pass, bare and rocky, but clear of snow, up to which the road climbed in long toilsome zigzags, and beneath which the railway plunged in the long new tunnel. The pass and the two sentinel mountains were before Tazy as she turned to go on her way to school at last, with a sigh of deepest content; on her right, across the river and the fields, were the pine-woods through which one could climb to the Platz, lying high on its shelf, open to sun and wind; on her left the gorge opened out, leading to that great seven-peaked range in the distance.

‘I’m going to be late for school!’ Tazy said to herself. ‘I wonder if they make allowances on your first morning. They jolly well ought to; I should think they’d understand!’

She had seen nothing of the boys, who had cycled along the high-road, passing her long ago. She had expected to meet other girls on their way to St Mary’s, for she knew that a few, like herself, boarded in the village, and there were a few day-girls whose parents lived in the valley. But she was evidently late; she met no one, and the big bells from the twin schools had stopped clanging before she had crossed the last meadow. She stopped admiring scenery, forsook her sedate walk, and raced wildly across the field, across the road, and across the playground, to the amusement of a party of tourists setting out for the pass, who had arrived only the night before, and had had no time to grow used to the sight of boys in scarlet blazers and girls in blue tunics and white hats and pigtails.

‘Oh, there are many of them. It is the school, you understand, Monsieur,’ their guide explained. ‘That demoiselle with the yellow hair-English, sans doute!-is late for her classes.’

‘She looked it!’ laughed the climbers, and followed the man with the coil of rope on his shoulder and the feathers in his hat.

Tazy, having changed her shoes and left her hat in the dressing-room, presented herself in the class-room to which she had been sent the afternoon before. The German class had already begun, and Fraulein looked at her coldly. ‘Anastasia, you are late. Miss Braithwaite awaits you in her study. Leave your homework for me to correct, and go to her at once.’

‘She won’t row me on my first day, surely!’ Tazy thought indignantly, as she gave up her exercise-book, suddenly grateful to Prickles for putting her right in the spelling of heute.

She entered the study with rather a hurt air, defiance in her eyes.But Margaret Braithwaite understood at a glance, and laughed. ‘You were late this

morning, Anastasia? And you think that is why I have sent for you? My dear child, that would be a matter for your form-mistress, not for me. I sent for you before you had arrived, and you were to come as soon as you did so. I have no reason to find fault with you, so there is no need to look so hurt about it!’ Tazy laughed, and reddened, ‘I want to know if the work we set you last night seemed about your standard. How long did you give to preparation last evening?’

Tazy’s eyes fell and her colour rose at an irresistible picture of herself and Prickles rolling on the floor, after half-an-hour’s acquaintance. ‘I-I didn’t time it, Miss Braithwaite! A little over an hour, I should think. The maths. stumped me rather-I

22


mean,’ she said hurriedly, ‘it took rather a long time, and the German was-was a bit difficult.’ She had nearly said ‘rotten,’ and found herself wishing the headmistress would talk French; it was so much easier not to be slangy in French!

But Miss Braithwaite knew better. She quite understood the hesitations and corrections in Tazy’s conversation, and knew the need to guard her use of her own language as well as to perfect her French and German. She talked to her English pupils in English, and was severe on any lapses in grammar and diction.

‘Then do you think it would be well for you to start in a lower form? I do not want your work to be too hard till you are used to our ways, and it is not easy to be sure of a girl’s standard at first. I will put you down if you like, but I thought you might be able to manage the work of the Fourth, though perhaps it may cost you an effort. There are some girls in the Fourth who would make good friends for you.’

‘Oh yes! There’s Svea!’ Tazy said quickly. ‘Oh, I’d like to try, please, Miss Braithwaite! I didn’t mean to grumble; I’m sure I shall get on all right.’

Miss Braithwaite, who had been thinking not only of Svea, laughed. ‘We will let you try, then. Now why were you late this morning? Your first day, too!’

‘That was why,’ Tazy explained simply. ‘Oh, I won’t do it again! I hate being late. But it’s my first morning, and I never saw anything like it. It all just took hold of me, somehow, and I simply had to stand and stare, and I forgot all about the time, and school, and everything. But I’ll be used to it after this; I won’t do it again.’ She was sure Miss Braithwaite would understand.

She was not disappointed. ‘You were looking at the mountains? They are grand, aren’t they?’

‘They’re all rip-I mean, simply splendid!’Miss Braithwaite laughed. ‘I suppose you’ve been enjoying the Seven Sisters?’‘My bedroom looks right at them,’ Tazy said eagerly. ‘I don’t know whether I like

them better all on fire, at sunset, you know, or all silver, as they are this morning.’‘Ah! You saw the afterglow last night? Well Anastasia-by the way, what do they call

you at home?’Tazy’s eyes fell. ‘Ann, Miss Braithwaite. But at my last school the girls called me

Tazy.’ She looked up doubtfully, hoping the head-mistress would not be as quick to see the obvious nickname as ‘old Bones’ had been.

But if Miss Braithwaite saw any hidden meaning in ‘Tazy,’ she kept it to herself. ‘Well then, Tazy, we will say nothing about this morning, since the mountains were to blame. I know just how you felt. It is your first morning? You only came up from Geneva yesterday, and went on up to the Platz for a few hours before coming here? I understand. Our mornings are very wonderful on days like this-almost more wonderful than our evenings, I think. I don’t blame you for forgetting everything else, just for this once. But you can’t plead another “first morning,” you know!’

Tazy laughed. ‘Oh, I won’t try to! I will be early tomorrow, really; and thank you very much for understanding.’

‘I still feel a little of what you felt when I come back after a holiday in England, though I have lived here for twenty years,’ said Miss Braithwaite, smiling. ‘After even a short absence, I enjoy my first morning! But now you must settle down to work in earnest. How do you like Madame Perronet? Do you think you will be comfortable with her? It is one of our pleasantest boarding-houses, though it gives you rather a long walk every day. But you won’t mind that,’ with an appreciative look at Tazy’s glowing cheeks and bright eyes.

‘I love it!-the walk, I mean. The flowers are gorgeous. I’ve seen them now and then, when we went for picnics from Geneva, but only for a day at a time. It’s topping-awfully nice, I mean’-reddening consciously under Miss Braithwaite’s stern look-‘to walk through them every day.’

‘Wait till you get a few days of pouring rain! You may not find it “topping” then.’Tazy blushed and laughed. ‘I will try to talk properly, Miss Braithwaite. I’m awfully

sorry.’

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‘You simply must not teach these dreadful expressions to the rest of the school, Tazy. I do not know why you should use them at all. You have been living abroad for a year; it is not as if you came to us straight from an English school.’

‘I’m afraid I knew them before I went to Geneva.’ Tazy sighed, but did not add that even one evening’s residence with four boys had been enough to revive much that she had been forgetting. ‘I like Madame Perronet,’ she added, ‘and the house is awfully-very nice indeed! And I’ve got a lovely big bedroom, with huge windows and a simply perfect view.’

‘And do you think you will make friends easily with the boys who also board there?’ Miss Braithwaite had seen Tazy’s eyes fall and her cheeks redden at the reference to last night’s preparation-hour, and had her suspicions that the time had not been wholly given to algebra and German.

But Tazy answered frankly and without a shadow of hesitation, ‘Oh, we’ve made friends!

It took us about five minutes. They’re a jolly lot; I don’t mind them a scrap. I should think we’ll all be quite chummy in a day or two, Miss Braithwaite.’

Miss Braithwaite’s eyes twinkled. Unlike Madame Perronet, she preferred this type of girl. If Tazy had been the precocious semi-grown-up maiden Madame would have approved of, she would never have been sent to board with four schoolboys. But Miss Braithwaite had made careful inquiries, both from the former schoolmistress and from Mrs Kingston, before deciding to trust Anastasia as one of her ‘town boarders,’ and she found her judgment confirmed. She asked a few more questions, and in all the frank, ready answers she received she found Tazy’s attitude to the boys entirely satisfactory.

‘It has not taken you long to make friends. You cannot have had much opportunity so far?’

‘Oh, we did our prep together last night!’ Tazy’s eyes gleamed reminiscently.‘Suppose you tell me just what happened? I can see there was something.’‘You’d be shocked. At least, you mightn’t like it. But I’m not sure, either.’ Tazy

looked at her shrewdly, and found a laugh in Miss Braithwaite’s dark eyes to match the gleam in her own.

‘Now, Tazy, after that you must tell me what happened!’‘I-I’m missing rather a lot of German, Miss Braithwaite!’‘You are. But there are other things besides German. And you need English

conversation quite as much as German, my child! I want to know how you are getting on with those boys. They are nice boys, of course, or I would not have sent you there. Now, what happened last night?’

‘Oh, nothing really; but it wouldn’t have happened unless we’d been going to be friends. I wouldn’t have scrapped with a boy I didn’t like,’ Tazy explained. ‘If I’d thought they were rotters-I mean, horrid in any way, you know’-Miss Braithwaite nodded gravely-‘I’d have kept at the other end of the table, and stuck to my work, and not have spoken to them if I could have helped it. I wouldn’t have played about with them.’

Miss Braithwaite nodded again. ‘But you knew from the first that you were going to be friends?’

‘From the first second. So when Prickles-his name’s Wilfred, really-got hold of my German exercise and roared because I’d spelt a word wrong, I-well, I got it back the quickest way I knew!’ Her eyes danced as they met Miss Braithwaite’s for a moment, then fell demurely.

‘And did-er-Wilfred object to your methods?’ Miss Braithwaite was too tactful to ask what these had been, Tazy, set down among four boys, must be allowed to fight her battles with her own weapons, and was evidently quite prepared to do so.

She laughed. ‘I got my book back, anyway,’ she said evasively. ‘No; they objected more when I dressed for dinner, just to tease them, and behaved as if I were as old as Madame. They really were mad with me then.’

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Miss Braithwaite laughed, with no fear for Tazy’s future, so far as the boys were concerned. The one thing she hated and feared, premature sentimental silliness between her girls and the boys of St John’s, would not occur in the case of this girl, even though she were thrown into closer contact with the boys than the ordinary boarders of St Mary’s. ‘If you have any more exciting times with them, I wish you’d come and tell me about them, Tazy,’ she said frankly. ‘If I’m not too busy, I’ll enjoy it. You’re sure to have opportunities, since you’ll be with the boys so much. I’d like to hear how you get on. Tell me some of your adventures, won’t you?’

‘I’d love to, if you’d really like it, Miss Braithwaite. Boys are weird things, you know.’

‘Girls are sometimes queer creatures too. Now you’d better go hack to your class. I’m afraid you’ve missed your German for today. You don’t look exactly sorry, Tazy!’

‘I should be a cheat and a fraud if I did,’ Tazy said frankly.‘Isn’t she a jolly old sport!’ she said to herself, as she closed the door.

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Chapter 6 - ‘Mistresses’ Choice’

‘You’re dreadfully late!’ Svea whispered, as Tazy, with an apology to Fraulein, slipped into the seat beside her. ‘Are you going to do this every day? I sha’n’t see much of you if you do. Have you been with Madame all this time?’

‘Miss Braithwaite? Yes; but she hasn’t been scolding. She was very nice about it. I won’t be late again, Svea; it was only the first morning.’

‘We cannot say her name; it is too difficult. Your English “zh”-what is it?-is so horrible;’ and Svea tried in vain to copy Tazy’s ‘th.’ ‘So we call her Madame, all of us. You’ve missed the voting, Tazy. But, of course, as you are new you could not have known how to vote, in any case. The names were all given in before school. I should have warned you to be very early today.’

‘Voting? What for? Bother! I don’t like missing anything.’‘Capitaine-form-captain. Madame says each form must have one girl to represent

the others, and to be useful in every way; to keep order if the mistress is called out of the room; to put away books and collect fines for those that are left lying about; to do all sorts of things, and be leader of the class.’

‘Form-captain; yes, of course. And who was last term’s captain?’‘They have both been moved up into the Fifth. All the classes are changed this

term. So we must have two new ones.’‘Two? Two captains?’‘Be silent, Anastasie and Svea!’ thundered Fraulein. ‘How dare you sit and chatter

behind your books?’They subsided hurriedly, with a murmured ‘Taisez-vous!’ from Svea and a twinkle

in her eyes; and Tazy’s question had to remain unanswered till the mid-morning break. But then, with glasses of milk and biscuits, they retired to a corner, Svea waving off her other friends.

‘I’ll talk to all of you later on! Just now I want to tell things to Tazy. She is so very new that she knows nothing, nothing at all, you see!’

‘Tazy, look at that girl going now to fetch her milk!’ Svea commanded sharply, as they took possession of their corner.

Tazy looked. ‘Well, what about her? She’s quite ordinary.’‘That’s what I think, and most of the rest too. But the mistresses don’t. She’s

Karen Wilson.’‘English?’ Tazy asked curiously. ‘No; half-and-half, like me, I suppose.’‘I believe her mother was Dutch, or German, or Norwegian, or something. She died

up at the Platz two years ago; but Karen stayed on at school here, as she was getting on well, and her father didn’t know anywhere else to send her. He’s a writer and a traveller, and hadn’t a proper home for her after her mother died.’

‘Oh!’ Tazy looked very serious; this was the one aspect of her present situation which she did not care to face. ‘I suppose that must happen rather often? Girls must sometimes lose their mothers or fathers, since that’s why most of us are here.’

‘Sometimes. But they live for years and years up there, you know, when they couldn’t live at home.’

Tazy nodded. ‘We don’t know yet how long mine will have to stay. She tried the south of France last winter, but she didn’t get any better, so the doctor advised this.’

‘Oh, well, Dr Rennie Brown will cure her, if anybody can! We have an aunt up there, you know; Gerda’s mother. But I fear’-and Svea’s shrug said what she feared for her aunt.

‘So Karen’s mother died, and she hasn’t a proper home? Poor kid!’‘I’m not pointing her out just to tell you about her mother, though,’ Svea said

quickly. ‘Have you looked at her properly?’‘I’ve looked hard! But she isn’t much to look at. Why isn’t she ordinary, Svea?’

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‘We don’t know. We don’t understand. But the mistresses seem to think-well, it’s this way. I told you we had two form-captains?’

‘You said “both.” Two to each form, do you mean?’‘Yes. They say there’s plenty for two to do, as the forms are so big. So we choose

one, and the mistresses choose the other.’‘Oh!’ Tazy said slowly. ‘Oh, what a queer plan! And how does it work? Do they get

on well together? Or do they fight?’‘They don’t usually fight,’ Svea laughed. ‘But it’s awkward sometimes; still, that’s

the school plan! Last year it worked very well in our form. The mistresses chose Greta-but you won’t know her yet! We chose a girl called Léonie, and they were friends, so they did everything together, and it was just like having one captain in two bits. She could be in two places at once, but wherever you found her you could be sure she’d do what the other part of her would want her to do. It was very convenient!’

‘It sounds convenient!’ said Tazy. ‘But what about this year? And what has it to do with Karen Wilson? Oh, you don’t mean that she’-She paused.

‘Yes, she’s one of them. She’s Mistresses’ Choice for this term;’ and Svea looked at Tazy doubtfully. ‘How do you think she’ll get on? We’re all wondering why they chose her.’

‘I don’t know,’ Tazy said slowly. ‘I don’t know her at all. She isn’t pretty, or-or attractive in any way, so far as I can see. She looks as if she’d work hard; what we’d call in English a “swotter”; but that’s hardly what you want for a good form-captain. Do the girls like her? Is she good at games? Does she join in everything that’s going on?’

‘No! The other captain will have to do that-the Girls’ Choice, you know. We voted before school, but we haven’t heard the result yet. Karen isn’t any good at games, or-or anything you’d expect a captain to be! And yet they’ve chosen her; they never give any reasons, of course. We’ll have to see what happens.’

‘Whom did you vote for?’ Tazy was pondering the situation.‘Babette-that dark girl over there. She’s Léonie’s sister, and as Léonie got on so

well, I thought Babette might too.’‘It doesn’t follow, though,’ laughed Tazy. ‘It’s not the kind of thing that runs in

families. And it seems to me you’ve got to think not only of the kind of captain she’ll make, but of how she’ll get on with Karen, if they have to work together. That’s very important.’

‘Well, of course it is,’ Svea agreed. ‘But I think most of us forgot all about it, and only thought which girl we liked best. Oh, she’ll get on with Karen all right! Karen isn’t difficult.’

‘Well, that’s something definite about her at last!’ Tazy laughed. ‘She’s easy to get on with! Have you been in her form before?’

‘Oh yes, all last year. We were both in this same old Fourth, but we’d just been moved in. Now all the seniors have gone up into the Fifth, and we’ve a lot of new girls come up from the Third.’

‘So you and Karen and Babette are seniors here now. They’ll choose the other captain from among you who have had a year in the form already. If it isn’t Babette, perhaps it will be you, Svea.’

‘Oh, there are plenty more!’ laughed Svea. There’s Gerda-my cousin, you know; I told you about her. She won’t be chosen, though! And Pilly, and Edith, and Doreen; they are all English girls, and all seniors. I shouldn’t wonder if it were one of them. English girls make good captains; they work so hard, and keep things going, and manage everybody.’

‘They’re bossy, and have lots of “go”!’ Tazy laughed. ‘What a character to give us! But Pilly doesn’t sound English, Svea?’

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‘Oh, well, we always say her name so! It is queer to us-queer in its spelling, at least. She should spell it with F, if she wishes us to say F, but she won’t, and we can’t remember, so we call her Pilly.’

‘Phyllis!’ laughed Tazy. ‘No, I’m sure she won’t spell it with an F! Oh, there’s plenty of choice for captain, then! When will you know the result of the voting?’

‘The list for the whole school will be on the board in the dining-hall at lunch-time. I shouldn’t wonder if Helga were captain of the Sixth; she’s been in it a year now, and everybody likes her.’

‘I’d like to speak to those other English girls.’‘Yes, and Gerda too. I’ll introduce you; but after school. There’s no time now.

There goes the gong! I say! How did you get on with your boys? We all want to know!’‘Oh, top-hole!’ Tazy murmured in English, as they took their places for algebra.

‘Very well indeed, Svea! They’re great fun!’

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Chapter 7 - Gerda’s ‘Sort Of Rot’

During the morning Tazy cast many curious glances at the ‘Mistresses’ Choice,’ Karen, as she sat a few yards away, and wondered again why the honour and responsibility of captain had fallen to her. She was an insignificant-looking girl at first glance-‘quite ordinary,’ as Tazy had said; she was slight and not tall, thin-faced, with a long heavy plait of brown hair; and if her eyes had any beauty, it was hidden by the big round spectacles whose thickness proclaimed that she must be very short-sighted. If she had any outstanding qualities, they could only be discovered on closer acquaintance; in her blue tunic, like all the rest of the class, she was indeed ‘quite ordinary’ to a casual glance. She answered quickly when asked a question, and was generally correct, Tazy noted; she had a pleasant voice, and spoke French or English with equal ease, as did most of the girls, though the ‘foreigners’ often hesitated for a word in their English.

When one o’clock came Tazy turned to Svea; she had been thinking hard for some time, but more about her new friends than her work. ‘You’ve been in the same form with Karen Wilson for a year?’

‘Yes. And before that we were together in the Third. What about it, Tazy?’‘And all you can say about her now that she’s captain is that she’s easy to get on

with? Then either she’s got very little in her-which isn’t likely, if the mistresses have chosen her!-or she’s been hiding it very carefully; or you haven’t taken much notice, Svea!’

‘I guess it’s that,’ laughed Svea. ‘Oh, some of the girls are wild about her! They say she can make you do anything she likes. But she’s never tried it on with me.’

‘Gracious! How does she do it? Which of them say so? How do they mean?’‘Oh, don’t ask me!-Gerda! Pilly! Are the lists up yet?’ For there had been a rush for

the hall as soon as they were dismissed, and only Tazy’s question had kept Svea behind.

‘Not yet; after lunch, they say.-Isn’t it rotten having to wait so long?’ and Phyllis turned to Tazy. ‘You’re English, aren’t you-in spite of your name? I’ll bring some more of us along to speak to you.’

‘Gerda, this is Anastasie, of whom I told you;’ and Svea introduced her cousin. ‘Tazy, this is Gerda.’

Gerda turned to Tazy curiously. ‘You are boarding in the town, are you not? You are one of the few who can be trusted out of Madame’s sight? It is strange they should always be English girls! And is it true you are lodging with a crowd of boys from the college?’

Tazy eyed her critically. ‘Yes, it’s true. There are only four of them, though. What about it?’

Gerda laughed. ‘But your opportunities! How we shall all envy you! To live with four strange boys! Don’t you know that any of us would give worlds to be in your place, my dear?’

‘Why?’ Tazy asked bluntly. ‘Because you’d have two miles to walk twice each day, rain or fine? Because you’d only be able to see your friends during classes or between times? Day-girls are always out of lots of things in a boarding-school; the boarders always have the best of it. Why should you envy me?’

‘Oh, la-la! But to live with boys all the time! What fun you will have! Tell us about them, my dear! I hope for your sake they are not merely little boys? I cannot endure small boys. What age are these with whom you are to live?’

‘About my age.’ Tazy’s voice was dangerously cold.‘But that is ideal! And are you going to be good friends? Can you tell yet if there is

one among them with whom you will-well, form a special friendship, you know?’

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Gerda wilted suddenly under Tazy’s steady stare, and hurriedly changed the words she had been going to use.

‘Good gracious, what would I want to do that for? I played touch round a rose-bed with one of them before breakfast, and he chased me across the lawn,’ Tazy said brusquely. ‘Is that the kind of “special friendship” you mean? I hope I’m going to be friends with them all! And last night during prep I fought one of them because he’d taken my book. I got it back, too.’

Svea laughed, and looked at her cousin expectantly. She had been watching Tazy to see what kind of impression Gerda would make.

‘Oh, but that is childish! Do you mean to say you will romp with such big boys as if you were a little girl? My dear, if you act in that way they will never respect you at all! And what a waste of a glorious chance!’

‘To make an idiot of myself, I suppose?’ Tazy’s wrath boiled over. ‘To grin and giggle at the boys, just because they’re boys and I’m a girl! To keep watching to see if they’re looking at me! To keep wondering what they’re thinking about me! Goodness me! I should be bored stiff in half-an-hour! I loathe that soft silly kind of stuff! I may turn giggly and begin squinting at boys and hiding in corners with them when I’m nineteen; though I devoutly hope I sha’n’t! I sha’n’t know myself if I do! But I won’t do it a minute before. I’m not going to worry about all that rot for years and years yet. It’s a pity you’re not living with them instead of me, Gerda, since I’m evidently wasting my “glorious chances.”’

‘That is what I think,’ Gerda retorted. ‘You speak without understanding, like a child, my dear. Any one of us in your place’-

‘Would you?’ Tazy turned swiftly to Svea. ‘Are all the girls like this? Are they all mad about boys?’

Svea laughed, as Gerda, contempt in her face, walked haughtily away. ‘Tazy, I couldn’t tell you she was like that, could I now? I couldn’t say, “I’m sorry to have to tell you this is my cousin, but she’s not my kind, and I don’t like her a scrap, and neither will you!” I knew you’d find her out quickly. No! We’re not all like that. I knew when we talked in the train that you were not one of the silly ones. That’s why I am so sure Gerda won’t be chosen as captain by the girls. Some would like her, but not many.’

‘Little toad!’ Tazy said heatedly. ‘I loathe that kind of rot! Goodness me! If I couldn’t be friends with boys without making a silly of myself like that, I’d never speak to one again! I’d-I’d feel so sick with myself!’ she dropped into English to express her feelings more exactly.

‘That is why Madame chose you to be among those allowed to board in the village,’ Svea explained. ‘She only allows it with a very few, for whom we have not room, and she is very careful in choosing them. As dear little Gerda says, it is generally English girls who are so trusted, because you English are more inclined to look on boys as only playmates, and-and to chase them across lawns, and fight them to get back your books!’ Her laugh rang out. ‘Oh, Gerda’s face! I shall laugh for days when I think of it! Don’t you know, Tazy, that all the school will be envying you because of your four boys? It is not usual to board with boys, you know, even if you live in the village. There are houses for girls only, but I believe they are all full just now. Some of the girls will think of the fun you will have-your kind of fun, which has no harm in it! But others will be like Gerda, and despise you for wasting your “glorious chances.” But they will all envy you, that is certain.’

‘Let them! And if Gerda’s kind want to despise me, they may do it. I don’t care. I’d rather they would, in fact,’ Tazy said scornfully. ‘The boys are good fun, and they’re quite nice, and that’s all I care about.’

‘What’s up?’ Phyllis returned with several other girls, all of whom she introduced to Tazy as whole or part English. ‘I’ve been looking for Karen, but Miss Martin has sent for her. What’s the joke, Svea?’

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‘Tazy has been discussing boys with Gerda that’s all,’ Svea laughed. ‘She’s been talking about “grinning and giggling in corners,” and “making an idiot of yourself,” and “squinting at boys.” And Gerda has gone off with her nose in the air but she’s heard what somebody thinks of her for once.’

‘Do her good,’ Doreen said callously. ‘She’s a lot too keen on the college and everybody inside it.’

‘She is rather an idiot, isn’t she?’ Phyllis turned to Tazy.‘Not half! I just wish I’d told her off in English. I could have said tons more.’‘I guess you could! But perhaps you said enough. But look here! We haven’t all got

that disease, you know. Don’t go and think we’re all rotters. It would be bad for the form if Gerda or one of her lot were chosen captain, but ’tisn’t likely.’

Tazy devoutly hoped a healthier influence than Gerda’s would set the tone of the form for the coming term. She did not put it to herself in those words, of course. ‘I jolly well hope the girls will have the sense to choose some one who doesn’t go in for that sort of rot,’ was the way she would have expressed her feeling.

She knew too little of the girls yet to take any part in discussing the various candidates, but she ran as eagerly as any to join the crowd surging round the notice-boards when lunch was over, and, guided by Svea, found her way quickly to the one which concerned Form IV. There was a crowd about it already, and as they hurried up they were met by an excited mob, all anxious to be the first to tell the news. Phyllis and Doreen were among them, and Babette came rushing eagerly forward too; Gerda, not looking over-pleased, hung back and frowned.

‘Svea! Svea Andersson! Jolly good too! You’ll make a topping captain, old girl! Congrats., in the name of the whole form!’ cried Phyllis warmly.

‘What! Me?’ and a wave of warm colour swept into Svea’s face. ‘Why, I never dreamt’-

‘Didn’t you? Oh, we’d quite made up our minds, lots of us! We didn’t babble about it, of course, but we all knew we wanted you.’

‘Babette, I voted for you; I never thought of being chosen myself!’ Svea cried, excited, pleased, but rather doubtful of herself. ‘Do you think I can? You’d have had Léonie to help you.

I don’t know the first thing about being captain.’‘Oh, you’ll get through all right! We’ll all tell you what to do!’ Phyllis laughed.‘I should think the first thing’-Tazy began, her eyes full of delight at her friend’s

promotion. ‘Oh, she knows! That’s all right!’Karen Wilson had been among the first to reach the board. It mattered vitally to

her who was chosen as her colleague. The term would be made much harder, or much easier, according to whether a girl of Svea’s type were chosen or one of Gerda’s. There were several in the form with whom she could work easily and gladly, but there were as many more who would be very difficult; and her mind was quite clear as to which were which. But it would have been impossible to tell as she came forward to Svea whether the eyes behind the big glasses were full of relief or doubt; she was not one to betray her feelings, and she knew it was necessary to welcome her fellow-captain cordially whether she could do it sincerely or not. Pleased or not, it had to be done.

She made her way through the crowd, who fell back quickly to let her pass, and came up to Svea, who, in her momentary excitement, had forgotten that she was not to be the only captain of the form. ‘Svea, I’m very glad. I hope we shall pull together as well as Greta and Léonie did. We’re very different, and they were just the same, so we sha’n’t be able to do it in quite their way. But perhaps we’ll find we balance one another, and that I’ll take on work you don’t care for, and you’ll do the same for me. We’ll try to make a good team, shall we? And to give the form a good term.’

‘Quite a pretty little speech from the Mistresses’ Pet!’ sneered Gerda. ‘I wouldn’t care to be “Mistresses’ Choice”! If the girls chose me, all right! But I wouldn’t have the other.’

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Karen’s speech had cost her an effort, as her rising colour had betrayed. She turned now and looked at Gerda, who gazed back defiantly, with a jeering smile. Karen said nothing, but continued to look.

Babette cried shrilly, ‘Considering your name’s the very last on the list, and only two voted for you, you’ll wait a long time before you’re “Girls’ Choice,” Gerda. And nobody thinks you’re likely to be chosen by the mistresses!’

A laugh went round. Phyllis cried sharply, ‘You must have known she was bottom, Karen! Why didn’t you pitch it into her? Do her good!’

‘Oh, I knew! But I wasn’t going to do anything so-so cheap.’ Karen was speaking in English, in answer to Phyllis. ‘She gave herself away altogether, of course; I wasn’t going to jump at it when she gave me such an easy chance. It isn’t worth it.’ She turned away to Svea again.

Gerda, who had only half-understood the words, gave an angry laugh. ‘Mistresses’ Pet!’ she jeered again.

But Tazy’s eyes had followed the two form captains thoughtfully. One of them was her friend, and already she was beginning to feel an interest in the other.

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Chapter 8 - ‘Girls’ Choice’

‘Svea!’ said Karen, ‘we are to go to Miss Braithwaite’s study after tea.’‘To be lectured on our duties and responsibilities. I know; Greta told me about it

last term, and said Madame was awfully solemn, and made them all feel as if they were in church.’

‘In the meantime,’ Karen went on, ‘have you looked at the lists for the other forms yet?’ ‘No!’ Svea looked at her quickly. ‘Why? Anything exciting? Is Helga?’-

‘Helga is “Girls’ Choice” for the Sixth, and that makes her Head of the school “Girls’ Choice” always ranks higher than “Mistresses’” with Miss Braithwaite,’ said Karen, as she gave a little laugh.

‘How-how magnificent! I must see for myself!’‘Wait a moment! There’s something else. Your Inga’-‘What! not that baby?’ Svea cried incredulously.‘She’s one of the oldest in the Second, and the mistresses have chosen her. I

believe the girls would have had her if she hadn’t been chosen already; I know she’s a favourite. We seem to like your family,’ Karen laughed.

‘We do seem to be rather popular just at present! I hope you won’t get sick of us before the term’s over! I say, I’m gladder than ever they chose me! I wouldn’t have liked to be the only one left out.’

‘Why do you say “they”?’’ Karen inquired. ‘I voted too; and it matters far more to me than to the rest who is chosen.’

Svea looked at her quickly. ‘How did you vote? But I suppose you won’t tell!’‘I think we should go in for classes,’ Karen said seriously. ‘It’s almost time, and it

won’t do for us to be late.’‘I must run and congratulate Helga first. She’ll make a good Head. And Inga too!

That baby! I can’t get used to the idea!’ and Svea ran off.‘There’ll be an excited meeting of the clan Andersson in some corner,’ said Phyllis,

turning to Tazy with a laugh. ‘Both her sisters are captains too. It is topping for them, isn’t it? But they’re all good sorts, and no silly rot about them. I don’t know the little kid much, but Helga’s ripping. They’re the image of one another to look at, too.’

Tazy looked across at the corner where Svea had found her sisters, and all three were talking and laughing eagerly together. They were pleasant-faced girls, with bright colouring, plenty of light-brown hair, which curled where it escaped from its regulation plait, and frank blue eyes; all were round-faced, with a tendency to roundness of figure also-‘Though the kiddy’s the only one you could really call fat!’ Tazy said to herself. Helga was only slightly taller than Svea, who was not big for her age; little Inga was frankly short and plump at present; but all were obviously placid and easy-going, good company, and general favourites; the choice of the girls was easy to understand.

‘But, I say!’ Tazy meditated, as she went into class with Phyllis, leaving Svea to follow; ‘what a difference between our two capitaines! They couldn’t be more unlike if they’d been made opposite on purpose! For Svea’s pretty and attractive, and Karen-isn’t! She may be very good, and all that; but she’s plain and ordinary; there’s no getting away from it. And I don’t know them very well yet, but it seems to me Svea’s all on the outside, or a good lot of her, anyway; she may have plenty more inside, of course, but she makes a good show in her shop-window! She’s jolly, and easy, and a good chap. But I’m not so sure of Karen. Whatever she is, it’s all inside, in her case. I suppose I’ll get to know her in time.’

She repeated the last words aloud to Phyllis. ‘Karen, you know. I don’t feel as if I know what she’s really like yet.’

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‘No, and you won’t either, unless she wants you to. She’s rather much of an oyster; she doesn’t often open out. But she’s quite all right, you know.’

‘Why do you think they chose her? Oh, here’s Miss Martin! Bother!’Svea slipped into her place as Miss Martin entered the room. ‘Isn’t it splendid?’ she

whispered excitedly.‘Top-hole! Congrats., old girl!’ Tazy responded, and then they settled down to

work.As she walked home after tea Tazy had much to think about. She noted how

different the valley looked and felt now; how the freshness in the air had given place to drowsy heat; how mountains which in the morning had been dead white, with the early sun behind them, now stood out in clear relief as it shone full on their faces, showing every crag and rock and hollow; how cliffs which in the early light had been clear and beautiful were now masses of purple shadow; how rocks which, lacking the sunlight, had been dull and gray, now glistened with the spray from thread-like torrents-dozens of them, it seemed, to one rocky cliff; how the river caught the afternoon sun and danced and sparkled and made tiny rainbows as its waves broke on the boulders.

‘Some day I shall count the waterfalls between the village and the school. I believe there are hundreds! And another day I’ll count the number of different kinds of flowers,’ she promised herself.

But today she had too much to think about. For a first day at school she had learned a good deal. Svea-Phyllis-Babette-Gerda; she had a fair idea of each. Karen? No, she was still in doubt about Karen. ‘She’s rather like old Boney!’ she laughed, as she walked down the path, the grasses and wild flowers reaching almost to her shoulders. ‘They ought to be relations!’

And she had discovered the silly attitude of Gerda and some of the others towards the college boys. Tazy knit her brows as she walked and thought, and had no eyes for flowers or waterfalls, rivers or snowy peaks. It was an attitude which did not appeal to her at all. She had met it before, of course; the girls in Geneva had not been wholly innocent of what Phyllis called ‘the boy disease.’ But it was aggravated here by the presence of the big college just across the river, and by Tazy’s own position as boarder among the boys. She thought hard all the way home then, entering the garden, gave herself a little shake. ‘It’s all silly rot! We’re only fifteen! I don’t like that Gerda. I’m glad I ticked her off straight away. I was horribly rude, I expect; I haven’t an idea what I said to her! But I’m glad I did it, for she won’t forgive me, so there’s no fear of her trying to be friends. I don’t believe there’s one of the boys here who wouldn’t say it was rot too. Prickles? The Spud? Old Napoleon? Dumpy? I’m not quite so sure of Dumpy! But I believe they’d all hate it as much as I do. I wonder if I’d dare to ask them. No, of course I couldn’t! That’s one of the things that aren’t done! But, all the same, I believe they’d feel just as I do!’

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Chapter 9 - Prep With The Boys

It was inevitable that the silly talk at school should make Tazy self-conscious when she met the boys again. The feeling was unnatural to her, and seldom troubled her; but she certainly felt a new awkwardness as she reached the house, and today she went up to her room to be sure her hair was tidy and her collar straight, instead of walking into the study in her hat, as she had done the day before. Satisfied that no one could find fault with her for any want of neatness, whether she ‘looked nice’ or not, she took an armful of books and went staidly down to join the boys, who, having cycled, were sure to have reached home first.

‘Here comes Ann! Taisez-vous, Spud! That kind of language isn’t fit for little girls to hear;’ and Prickles ostentatiously spread his books all across his side of the table as Anastasia entered.

Her resolutions as to good behaviour fled. ‘What did he say?’ she demanded. ‘It might be useful sometimes! I’d like to know some new words-something really strong! Worth saying, you know. Was he saying things about his prep?’

‘Swearing something awful,’ Prickles assured her earnestly. ‘You haven’t an idea what a bad character he is. Oh, we wouldn’t tell you for fifty francs! Grandma would die of horror. I say, you’re going to sit on Dumpy tonight; it’s only fair to take turns. So you can stick at that side; see?’

‘Turns in bearing the burden?’ Tazy’s eyes danced. ‘Sorry I’m so much in the way! But it’s not fair for you to be the only victim; I quite see that. So I’ll sit by him tonight.-Shove up, Edward! But don’t look so upset; I only want a corner. I’m going to work; I sha’n’t disturb you.’

‘You can’t help it, Shut-up!’ said the Spud, grinning. ‘You’ve got to talk. It trickles out of you like water out of a spout. Had a good day at St Mary’s?’

‘Not half!’ Tazy said sincerely, as she sat down by Dumpy, who unwillingly drew his books aside to make room for her. ‘I like it. But I’ve got pots of work to do, so good-night, all!’

The boys grinned at one another as she took up her pencil and began to scribble.‘Dumpy will tell you how to spell it,’ Prickles suggested wickedly. ‘Don’t touch her

book, though, old man, unless you want your wig clawed off.’Tazy was setting out a problem, counting rapidly on her fingers under the table. ‘I

sha’n’t ask him,’ she said briefly. ‘I don’t believe he knows. I’d rather have my own wrong spelling than his. Besides, I’ve got to find out things for myself.’

‘Oh?’ Prickles raised his eyebrows. ‘Not a bad idea, kid! But why all of a sudden? What about last night?’

‘She’s reformed. There’ll be some peace for us now,’ Dumpy grunted.Tazy condescended to explain. ‘Just to ease your minds!’ she said. ‘I don’t want to

put you off your work. I’m in a rather difficult form, and I’ve got to keep my place in it, for I don’t mean to be put down. My friend’s been chosen form-captain, and I’m interested in some of the other girls as well. It’s not likely I’m going down to be with a lot of younger kids! But if I ask somebody every time I want to know what two and two make, I sha’n’t get anywhere. I’ve got to work things out for myself. See?’

‘Quite!’ Prickles said briefly. ‘I’m jolly glad you’ve got the sense to see it, too. As Dumps says, there’s more likely to be peace for us.’

The Spud solemnly took four nickel five-centime pieces and laid them before her on the table, two by two. ‘It’s a good plan to work it out with something you can see, like coins or counters, when you’re just beginning,’ he said solemnly. ‘If you get in a mess, you should count ’em out very slowly, and you’ll find it will help.’

From his end of the table ‘Napoleon’ was watching, with twitching lips, but in silence, as usual.

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Prickles and Dumpy chuckled. Tazy looked at the coins, arranged in two little piles of two each, then lay back in her chair and laughed till she cried.

The Spud had been seized with fear lest she should resent his teasing, and had repented the moment he had spoken, and watched her anxiously. He shouted now, in great relief, and the other two joined in.

Tazy looked again at the four little coins, and shook and gasped. ‘Spud! You-you pig! I meant to work so hard, and then you go and do a thing like that! You shouldn’t have set me off! I-I can count up to four; really I can! I’m not a monkey in the Zoo! All the same,’ -and she gathered up the coins-‘since you’ve offered them so kindly, thank you very much! Never say no to twopence! Do for stamps, anyway! I’m sure they’ll be most useful!’

‘Delighted, I’m sure!’ the Spud grinned.‘And now let’s do some work, children! We’re wasting precious time!’ Tazy’s eyes

gleamed, but she was in earnest, and buried herself in her work once more.The boys grinned again, wondering, not unnaturally, how long it would last. As

Prickles had said in the morning, ‘Prep’s the time to see Ann at her very best!’ and they had waited for her to come with lively hopes of what would follow. But these were disappointed. Tazy worked steadily, knitting her brows occasionally, but asking no help.

Once, as she sat frowning, the Spud, after watching her doubtfully for some time, remarked tentatively, ‘Could I-er-be of any assistance, Anastasia?’

She laughed. ‘No, thank you, Herbert. I’ll put down my own old ideas, and if they’re wrong Fraulein will find out just what kind of an idiot I am, that’s all. It’s the best way in the end. Thanks awfully, all the same!’

‘Why don’t you like him tonight?’ jeered Prickles, in defence of his young brother, who had smiled a sickly grin at her use of his name.

‘Not like him? Of course I like him! What d’you mean?’ Tazy was feverishly hunting up a word in the dictionary. ‘I think he’s very spuddy! He was the only one who saw I was regularly stuck. Why do you say I don’t like him?’

‘Said you liked him too well to call him Herbert,’ Prickles grinned. ‘And then you go and do it. What?’

‘Oh, well!’ she laughed. ‘But be called me Anastasia. What could he expect? I apologise, though, Spud! I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. But my name’s Tazy!’

‘Shut up, everybody, and let Taisez-vous get on with her prep!’ jeered Prickles, and silence fell again.

Tazy rose at last with a sigh. ‘Twenty past seven! And I haven’t half finished. I’ll have to swot some more afterwards. But I must make myself decent for dinner.’

‘Oh, don’t trouble!’ Prickles and the Spud spoke together.‘Pity to waste time like that!’ Dumpy added. ‘Don’t exert yourself too much,

Taisez-vous!’She laughed, quite understanding. ‘I’ve got to consider Grandma’s feelings as well

as yours, though. But I’m not going to be silly tonight. Haven’t time to amuse you in that fashion every night!’

‘Thanks be!’ the Spud said fervently.‘It jolly well takes too long!’ she retorted. ‘Perhaps you don’t happen to know you

have to change almost every mortal thing you’ve got on underneath, if you want to wear a white frock? Petticoats, and all kinds of undies, and-and’-and she fled, leaving them shouting to drown further revelations.

They waited curiously to see how she would reappear presently, but looked with approval on her pretty white blouse, dark skirt, and neatly-plaited hair when she joined them at table. There was no ‘swank’ about this, and yet she certainly looked more dressed for the evening than in her blue school tunic, though there might be differences of opinion as to which suited her the better. Her manner this evening matched her costume, as it had undoubtedly done the night before. The unfinished prep was obviously weighing on her mind, and she was only anxious to get dinner

36


over and put in half-an-hour’s more work before going to bed. She answered Madame’s questions on her school and the day’s experiences, but did not chatter like a child, and did not once exert herself to assume the grown-up air the boys so hated. On every count they decided they liked her better to-night, when she was more purposeful, more in earnest.

‘No playing the goat about Taisez-vous tonight!’ Prickles managed to whisper to Dumpy.

The Spud, approving of her warmly, took a hand in the conversation. He knew very well

that Madame Perronet did not like to see all four of them sit there silent, intent only on their food.

She had her own ideas as to table manners, and felt that at meals the training of her boarders in what was comme il faut lay in her hands. She had often lectured them on their lack of conversational powers, and the Spud realised that beside Tazy, who seemed to find no difficulty in talking easily and naturally, their tongue-tied silence would be more apparent than ever. Boney was not to be depended on any more than Dumpy; the Thistleton brothers were the most capable of making talk, if the objectionable duty must be done. They would not enjoy the task, and it would be a task and not a pleasure, but still they could do it, if they must.

‘Jolly lot of girls at St Mary’s?’ asked the Spud casually, and Madame, who had been eyeing the four dumb male creatures severely, looked relieved.

‘Not bad,’ said Tazy. ‘Awfully mixed, of course. We’ve some idiots in the Fourth, but you always have to put up with a few. I expect you’ve some in the college too.’

‘Oh, just one or two!’ Prickles assented. ‘How d’you get on with Madame?’‘Miss Braithwaite? I like her. She’s jolly, and she understands.’‘I suppose the friend who’s been made captain is the one with the weird name that

you babbled to in the train?’‘Svea Andersson. She’s only half the captain, though. I mean there are two. The

other’s a queer girl that I don’t understand yet. She’s called Karen, but she’s half English.’

‘How is she queer?’ the Spud demanded. ‘Mad, d’you mean?’‘Oh no!’ Tazy laughed. ‘But she’s quiet; I haven’t had a chance to find out what

she’s like yet. She’s-she’s another oyster; like Napoleon Bonaparte, you know.’ Her eyes met theirs, full of laughter, then fell swiftly.

Dumpy glanced at ‘old Boney,’ who went on placidly eating his dinner without seeming to have heard. Dumpy grunted indignantly, and Tazy laughed.

Much of this conversation was beyond Madame Perronet, so now she interposed. ‘It would be more becoming, my dears, if your talk at table was in French. I speak English, it is true, but continually you use words which are strange to me, and I lose the sense of your remarks.’

‘Yes, Madame, I’m sure we do!’ Tazy’s eyes danced, and she did not look at the boys. ‘It was very rude of us not to think of it. Taisez-vous, mes enfants! We will talk French in future.’

She disappeared as soon as the meal was over, and they saw her no more that night. But early next morning, before any of them were dressed, they heard her whistling cheerfully, and saw her sitting bareheaded on the rail-fence of the garden, her eyes on the seven-peaked mountain-range.

‘Hello, Ann! You’re early ’smorning!’ said the Spud, leaning out of his window and hailing her. ‘Have you been swotting all night?’

‘No; I got through before I went to bed. Only just, though; Grandma was hammering on the door. How late you all are! It’s another gorgeous morning.-Come down and have catches,

Spud! Bring a ball; I’m sure you’ve got one!’‘Right-o! But I’m not quite ready yet.’

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‘I can see that!’ she retorted. ‘Do something to your hair before you come, for goodness’ sake!’

‘Little girls shouldn’t make personal remarks!’ He retreated hurriedly, and grinned as he caught sight of his tousled head in the glass.

‘That’s better! You look respectable now, anyway!’ she greeted him gaily, as he tossed a ball to her from the doorway. ‘You see, I was late for school yesterday,’ she explained gravely, ‘and I promised Miss Braithwaite that it shouldn’t happen again.’

‘So you got up at six to be on the safe side.’‘Well, it came to that. The reason I was late was that I couldn’t get along for

staring at the mountains, and the flowers, and everything. I’m not used to them yet. So I thought that until I stopped getting so excited about it all, and as long as we have fine mornings, I’d better get up early and look at things for a while before brekker. Then perhaps I’ll be able to go straight to school and get there in time.’

‘Guess I’d better go inside again. I shall spoil the scenery,’ the Spud said grimly.‘Oh, I’ve had a good look!’ Tazy laughed. ‘Now I want a game. Here you are.-

catch!’The Spud caught, but did not return the ball.‘Good-night! D’you mean to say you can’t throw better than that? Makes me ill to

see you! I did think you’d be able to throw a ball decently! This way, kid!’Tazy’s eyes danced. ‘Please teach me!’ she said humbly. ‘I’ve been at school in

Geneva, and I haven’t had any chances lately. I know I don’t do it the right way, but I haven’t any brothers to show me. I’m willing and eager to be taught. Just show me once or twice. We only had tennis in Geneva-no cricket. I’d tons rather have had cricket, you know. Couldn’t you bowl to me for practice? I used to play before I left England, but I’m horribly out of it.’

To her surprise, the Spud took up the idea with enthusiasm. ‘Right-o! I don’t mind; I want practice too. Where shall we play? Grandma will have fits if we use the lawn.

‘What about that strip of grass beyond the walnut-tree? That’s not the real lawn.’‘That’s the spot! We’ll annex it. I say, we’ll have a go every morning, shall we?

You’ll have to put up with me playing heft-handed, though.’‘Oh? But you’re not left-handed in other things!’ Tazy remonstrated. ‘Don’t you

think I’m good enough for your right hand?’ indignantly.‘No, I don’t! Not yet. But it’s not that,’ the Spud said placidly. ‘I’m learning to play

with my left, and I want practice. See? I’ll find it as useful as you will. We might get in a little after dinner too, unless you’re going to swot every night.’

‘Oh no! That was only last night. I’ll get through by dinner-time if there’s a chance of cricket,’ Tazy promised.

‘Well, if you do nothing else today, you’ve learnt to throw a ball,’ the Spud remarked, as they went in to breakfast. ‘You practise, Ann! It’s worth while!’

‘Yes; but what would Gerda and her lot think?’ Tazy muttered under her breath.

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Chapter 10 - ‘The Old Mole’

‘Are you spending Sunday with your mother, Tazy?’ asked Miss Braithwaite, as shestopped the girl in the passage.‘Yes, for this week-end. She wants to hear all about school. But I’m not to go every

Sunday, Miss Braithwaite.’‘No. When you stay in the village I shall expect you to join us for the morning

service. We have English service in our own chapel, and the boys from the college attend also. You will return here to lunch, as on weekdays, and spend the afternoon and the early evening with the rest of the girls, returning to Madame Perronet’s for dinner. On Saturday afternoons we shall expect you to stay for games with the rest of the school;’ and Miss Braithwaite passed on to her study.

‘There’s to be no fooling about with the boys out of school,’ Tazy said to herself, as she went to her classroom. ‘But she’s right, of course; she must know what I’m doing. After all, she’s responsible for me! I thought I might explore the valley sometime, and perhaps some of them would come too. And I believe if I asked her if I might go out with them she’d say yes. I shall try it on sometime. But I sha’n’t go without asking her; it wouldn’t be playing the game. There jolly well won’t be time for it except at the week-end; that’s quite certain! She sees to that. It takes every minute to get through the work that’s expected of you.’

‘The boys are teaching me things,’ she said airily to Gerda during the dinner-hour. ‘You’re so much interested in them that I thought you’d like to know.’

‘What sort of things?’ Gerda looked at her suspiciously.‘How to throw a ball, for one. I had a lesson before breakfast this morning.’‘Pah! Baby!’ said Gerda contemptuously.Tazy laughed. ‘It must be maddening for her to know how I’m wasting my time

with those boys, playing about with a ball when I might be-let me see-holding their hands in corners, I suppose! I really don’t know much about it; I’m not sure what Gerda would be doing in my place. But I know she thinks I’m a silly infant to play ball with boys; doesn’t she, Svea?’

‘Ask her what she thinks you ought to do,’ Svea suggested. ‘It would be interesting to hear.’

‘Not I! I dare say it would. But the less I know about that kind of thing the better I’ll be pleased. How are you going to get on with Karen?’

‘Oh, that’s going to be quite all right!’ Svea said easily. ‘You see, she isn’t keen on games; and I am. So I’m going to boss things out of class, and let her have her go in school-time.

That seems fair; don’t you think so?’Tazy looked doubtful. ‘I hardly think Madame-well, she’ll blame you both if things

go wrong with the class, wherever it happens. What does Karen say about it?’‘Says she’ll come along to the cricket-field in case she’s wanted, but we mustn’t

expect her to play. Says she never has, and she can’t begin now.’‘Well, that’s true, of course. If she hasn’t ever played, she’d feel rather an idiot if

she started now. Doesn’t she play anything-even tennis?’‘No. I don’t know why. I don’t like to tease her; she’s not the kind of girl you can

keep on asking.’‘No,’ said Tazy thoughtfully; ‘but you can always ask her once, and see how she

takes it! A girl who doesn’t play anything at all is so awfully queer!’She thought much during the afternoon, but her thinking was not by any means all

about her class-work. In the interval between school and tea she screwed up all her courage-she had a good deal, but found she needed it all-and went up to Karen, who was putting the room in order for the evening study-hour. ‘I say, may I ask you

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something? I’m so very new yet, I don’t understand everything, and I don’t feel that I know you at all. One ought to know the captain of one’s form,’ she said in English.

‘And she’s the right one to ask about things you don’t know.’ Karen spoke pleasantly, as usual. ‘But you’re a friend of Svea’s. Can’t she tell you everything?’

‘That’s only because we happened to travel up together in the train. Besides, I’ve asked her this, and she doesn’t know. Perhaps it’s rude, and you’ll be mad with me, but I don’t mean it so.’

Karen looked at her curiously. ‘What do you want to know? Is it something about me?’

‘Why don’t you play games? I can’t understand a girl who doesn’t play anything; an English girl, I mean, of course! I’ve seen lots of foreigners who couldn’t be bothered, or didn’t care for games; but you’re half English.’

‘Yes; but I’ve been brought up abroad,’ Karen said swiftly. ‘I’ve been here for more than two years, and before that I was at school in Brussels. Mother’s home was in the Ardennes district, and when she was taken ill she went to live there for a time, to see if her own home climate would put her right. When it didn’t, she came here. It’s seven years since I lived in England, though I’ve been there nearly every holiday lately to visit my aunts. But I never was at a big English school.’

‘Oh, I see!’ said Tazy slowly. ‘And they didn’t play games at the Brussels place? Not even tennis?’

‘There was tennis,’ Karen hesitated. Then she said quickly, ‘I’ll tell you, if you like. I couldn’t explain to everybody. I’d have liked games, just as you do, if I’d learned them at the proper time. But there’s too much to do now; I’m working overtime at music, besides my other work. I’d have no time to practise if I took up tennis, and you can’t just walk out on to a court and begin to play. I know better than that. You have to work at it, as you do at anything else. And I didn’t learn at the right time. I did try in Brussels, but it was no use. You see-I don’t think you’ll quite understand. I don’t think you can;’ and she hesitated again.

‘Why not?’ Tazy’s interest was roused. ‘What makes you think I’m so dense? I don’t believe I am! What can’t I understand? And why?’

‘Because you don’t know what it means. At that Brussels school they didn’t notice how bad my eyes were, and how short-sighted I was getting. They let me work without telling me I ought to have glasses, and I was only a kid and never thought. And so I went on far too long. They were careless, of course, but they didn’t realise what it meant when I couldn’t see the blackboard or the maps, or read my music. When I went to a doctor at last he was very angry, but it was too late then. Well, it just meant that I couldn’t play games, don’t you see? I couldn’t see where the balls were coming; I always misjudged distances, and missed when I tried return-shots; and the rest used to laugh and tell me I’d never be any good. They didn’t understand, of course; and I didn’t know why it was either. I just thought that I must be a duffer, and awfully clumsy, and so I gave up trying. I could see the balls all right now that I have my glasses, but it’s too late. And even with glasses, it’s not so awfully easy to play, and not very jolly: You may be able to see all right, but the sun gets on your glasses and dazzles you, or they joggle about at the wrong minute, and you misjudge your strokes. I know if I played cricket I should always just miss catches and that kind of thing. Even though you can see, you’re apt to be clumsy, you know. And I used to love swimming, but I don’t often go with the rest. We’ve a jolly big bath here; but it’s not much fun swimming with a crowd when you can’t see a thing, and don’t know who’s who. I can’t recognise any one without my glasses, so I should only make an idiot of myself if I went with the others.’

Tazy was staring out of the window, rather bewildered by this revelation of an incomplete life, which was a new idea to her. ‘Thank you for telling me,’ she said at last; while Karen worked steadily at the book-case she was putting in order. ‘You were jolly well right; I didn’t understand, and perhaps I don’t quite, even now. But I

40


understand better than I did. I was rather a beast not to see it for myself, without being told. But I’m as blind as a mole about some things.’

Karen gave a little laugh. ‘Or as blind as I’d be at the baths! Say it if you want, to. The girls in Brussels called me the Old Mole.’

‘Oh!’ Tazy looked at her quickly. ‘Oh, that was beastly of them, of course! But-don’t you know it?’ and she began to hum, and then to whistle.

‘What is it?’ Karen asked curiously. ‘It’s pretty, but I don’t know it at all.’‘No, you wouldn’t, if you’ve lived abroad. It’s the jolliest tune, and the jolliest Old

English country-dance-“The Old Mole.” I learned it at school in England, and simply loved it. I wish you knew it. You’d like the name then!’

Karen laughed. ‘A dance? It’s a weird name for a dance. Has it anything about moles in it?’

‘Not a thing-except that you creep through arches. Oh, most of the names are weird! But it was rotten of those Belgy girls to call you that; they didn’t know it was a lovely dance!’

‘No, they didn’t,’ Karen said grimly. ‘I say, Tazy! I didn’t tell you all this to make you sorry for me. I don’t want you to be, and there’s no need, so you’d jolly well better not try it on. See?’

‘Why did you tell me? The others don’t understand. I know Svea doesn’t. Wouldn’t you like them to know? They’re bound to think you’re slack. You see, they’ll all be like me, and never think about it from your point of view. I hadn’t, till you explained.’

‘Of course not. There aren’t heaps of people going about who take the trouble to remember there are other ways of looking at things besides their own, let alone trying to find them out. No, don’t say anything to them, please. I’m not going to begin explaining things to people now. But I thought I’d like you to understand. I knew you’d think I was queer; you’re the kind who cares so much about games. I didn’t want you to think it was that I wouldn’t like to play. It has to be either can’t or won’t, of course; so I thought I’d just tell you. I’d play fast enough if I could, and enjoy it. But I’d never be good, even if I took time off to practise. I’d never be dependable, and that kind of player only spoils the game for all the rest. It’s far better I shouldn’t mess up everybody else’s play.’

‘But you’d like it if you could play?’ Tazy said slowly. ‘You’re sorry you can’t?’‘It’s no good being sorry. When you find you can’t have a thing, and know you can

never have it, it’s no use grousing about it,’ Karen said abruptly. ‘You’ve got to make up your mind to it, and find something else instead; that’s all.’

‘What have you found instead?’ Tazy asked curiously.‘Music, partly. Partly other things.’ Karen’s tone was evasive.Tazy did not press the point. ‘It must be rotten to know you’ll have to do without a

thing all your life, if you’re only fifteen, and it’s a thing you’d have liked to have,’ she said slowly, feeling her way into an experience new and very repugnant to her.

‘Some people have to do it. Lots of people, in fact! And some of them whimper about it, and some of them don’t. I don’t see the use of whining-if you can help it!’ Karen’s lips pinched at some remembrance. ‘Have you been up at the Platz yet?’

Tazy had been looking at her thoughtfully. She started and stared at this apparent sudden change of subject. ‘Only for an hour or two, with Mother, when she arrived, I’m going for the week-end. Why?’

‘I’ve been often, though not lately’-and Tazy remembered what she had heard from Svea, and understood why Karen had had nothing to go for lately. ‘All the people up there have had to make up their minds to do without things; most of them have to do without everything they’ve ever cared about. The best they can hope for is to live there for a few years, and see any friends who like them enough to come out here to visit them. They know they can never go home. When you’ve seen that, and how plucky most of them are, you don’t feel like crying because you can’t play tennis.’

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‘No,’ Tazy admitted. ‘No, I suppose you don’t.-I wonder,’ she was saying to herself, ‘just why the mistresses chose her. I’d like to ask Miss Braithwaite; but I wouldn’t dare, of course. No, I think I’ll find out for myself some day!’

‘That’s enough about me,’ Karen said abruptly. ‘I just wanted you to understand. Now what would you do in my place? I don’t mean what do you think I should do? I know what I’m going to do. But what would you do?-Here’s Gerda’s atlas left lying about. It’s the only book not put away, and I ought to give it in to Miss Martin, and then Gerda’ll be fined. It’s my first day, and all the others have been careful. Gerda left this out on purpose.’ She looked closely at Tazy.

‘Because you were-no, because she was beastly to you about being chosen yesterday, and Babette told her off so neatly, and she didn’t like it. She got the worst of it, and so she doesn’t love you. That’s what you mean? I should put the book back in her desk. She’d say you gave it in out of spite. It’s what she’d do herself, of course.’

‘I thought you’d say that,’ Karen said slowly. ‘You mean, of course, that you’d be extra generous to her because she’s a cat?’

‘I said a “little toad,”’ laughed Tazy. ‘But that was because of the way she talked about boys. Yes, I mean just that. I wouldn’t take advantage of the chances she gives you-as you said yourself yesterday!’

‘Yes; but that was only to do with myself!’ Karen said swiftly. ‘This matters to the whole form. I can’t begin by being slack. Don’t you see, if I do that she’ll say it’s because I’m afraid of her? Didn’t want to make trouble, and all that? And all the others will try it on too?’

Tazy’s eyes widened. ‘I hadn’t got as far as that. I say, you do see things all round, don’t you? Yes, she’s got you either way. Whatever you do will be wrong. You can’t let her think you’re scared of her!’

‘No, not even if it’s true. I hate rows!’ Karen said gravely. ‘But it wouldn’t pay; there would only be more to follow. I shall give in the book, of course, and take no notice of her. I’m not going to make any difference for Gerda. She can say what she likes. It’s a try-on, to see what I’ll do; I quite see that. But I shall pretend I don’t, and just go ahead. It’s the only thing to do.’

Tazy nodded thoughtfully. ‘It’s the only thing you can do, anyway. Some girls might be soft about it, but you won’t.’ She was groping for the answer to her own question, and had come appreciably nearer to it, though she did not realise it at the time.

‘Good luck!’ she added. ‘Gerda’s a little beast!’‘I know,’ Karen said quietly. ‘She always has been.’

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Chapter 11 - Names And Nicknames

As she walked home after tea, Tazy thought much about Karen and her story, and her position in the form. ‘I wonder if they chose her because she’s plucky!’ she pondered. ‘For she is! You need to have something in you to face up to a thing like that. Of course you have to put up with it, but there are different ways of doing it, as she said. You could let it flatten you out; she hasn’t done that. Or you could-how did she put it? “Make up your mind to it, and find something else instead”! That’s plucky, and that’s what she’s done. I wonder what all she meant; she said partly music and partly other things.-But I don’t think they’d choose her just because she’s plucky. That wouldn’t make a girl a good captain, or show that she knew how to manage a form. I believe Karen does know, though she hasn’t had much to do yet. I’ll keep watching her; in time I may find out really why they did choose her. Anyway, she’s a good opposite for Svea. Svea’s a good old sort, and a favourite, and all that kind of thing, but I should say she’s too jolly easy-going to be captain. She’ll let them do what they like, and leave all the dirty work to Karen. I don’t believe the form would have a good time if Svea was the only captain. But Karen may be able to balance her. If the mistresses had known Svea was going to be “Girls’ Choice,” I’d say they’d chosen Karen for that very reason, because they’re so unlike, but they couldn’t know for certain, so they must have had some other reason.-Look at that about Gerda and the book! Svea would have given it back rather than have trouble. Karen just goes ahead. She’s “not going to make any difference for Gerda”! No, of course she isn’t!’ and Tazy laughed at the very thought of Karen turning aside for an instant for the sake of a trifle like Gerda’s feelings-an unconscious tribute to the effect of that half-hour’s talk with the ‘Mistresses’ Choice.’

Without knowing it, she was very near the explanation she sought, but it was not plain to her yet, though in her perception of the difference between Karen and Svea she had come almost within touch of her answer. But it eluded her still, though she thought much about them both.

‘How’s the new captain getting on?’ the Spud asked at dinner that night.Tazy had not been entertaining during study-hour; she was finding that her prep

took every minute she could spare for it, and, mindful of her hurry the night before, she worked steadily, and choked off any attempts at conversation or jokes with a brief, ‘Dry up, Spud! I’ve no time for messing about!’

But dinner was another matter. Madame preferred that they should talk then, and she answered him at once. ‘Which? There are two, you know.’

‘The one you’re chummy with, of course; not the one that’s queer.’‘She isn’t queer!’ Tazy said sharply. ‘Did I say she was? Well, she isn’t, then! She’s

quiet, and keeps to herself, that’s all. She’s going to get on all right! I’m not so sure about Svea. She’s awfully good fun, and all the girls like her no end, and make heaps of fuss over her. But she’ll do any mortal thing anybody wants, and I’m not sure if that’s wise, considering.’

‘A bit soft, in fact,’ Prickles remarked.‘No, not soft!’ Tazy’s voice was sharp again. ‘But too good-natured to boss much,

or be nasty to anybody.’‘And t’other girl’s ready to do her share in that line? A regular sporty old warrior, is

she?’‘N-no, I don’t think she’s that. No, of course she isn’t! She hates making rows; she

said so. But she is sporty.’‘We seem to put our foot in it every old time,’ Prickles grinned.‘I can’t possibly tell you what she’s like. I don’t know myself yet, for one thing.’‘Not a bad reason!’ Dumpy jeered. ‘I say, what about speaking French?’‘Oh, pardon, Madame! I forgot!’ and Tazy dropped her English slang hurriedly.

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‘What are you going to do for the week-end, Ann?’ the Spud inquired.Tazy explained her plans, and also her instructions for the future. ‘I did think

perhaps some Saturday you’d take me out exploring-in the woods, or to see some of the waterfalls the girls talk about, or to some of the lakes; there seem to be lots of lakes, though I haven’t seen any yet. But Miss Braithwaite evidently means to know what I’m doing! If I get leave some day, will you, any of you? I believe she’d say yes if I asked her.’

‘Right-o!-I mean oui, vraiment! With the greatest possible pleasure!’ the Spud said promptly.

Tazy laughed, but instead of looking down demurely and blushing, as Gerda would have known how to do, she looked him frankly in the eyes. ‘I think we’d have a jolly time. We might take our tea out with us. I love meals out of doors. It would be some sport!’

‘Right-o!’ the Spud said warmly again, and did not correct the remark this time. ‘I’m on! I’m all out for picnics! You get leave of absence, Taisez-vous, and we’ll have a topping time. I’ll show you waterfalls that will give you fits, and lakes that turn everything into stone.’

‘Tiens donc! What is this he calls you, my dear Anastasie?’ Madame had been listening watchfully, suspicious of the sudden return to English. She approved of the Spud, because of his readiness to talk politely, but she felt it necessary to censor his conversation, all the same.

Tazy laughed and reddened. ‘Oh, nothing, Madame! Just a silly name!’The Spud had turned purple, while Dumpy spluttered, and Prickles grinned

enjoyably.‘But tell me, my dear. I wish to understand.’ Prickles’s grin broadened; Dumpy

coughed till he was scarlet; the Spud waited nervously, and hoped the explanation would be tactful.

Tazy saw there was no help for it. ‘They say I talk too much,’ she laughed. ‘So they call me Taisez-vous. Tazy is short for my name, as we say it in England, Madame-Anastasia! Oh, you must not mind that! We all have names for one another. Boys and girls always do at school.’

‘Shut up, you ass!’ growled Dumpy, in English, of course. ‘Taisez-vous! Now you’ve been and done it!’

In a flash Tazy saw that she had said too much, as Madame said frostily, ‘So! And have you, my dear Anastasie, names of this sort for the boys also?’

Tazy’s scarlet cheeks were sufficient answer; she dared not look at the Spud, Dumpy, or Prickles. ‘I’m an idiot, Madame! Please say no more about names!’ she faltered.

Madame eyed her grimly. ‘What, then, do you call the boys? I wish to know.’‘They-they’re English names, Madame. You wouldn’t understand them.’‘They can be explained, I suppose?’‘I’m-not sure that they can;’ and Tazy’s eyes met the Spud’s in despair.He, like a true hero, came to her help. ‘Some of them are very simple, Madame,’

he said innocently. ‘In fact, we don’t really know the reason for them ourselves. Old Brown there-he’s been called Boney since before any of us went to the college, and nobody knows why. He doesn’t know himself; do you, old-mon vieux?’

The ‘old one’ had been keeping his eyes on his plate. Now he said grimly, ‘Every one seems to have forgotten. It’s very annoying, isn’t it, Madame?’

‘As for the others’-the Spud never noticed that his question had not been answered-‘I’m afraid they are rather English, and won’t mean as much to you as they do to us, Madame. Ted here is Dumpy, because he’s fat and round and-and “lumpy,” we should say in English; like a sack of flour, you know’-

‘Sack yourself!’ Dumpy said indignantly. ‘Just you wait till after dinner, dear chap!’‘As for Prickles’-nodding at his grinning brother-‘well, Madame, thistles have

prickles, spikes, épines, you know; and, moreover, sometimes he is what we call

44


“prickly”-easily made angry, and all that; so he’s called Prickles. But they are difficult to understand, n’est-ce pas?’

‘They are very foolish and childish,’ Madame said coldly, and sat pondering the nick-names, while four of her boarders eyed her anxiously, the fifth with amusement.

But the Spud was not to escape. ‘And what do they call you, my dear ’Erbert?’ Madame, asked deliberately. ‘Of the others you have told me; now what of yourself?’

Tazy lay back in her chair, scarlet with suppressed giggling, and held her breath. Dumpy and Prickles had their revenge now, for neither would help him out.

The Spud grew purple again. ‘I-mine’s the maddest of all, Madame. I couldn’t possibly explain it. You’d never understand,’ he growled.

‘Go on, Spuddy! Get it over, or I shall die!’ gasped Tazy. ‘I’m going to laugh in two seconds, and I shall go on for ten minutes! Tell her somehow! I’m aching to hear you do it!’

‘Oh, shut up!’ the victim said wrathfully. ‘Madame, they call me the Spud,’ he said in desperation. ‘You’d better ask them why. They’re idiots, anyway. Yes, it’s a beastly word, isn’t it?’

‘The-Spud!’ Madame repeated the name slowly. ‘And what is the Spud, my dear?’‘It-it means a potato!’ Tazy gasped feebly, and began to laugh, and lay and

laughed and shook till the tears ran down her cheeks. The sight of Madame’s bewildered, disapproving face only set her off again, till even the boys, who had joined in at first, eyed her in alarm.

‘A potato?’ Madame repeated vaguely, utterly at sea.It was ill-luck that Louise should at that moment appear at the Spud’s elbow with

the vegetable-dish. The sight of the potatoes set all four off again, and even Boney had to join in the shout that went up. ‘You’ll have hysterics in a minute, Ann!’ he said warningly, however.

Tazy dried her eyes, and shook, and gasped. ‘A p-p-potato!’ she panted tearfully. ‘Oh, Boney dear, help us out! She’ll never understand!’

‘And why a potato, may I ask?’ Madame demanded coldly, eyeing her helpless boarders.

‘I-I’ll tell you, if you’ll only wait!’ gasped Tazy. ‘I can’t talk just now! I’m all like jelly! I-I wonder if it’s good for the digestion!’

‘Madame!’ Boney came to the rescue, lest, as he explained afterwards, the results should be fatal to ‘Ann-Taisez-vous.’ ‘In English talk, to “be a spud” is to be good-natured, one who helps others out of difficulties. I really can’t tell you why, or what it has to do with potatoes. We didn’t make it up, you know. But the Spud here is like that now and then, when he feels that way inclined, and so I suppose he got the name for that reason. It’s a very good name, really, and quite a compliment. It means he’s the decentest of the lot of them.’

‘The spuddiest!’ Tazy said wearily. ‘Oh, I’m so tired! I’m sore! Oh, Sp-Herbert! Your face! If you could have seen yourself!-Boney, that was a beautiful explanation! You ought to be a lecturer! Here’s your first subject-“The Ins and Outs of English Slang!”-Oh, Louise, please take those potatoes out of our sight! We’ve had quite enough for one night!’

‘Don’t you begin again!’ the Spud said warningly. ‘Boney’ll have to put your head under the tap if you giggle yourself into a fit!’

‘And what, may I ask, do you call me?’ Madame demanded, after a thoughtful pause.

‘I really wouldn’t have believed good old Grandma could be such a horror!’ the Spud said when they talked it over afterwards.

This time Tazy rushed into the fray at once. ‘I thought we’d better get it over,’ she explained later to the boys. ‘I knew she’d go on asking till we told her something, and I knew my constitution wouldn’t stand another period of suspense and agony, like the time when we waited for the Spuddy One to explain why he was a Spud. That about did me in!’

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‘Oh, Madame, you are the mother of us all while we are here!’ she explained swiftly; ‘so that is what we call you. It is a beautiful name!’

‘Your mother! I am surprised that you should choose a name so gentil, my dear, after these others I have heard. You said truly that I should not comprehend them. As your mother, then, I bid you all laugh no more, or you will certainly cry before long.’

‘Yes, I used to be told that when I was a little child at home in England,’ Tazy agreed.

‘You! You’ve cried quarts already,’ jeered Dumpy. ‘That’s one way to laugh, I suppose-shaking all over till you nearly fall to pieces!’

‘I couldn’t quite tell her we called her Grandma, could I?’ Tazy asked plaintively, as they retired to the garden for half-an-hour’s cricket practice, still hot from the ordeal of the meal and Madame’s questions. ‘It would have hurt her feelings, I’m quite sure. What I said was very nearly true, anyway. And she was pleased!’

‘Pleased as toffee. It was an awful moment when she asked, though. I thought Ann would give us away again,’ Prickles remarked.

‘It was all Ann’s fault from the beginning.-You know, Taisez-vous, it’s not that you say such an awful lot, though sometimes you do that too. But it’s the kind of things you say that makes us want to yell at you to shut up, don’t you know,’ the Spud explained. ‘Now come and see if you can stand up to my left-handers.’

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Chapter 12 - Karen’s Glasses

‘Shall you go up to the Platz by funiculaire?’ Prickles demanded of Tazy next morningwhen they came down, to find her sitting on the fence, bareheaded in the wind,

waiting for some one to come and bowl to her or give her catches.‘I suppose so. Isn’t it the only way?’‘You can always walk-through the woods, you know. Spuddy and I are going to,

just for practice-to keep in good training, you know.’Tazy’s eyes snapped. ‘How topping! I’d love to! Then are you going up there too?’He nodded briefly. ‘Not always. But we thought we would today. Our mater’s up

there, you know.’‘How long does it take? The train takes only ten minutes. I’d have to start early.’‘You need two hours to do it easily.’‘She’ll never do it, old man. She’d die halfway, and you’d have to lug the body to

the nearest chalet, and then go on and break the news to her folks,’ said Dumpy.‘I’ll do it as well as you will!’ Tazy retorted indignantly.Prickles laughed. ‘You’ll do it a jolly sight better, if you do it at all. Old Dumps will

go by train, you bet.’‘I shall walk with you two,’ Tazy said definitely. ‘I’m to stay at school for cricket,

but I’ll scoot home at once after tea. Miss Braithwaite will think I’m going by the six o’clock train; I sha’n’t tell her I’m going to walk, for fear she’d say it was too far. I’ll own up on Monday. Will six o’clock do to start?’

‘Too hot before.-Spud, she’s going to walk with us.-Send your things up by train, Taisez-vous. You don’t want to carry anything.’

‘Oh, I’ll only have a nighty and slippers! Unless perhaps I want something better than my tunic for Sunday?’ and Tazy pondered the problem.

‘You’re a sport, Ann!’ the Spud said warmly. It’s a topping tramp! But you’ll be in frightful agony tomorrow; stiff all over, you know.’

‘I don’t care,’ she said stoutly. ‘What does old Boney do? Will he come with us?’‘No; he goes off on his own. He never comes to the Platz. We think he must have

relations in some chalet or cow-shed in the valley somewhere. He goes off alone most week-ends, and never takes any of us along. He’s squared it with the Head and got leave, so it must be all right. But he won’t tell us where he goes.’

‘He is a queer stick!’ and Tazy meditated on Boney’s mysterious silences as she walked by the meadow-paths to school.

In the Fourth Form class-room Gerda was questioning the girls wrathfully as to whether they had seen her atlas. Karen took no notice of her, but went on selecting the books to be used that morning, and placing them in readiness on top of the book-case. Tazy watched with interest.

‘No, I haven’t seen it anywhere, Gerda,’ Svea said earnestly. ‘When did you have it last?’

‘Yesterday, in afternoon class, of course. I believe you’ve confiscated it, Svea.’‘I haven’t, then I wouldn’t be so mean!’ Svea said indignantly.Karen and Tazy both looked at her curiously, with the same thought. Gerda turned

on Karen. ‘Then you have, that’s all! You must have found it yesterday!’‘Of course I did, what did you expect me to do?’ Karen’s voice was matter-of-fact

and without heat, in great contrast to Gerda’s anger, but there was a touch of nervous colour in her cheeks.

It was Svea’s turn to stare. ‘You gave it to Miss Martin, Karen? Oh, but wasn’t that rather’-

‘You did it on purpose, because I laughed at you in the afternoon!’ Gerda raged. ‘So now we know what kind of a captain we have been given! You see, girls! She takes the first chance to get me fined, just out of spite! Now you know what to

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expect! A pleasant term we shall have, n’est-ce pas? We shall all be at Karen’s mercy, remember!’

‘Only if you wish to be!’ Karen retorted. ‘Don’t be too silly, Gerda! There was no need for you to drop your book under your desk. You gave me no choice.-What did you want to say, Svea? Wasn’t that rather-what? Silly? Or mean, as you said before? I’m sorry if you meant it,’

Svea had considered the matter quickly. She had spoken without thought, but she under-stood more clearly now. ‘I didn’t mean it. I wasn’t thinking. It was the proper thing to do, of course. But, all the same, Karen, wasn’t it rather silly?’ she asked in an undertone, as Gerda, with a black look at Karen, went off to pay her fine and redeem the atlas. ‘She’ll be beastly to you all the time now. Couldn’t you have said nothing about it, as it was her book-just for once? That’s what I should have done!’

‘No!’ Karen said swiftly, as Miss Martin entered. ‘It wouldn’t have paid in the end. Yes, I was afraid you would. It’s no good, Svea. If you’re to be anything of a captain, you’ll have to-“buck up and pull yourself together,”’ she dropped into English.

Svea shook her head. ‘I don’t understand, and I’m not likely to do it, anyway,’ she murmured, as Miss Martin called for silence.

Phyllis and Edith had watched the encounter with interest. At mid-morning break Phyllis came up as Tazy was hurrying to fetch her milk and biscuits; she was always the hungriest in the form by eleven o’clock, thanks to her early breakfast and her two-mile walk.

‘I say, Karen! I’m glad you stood up to that Gerda! You were jolly well right!’ Pilly said warmly. ‘If you’d cringed to her now, you’d have had to do it all along.’

Karen laughed, and her big glasses hid the relief in her eyes. ‘I don’t mean to “cringe” to anybody-or anything,’ she said.

‘No, it wouldn’t suit you. Well, if Gerda’s going to be a little beast, you can count on us to stand by you. See?’

‘That’s awfully good of you. But, I say,’ Karen said very earnestly, ‘I don’t really want that, you know. We shall have a horrid term if we begin that.’

‘Begin what? We haven’t begun anything.’‘Yes, you’re doing it already; taking sides, you know. We’ll find ourselves in two

sets before we know it, and that’s a thing it’s awfully hard to undo.’‘I suppose we were-siding with you against Gerda,’ Phyllis said thoughtfully. ‘I

hadn’t realised it. No, we don’t want that.’‘But, all the same, it’s how we feel!’ Edith added.Tazy came up with Karen’s milk as well as her own, carrying the two glasses very

carefully, biscuits balanced on the top of each. ‘Here’s your grub, capitaine! I saw you were engaged in important business!’

‘Oh, thank you awfully!’ Karen turned to her quickly. ‘That’s jolly nice of you! We were talking about Gerda, Tazy.’

‘Yes, I’m sure you were! But must we? It’s a horrid subject. There are lots of nicer ones!’ Phyllis laughed. ‘Karen says we’re taking sides, for her or Gerda.’

‘Right-o! I’m not on dear Gerda’s!’The others laughed again, and Phyllis explained, ‘But Karen says we mustn’t. I

don’t know how she’s going to stop it, though.’‘I suppose Karen sees a vision of the whole form divided into two camps, with Svea

perched on the fence in the middle!’ Tazy remarked. ‘After all, Gerda is her cousin!’‘I’m afraid you may be right about Svea,’ Karen said dubiously. ‘I’ve been thinking

something the same, but I wouldn’t have said it so plainly.’‘Oh, I always say things out! That’s why the boys call me Taisez-vous!’ Tazy

laughed at the memory of the night before. ‘I say, I must tell you about dinner last night! But first I want to ask Karen something.-Karen, do those glasses of yours magnify things?’

Karen looked at her and coloured. ‘What do you mean?’

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‘Only that you seem to see so much more with them than we see without. You look into things so far. You seem to see right round the back and both sides of a thing. Fancy jumping on us for taking sides before we’d even thought of doing it! And you were the same about Gerda’s atlas; you saw what she was up to at once. And you see through Svea; you see through us all, I believe. Is there some magic spell about your glasses?’

Karen laughed. ‘I think about the things I see. I don’t just forget them again.’‘Oh, so do! I’ve thought heaps about you these last two days! But I don’t see

through you, as I’m quite sure you see through me.’‘If only you’d come here a year ago, Tazy, you could have been captain instead of

Svea. You’d have made a far better one,’ Phyllis said longingly.‘I! Oh no! I’m not reliable enough. I babble too much. I say! Last night!’ and she

launched out into an account of the boys, and of Madame’s inquiries into their nicknames, and in their laughter over the Spud’s predicament the girls forgot Gerda and Karen’s warnings.

‘Did you have a decent game?’ the Spud asked, as they set out at six o’clock, provided with walking-sticks, drinking-cups slung round their shoulders, the boys’ caps in their pockets, and Tazy’s big hat hung from the back of her belt. She had requested Dumpy to carry it for her, along with her week-end case, and to leave them at the station when he reached the Platz, but Dumpy drew the line at hats and had flatly refused. He had gone off by train, with the belongings of the whole party, and the walkers tramped empty-handed and bareheaded, Tazy’s plait swinging loose, her hair ruffled by the breeze whenever a break in the pines allowed it to reach them.

She was in high spirits, not overtired with her play, nor allowing thoughts of Gerda to burden her. ‘Oh, not bad! I’m horribly out of practice, of course, but not as bad as I should have been if you hadn’t been a spud, and given me those practices by the walnut-tree. It always helps.’

‘Right-o! We’ll have some more!’ the Spud said warmly. ‘My left hand’s coming along finely!’ and his brother laughed.

‘Doesn’t the line look funny?’ and Tazy paused to gaze up the long, straight shaft of the funicular railway, and to watch Dumpy’s little train of three carriages beginning the ascent in slow jerks. ‘It looks horribly unsafe! While I’m looking at it, I can’t understand anyone ever going in one of them, and yet I went myself on Wednesday.’

‘And you’ll come down in one tomorrow night.’‘Unless I walk! If I can walk up, I suppose I can walk down?’‘You won’t walk down tomorrow,’ Prickles said grimly. ‘’Nother time, perhaps.

You’ll jolly well be wanting a bath-chair to take you to the station tomorrow.’Tazy laughed. ‘Will it be as bad as all that? Let’s get started, then.’‘Besides, coming down’s every bit as bad as going up, old sport! Don’t you make

any mistake about that!’ the Spud added. ‘Going up’s a pull all the way, but coming down shakes you all to pieces, and you feel like jelly inside.’

‘Like I did last night!’ Tazy laughed. ‘All right. I won’t walk down tomorrow, then!’The climb to the Platz tried even her resolution severely, though she would not

admit it. A broad brown path, wide enough for donkeys or ponies or country carts, but not for carriages or motorcars, wound up the cliff in long zigzags-a steep little climb in one direction, then a long level stretch in the other-till Tazy lost patience, and wanted to scramble up the bank from one level to the next. Sometimes the boys, who knew the way, allowed it, though they warned her she would tire herself as much as by keeping to the track; sometimes they would not have it, and she could see for herself that the ground was either boggy or too rocky to be possible. The path itself was soft and easy, tiring only because it was so very long and always on the upgrade, and in time unaccustomed muscles began to protest.

For the most part the way lay through the woods, with scented pine-needles covering the ground and walls of smooth red pillars on every side, reaching endlessly away into the distance.

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From time to time the boys and Tazy sat on the ruddy carpet to rest, and she let the long, slim pines run through her fingers as she marvelled at the silence of the forest and peered about among the straight reddy-purple columns which closed them in, and the misty haze in the distance.

‘I’m rather glad you two are here!’ she said suddenly, after one long, dreamy pause. ‘I believe I should be a bit scared if I were quite alone-nervy, you know. The quietness is so eerie; and I’d feel as if all these miles and millions of trunks might gradually close in on me and crush me into nothing! In time I think I should scream, and begin to run, and then I’d probably go crazy. Let’s go on! It’s all right while we’re walking!’

‘And talking!’ grinned the Spud.They crossed noisy little torrents, dashing down the rocks and across the path, and

drank from each with enjoyment. Now and then they crossed a clearing, where the trees had been felled, and a black chalet stood in one corner, its roof weighted with great stones, tiny fields about it, and small children watching the goats, whose bells made music for the valley below. These open spaces gave views which the trees cut off, and in each Tazy turned to marvel at the increased size of the mountains opposite. From the valley many were invisible, others mere white mounds above the lower cliffs. But as she mounted they grew in size and number; snow-fields glistened in the sun; glaciers could be recognised; more and more peaks came into view; and the seven-peaked range, and the great sentinels above the pass, towered aloft in almost unimaginable splendour. She was speechless with delight and wonder; as the Spud said, with a teasing grin, ‘The views jolly well made her taisez-vous! We didn’t have to squash her once!’

Tazy dropped at last on the thyme-strewn turf of a high, open pasture, with the dark fringe of the woods at her feet, the valley spread below, clear from end to end, and all that marvellous white chain of giants before her eyes. She said no word, but clasped her hands round her knees, shook back her hair, and gazed, and drank in the sight and the wonder of it, and the sweet-scented wind.

‘Ann’s a bit stumped!’ Prickles remarked. ‘This is the end of it, you know, Taisez-vous. You’ve done it, and jolly well, too. Less than two hours we’ve taken.’

‘Oh, are we there?’ Tazy spoke absently, her thoughts with her eyes among the heights.

‘Village is just over this bluff. Five minutes more will do it.’‘Oh, then let’s stay here a little while! I saw it all on Wednesday, but we’d come up

by train then, and we’d had a journey, and I was thinking about Mother. I loved it, but I couldn’t quite take it in. I can’t now, but I love it more than ever. It seems to belong to us more, somehow, because we’ve walked. I suppose it’s a silly feeling, but I do believe I enjoy it more because I’ve done something to earn it.’

‘Glad you didn’t go by train with Dumpy?’‘Oh-Dumpy!’ There was unutterable scorn in her voice.The boys laughed. ‘He can’t help it, poor chap. It’s the way he’s made,’ the Spud

remarked.‘He could help it well enough-I wonder where Napoleon’s gone. It’s a good thing

we didn’t have to explain “Napoleon” to Grandma, isn’t it? He is queer, the way he keeps everything to himself.’

‘Oh, you have to get used to that! Old Bones never gives himself away. We’ve all stopped worrying over him,’ Prickles said easily.

‘Well, things at school may be worrying, and all that,’ Tazy said at last, ‘but I guess it does one good to get up here and look at all this for a while. It takes you up above everything, somehow.’

‘You bet it does ‘ Prickles agreed, lying on his face on the turf. ‘The schools look like pig-sties down there.’

‘I didn’t mean literally!’ Tazy laughed. ‘What have you got there, Spud?’

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‘Don’t know.’ He tossed a small plant into her lap. ‘There’s tons of it. It’s got flowers, and it stinks. What is it?’

‘You horror, Spud! It’s thyme. That’s what smells so gorgeous, and comes down to us on the wind. It’s all over the place; the hill’s covered with it. Isn’t it sweet?’

‘That’s what I say; it stinks no end,’ the Spud said placidly. ‘What’s worrying you at school, Ann?’

‘Oh, different things! There’s some opposition to one of the captains-the one the mistresses chose; and the girls are inclined to take sides, for or against her. She doesn’t want them to, because she says it’s bad for the form, but I don’t see how she can stop them.’

‘Which side are you on?’ Prickles demanded.‘I’m for her; the other girl, who’s putting the rest against her, is a beast, and I

wouldn’t touch her with a six-foot pole.’‘Snakes! Some language! But the capitaine’s your chum, the train-girl; Svea, isn’t

it?’‘The train-girl’s name is Svea,’ Tazy explained with dignity, ‘but she was chosen by

the girls. They don’t object to her. It’s the other one.’‘What’s wrong with her? Has she been putting on side?’‘Gracious me, no! She’d loathe it. But she won’t stand any rot, and they’ve been

trying it on to see how far they could go. She won’t let them “go” at all, and they don’t like it.’

‘Bossy? Does she overdo it?’‘No,’ Tazy said slowly; ‘but she knows what she’s there for, and she does it, you

know.’‘Sure thing. She would, if she’d got anything in her. Doesn’t the Svea one back her

up?’‘Not very much yet,’ Tazy said reluctantly. She’s awfully good-natured, and a good

sort, and all that, and she hates to be nasty to anybody.’‘They’ll have to fight it out.’ The Spud sat up. ‘I back the bossy one! But I want my

dinner. My internal workings are going on strike presently if they don’t get some stoking up. Cold water isn’t satisfying, and I’ve nibbled all the grass within reach. Come on, old bean!’ and he poked his brother with his foot.

‘Right-o! Ann’s folks will be sending out search-parties to look for the body, as old Dumps would say;’ and Prickles rose warily.

Tazy sprang up, then groaned. ‘I say! I’m stiff already!’‘Shouldn’t have sat down,’ Prickles said with a grin. ‘It’s fatal. You’ll be a lot worse

tomorrow, though.’‘I don’t care,’ she said defiantly. ‘I’m glad we walked, all the same;’ and she

tramped on between the boys, disdaining help from either, up over the top of the bluff where the ground was sprinkled with bells of deepest blue, and she gathered a handful of gentian for her mother.

Here, on a high, flat shelf, lay the Platz, the village which had meant longer life and health to so many. All around were the open pastures where the big yellow cows wandered and clanged their bells as they cropped the turf; the woods were all below; the hills behind, which shut out any harmful winds, were bare and rocky, overgrown with thin grass or wild flowers, sturdy primulas and saxifrages, and low-growing Alpenrose. Above all these rose a battlement of black crags, sharp-cut against the sky. The great hotels and hydropathic establishments which made up the village, with a number of pensions and boarding-houses, and a few shops and chalets, were ranged along the ridge, straggling away among the fields, with the tiny station of the funicular railway at one end.

The boys led Tazy to her mother’s hotel, being very familiar with the Platz by this time. ‘Our mater’s been here two years,’ Prickles explained. ‘’Fraid she’ll have to stop, too. She’s fairly well up here, but she gets bad as soon as she goes back to

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England. We’ve tried, and it’s no good. Here’s your place. Hope your people won’t have got the wind up thinking you’re lost. It’s just eight o’clock.’

‘Stars and garters!’ said the Spud. ‘What stacks of visitors! Come on, old thing! Let’s make ourselves scarce!’

There were a number of people on the balcony of the big hotel. Tazy hastily slipped on her hat to cover her wind-blown hair, and suddenly remembered that she had never thought about gloves. Her mother came down through the garden to meet her, and the boys sheered off hurriedly, raising their caps.

‘See you to-morrow night, Ann!’ said the Spud.‘If you don’t turn up, we’ll know you’re too stiff to get out of bed,’ Prickles added.

‘Cheerio, Taisez-vous!’Tazy bowed with distant politeness. ‘Thank you for bringing me here so nicely!

Cheerio, Prickles! Good-night, Spuddy!’‘Sounds more like Ann!’ the Spud chuckled, as they hurried away.Tazy, laughing at the thought of her tussle with Prickles on the floor and the

Spud’s flying vault through the window in pursuit of her, turned to meet her mother.‘Where have you been, Anastasy? We knew you must have missed the six o’clock

train; but when the second one came in and you didn’t appear, we began to wonder what had happened to you. Do you mean to say you’ve walked?’

‘I wanted to, Mother dear, just to see what it was like. I’ve simply loved it, so you don’t mind, do you? I had the boys for company, you know.’

‘Are those the boys from Madame Perronet’s? They seem well-behaved and nicely-mannered.’

‘Oh yes!’ Tazy’s eyes danced. ‘I’ve lots of stories to tell you about them, Mother dear! But that Dumpy is a pig! He’s another of them, and he came up by the six o’clock train; too fat and lazy to walk! So I asked him to leave a message here, saying I’d be late, so that you’d under-stand. He must have funked it. I’ll go for him tomorrow! I suppose he’s left my suit-case at the station, the wretch!’

‘But what made you do such a silly thing as walk all that way, when you could have come by train in ten minutes, Tazy dear?’

‘Well, Mother darling, the boys invited me to go with them, and then that Dumpy said I couldn’t do it, and I’d die half-way, and I’d never get here. So you see’-

‘Oh yes, I see!’ Mrs Kingston laughed. ‘After that, of course you had no choice.’‘Besides, I’ve enjoyed it. The train wouldn’t have been a patch on it. The woods

are a treat, and the way all those mountains opposite grow as you get higher just takes your breath away.’

‘I want to hear all about it. But dinner is ready, so run up to my room for a wash, dear; and do tidy your hair! You need both, I can see! I’ve a little table just for us two in a corner, so you’ll be able to tell me all about school and Madame Perronet’s. But I’m sure you’re too hungry to talk at present.’

‘I am hungry! My “internal workings” are going on strike, like the Spud’s!’ Tazy laughed, as she climbed the stairs stiffly.

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Chapter 13 - The Horrible Shock

On the balcony after dinner, wrapped in a big coat of her mother’s, for on the Platz the air was far keener than in the valley, Tazy lay in a basket-chair, her feet propped up on another, and gave a vivid account of her experiences at school and among the boys. Her mother had made several friends, and these came to listen, for to those who had lived ‘up there’ for months any new interest was welcome; so she had quite an audience. Some of her hearers seemed very well; others were in wheeled chairs, or lay on light couches, and had to be helped when they went from room to room. Some were crippled with rheumatism, and had come to the Platz for the sake of its curative waters as well as for its marvellous air.

Tazy watched them all with bright eyes while she talked, mindful of Karen’s reference to the courage of the dwellers ‘up there,’ and found the statement justified. There was pluck here in plenty; there were no gloomy faces; no one complained-at least in public. All were grateful for the increased health they had found up on the heights, and did not allow themselves to dwell on the things they had had to give up. She saw they enjoyed her talk of another world, even if it were only the world of school girls and boys; and she did her best to make her story interesting.

‘I know Mrs Thistleton,’ said one. ‘We must introduce you to her, Mrs Kingston. She is charming, and will be delighted to meet you. She is sure to hear of your daughter from her boys.’

‘I shouldn’t wonder!’ Tazy laughed. ‘I’ve rather disturbed their peace and quietness at Madame Perronet’s, I’m afraid. Is she dark or fair, Madame? Fair? Then the Spud takes after her-Herbert, I mean! Prickles-Wilfred-is much darker.’

‘I knew Mrs Wilson,’ said another when Karen was described. ‘And I remember seeing her daughter when she used to come to stay with her. A queer, quiet little thing, with very bad eyesight, I am afraid.’

‘She sees a jolly lot with those big eyes of hers, all the same,’ Tazy remarked. ‘I say, Mother dear! There’s just one thing I want to do while I’m up here! I want to see Dr Rennie Brown. I’ve heard about him from everybody down below. I suppose you’ve seen him by this time? He wasn’t here when we arrived, was he?’

‘I’m afraid you won’t see him, Mademoiselle Tazy,’ said a little French lady. ‘He is often away at the week-ends, and I know he went off this afternoon. Where to, I cannot say; but he will not come back to the Platz, perhaps, till Monday. If every one is very well, and he thinks he can leave us safely, he always goes away. He must like to spend his Sundays with other friends. But if any one is very ill, of course he does not go.’

‘Bother him! Why can’t his friends come here?’ Tazy grumbled. ‘He ought to be here when I want to see him! I’ve heard such heaps about him. Lots of the girls have seen him, and think no end of him. They say he’s simply wonderful.’

‘Oh, we would all agree to that! The whole Platz depends on Rennie Brown!’ said an American lady, and Tazy’s disappointment deepened.

She confessed to being disinclined for walking next day, and was content to sit with her mother on the veranda, chatting and writing letters. At night she met the boys at the station, as arranged.

‘I didn’t come in a bath-chair!’ she said merrily to Prickles. ‘I don’t say I wouldn’t have liked one, though! One of those little ones, with a darling donkey to pull it! I’ve been living in hot baths since I saw you last night; I’ve had three already, and I’m going back for another. I say! I’m not coming down to the village till tomorrow; tell Grandma she’ll see me at breakfast. Mother says I may stay with her for one more night; I’m going to get up at six tomorrow, and come down in the seven-thirty.’

‘Coo! An hour and a half to dress! There’s not much to show for all that, Ann!’ the Spud teased.

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‘Oh, but I’ve got to have another hot bath!’ she retorted. ‘Dumps, you’re an utter rotter! You never gave my message, and Mother was wondering where on earth I was.’

‘Well, there were such millions of swanks!’ Dumpy complained. ‘How could I go trotting up among them all?’

‘Come on, Spuddy! Train’s just off!’ Prickles warned the rest, and they sprang into the car, while Tazy went back to the hotel for her fourth hot bath.

She arrived in time for breakfast next morning, in high spirits, braced up mentally by the strong, keen air of the mountains, and eager for the week’s experiences, whatever they might be. The boys greeted her in the garden, and they went in to breakfast together, Tazy frankly hungry as a wolf, as she said, after her early start.

‘Our mothers are going to call on one another, she announced to the boys. ‘Won’t it be jolly for them? Mine says she’s heard so much about the Spud and Prickles that she simply must know Mrs Thistleton.’

‘And Mrs Thistleton’s heard so much about Ann-Taisez-vous-Shut-up that she’s going to hunt up Mrs Kingston this afternoon,’ Prickles grinned. ‘Spuddy’s told her every old thing he could think of about you!’

‘They’ll meet half-way,’ Tazy laughed. ‘I hope they’ll like one another!’As she ran up to her room after breakfast, Madame Perronet called her into the

salon. ‘I must explain something to you, Anastasie, my dear. I had a letter from Miss Braithwaite yesterday, asking me if I could accommodate another demoiselle as boarder. She knows I have room for six, but as yet you are only five. She has another demoiselle come to the school for whom she has no room, so she asks me to make a place for her here. She will therefore come this evening, and will of course share your room, which has beds for two, and is too large for one alone.’

Tazy was listening in stunned dismay. Another girl to be thrust upon them-to share the study table with the boys and herself-to be always there and in the way! She had not known till this moment how much she had enjoyed reigning supreme over the boys. Any second girl must seem an interloper, must surely spoil the friendly atmosphere of hearty comradeship which they had somehow managed to create. And suppose the girl who came were ‘a little toad’ of Gerda’s type!

‘You don’t know anything about her?’ she asked dully, realising the uselessness of protest. It was all arranged; what was the good of saying anything? Madame must do what Miss Braithwaite wanted, in any case; it was no good expostulating with ‘Grandma.’ Would it be possible to plead with Miss Braithwaite? Tazy doubted it greatly. If another girl had to come, what else could Miss Braithwaite do? But what horribly hard lines!’

‘We had just settled down so nicely, and everything was all so jolly! I don’t know what the boys will say,’ she groaned to herself.

Madame Perronet knew nothing, as yet, of her new boarder, except that Miss Braithwaite had said she would of course send an elder girl and not a child.

‘All the worse! We could have sat on a mere kid!’ Tazy groaned. ‘If this girl’s as old as we are, she’ll expect to be treated like-like one of us! And she won’t be one of us! She’ll be an outsider; she can’t help it. I must tell the boys.-Do the boys know?’ she demanded aloud. ‘They didn’t say anything. No, I’m sure they don’t.’

Madame had said nothing to the boys. ‘It does not concern them. It will be necessary for you to make some preparations for your companion in your bedroom, Anastasie. I see you are using all the drawers and cupboards. That is not necessary, my dear; the room is planned for two, and there is ample room for you both. When you return this evening, I will ask you to clear a fair share of space for this other demoiselle’s use.’

‘Oh, glory! She’ll have to sleep with me!’ Tazy had hardly taken that in. ‘My lovely bedroom! Can’t I even have that to myself? Oh, Madame!’ she pleaded, ‘isn’t there anywhere else you could put her? Any old place except in on top of me? I do love my room, but it will never be the same with another girl flinging her things round in it!’

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But Madame was obdurate. There was no other room. It would be ridiculous for one to have so large a room if there was any one else to share it with her.

Tazy walked to school in the lowest depths of dejection. She had not even been able to tell the awful news to the boys, for they had started early, to attend a general sports meeting before school. The world, which had looked so bright, had suddenly clouded, and today she had no eyes for the beauty around.

When she reached St Mary’s she went straight to Miss Braithwaite’s study, with the intention of confessing how she had walked up to the Platz on Saturday with the boys.

As she knocked, the door opened, and Karen Wilson came out, and started to find herself face to face with Tazy. ‘Tazy!’ she exclaimed, and paused, and flushed, and stared.

‘Why, what’s the matter? You look as if I’d caught you in the act! I want to tell Miss Braithwaite something. May I go in now, do you think?’

‘Yes; she wants you. I was coming to look for you. I was to send you to her as soon as you came. That’s why it made me jump to find you at the door,’ Karen explained hastily.

Tazy stared at her, still finding something strange in her manner. ‘What does she want me for?-Oh, is she going to tell me that?’ Her face clouded again. ‘But I know already. It’s rotten. But I suppose I mustn’t say so.’

Karen gave her an even more startled look than before. ‘I didn’t think you knew already,’ she said slowly.

‘Madame Perronet told me. It just spoils everything. You know how jolly we all were together; I’d told you of some of the good times we’d been having. Well, I’d better get it over, I suppose!’ and she turned to enter the room, and carried with her a strange impression of a look of incredulous dismay dawning in Karen’s eyes.

With an instinctive feeling of putting off the evil moment, she plunged into her confession first. ‘Miss Braithwaite, I don’t know if you’ll mind, but I don’t want to do anything sneaky, and I know it’s not what you expected I was going to do, and I didn’t ask your leave first. But I’m none the worse for it, only rather stiff today, you know. Mother quite understands that I did it without asking you; I told her that at once. But the boys-two of them-were going to walk up to the Platz on Saturday evening, and they asked me to go with them, instead of going by train. And another of them said I’d never do it, and I’d die half-way, and all that kind of thing, and so, of course’-

‘Of course you had to try it,’ Miss Braithwaite assented. ‘That is a very dangerous form of weakness, my dear Tazy. I can quite believe that any one can laugh or dare you into any foolishness, but that is nothing to be proud of.’

‘Oh!’ Tazy looked blank. ‘Weakness, Miss Braithwaite? I never thought of it like that!’

‘Probably not. But if it had been something wrong he had tried to laugh you into, I suppose you would have given way just the same?’

‘I don’t know!’ Tazy’s eyes fell. ‘I hope not. I-of course I wouldn’t, Miss Braithwaite!’

‘Oh no, of course not! See that you don’t, if it should ever happen, all the same! So you climbed to the Platz with the other two? Which boys were they?’

‘Wilfred and Herbert Thistleton, Miss Braithwaite. They’re good fun, and they’ve done it before. They took care of me, and made me rest, and wouldn’t let me take short cuts sometimes when I wanted to.’

‘I know of them, of course, or you would not be living with them. Well, Tazy, it was foolish, and if you are stiff and sore for a few days, it is only what you deserve. There is no reason at all why you should not walk up to the Platz, when you are in training for it, but it was hardly wise to start your experiences with so stiff a climb. If you had come to it more gradually, you would have strengthened your muscles and accustomed them to the new demands upon them. And, my dear, I would like you to ask me in future before going out with the boys-even the Thistletons. I have no

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objection whatever to your going about with them; they are both trust-worthy and quite suitable companions for you. But I would not like you to go with them to meet other boys from the college without my permission’-

‘I wouldn’t do it, Miss Braithwaite!’ Tazy spoke swiftly, her face flushed. ‘I know I’m a part of the school, though I’m living outside, and I must play the game.’

‘Exactly! It is because I believed you would feel so that I trusted you as an outside boarder. And you must remember, too, that you are known in the village as a St Mary’s girl, and that the credit of the school is partly in your hands. And this is not England. Our neighbours in the valley know it is not usual for our girls and the college boys to go about together. You must not give them cause to think there is any breaking of rules or underhand dealing going on. I am sure you will understand and be loyal to the school. Now, Tazy, I have something very different to say to you.’

‘Madame Perronet told me, Miss Braithwaite;’ and Tazy’s eyes fell.Miss Braithwaite looked at her in amusement. ‘You don’t like the idea of having a

companion! In fact, you don’t want to share your boys with anybody?’‘Or my room! We were so jolly all together, and we’d settled down so nicely, Miss

Braithwaite! Isn’t there any other house the new girl could go to?’ she pleaded.‘Oh, I’m not sending the new girl to you!’ Miss Braithwaite laughed. ‘To begin with,

she is only ten, and very shy-a little Russian girl called Olga. You might take her up to see your mother some day, Tazy; she would like to hear her own language again. Do you speak any Russian, by the way?’

‘Only about two words, Miss Braithwaite. Mother had lived in England for years before I was born, and though she says a Russian word now and then, she said it would be better for me to learn French thoroughly. So she often talked that to me at home, but not Russian. But I’m sure she would talk to Olga. Is her mother up there?’

‘She was, and this child has been living with her,’ Miss Braithwaite said gravely. ‘But the mother died a short time ago, and they have asked me to take Olga here for a while, until her relations decide as to her future. We must all be very good to her. Oh no! I am not sending a small child like that to live with you, Tazy! It would not do at all. But if I take Olga here, I must move some one out, as we are quite full. It is better to send one of the elder girls, whom I know well and can trust. So I have asked Karen Wilson’-

‘Karen!’ Tazy cried, in utter amazement. ‘Oh, I beg your pardon, Miss Braithwaite, for interrupting, but I was so surprised. Then-oh, of course, that’s why she looked at me like that! And-and I’m afraid what I said must have sounded perfectly awful to her!’

‘What did you say?’ Miss Braithwaite asked quietly. ‘I am afraid you are inclined to be hasty in your words, Tazy.’

‘That’s what the boys say,’ Tazy groaned. ‘They say it’s not that I say so much, but the kind of things I say. You see, they call me Taisez-vous!’ and she looked at Miss Braithwaite doubtfully.

The headmistress laughed. ‘What did you say to Karen?’‘I met her at the door, and she said you wanted to tell me something. I said I knew

already-I thought I did, you know-and that it was rotten, and that it just spoiled everything. She looked as if I’d slapped her.’

‘I expect she did. Karen is very sensitive, though few of you girls give her credit for it. I may tell you, Tazy, that she was very unwilling to go, because she was sure it would upset you so. She asked, as you did, if she could not go to some other house. For herself, she said, she would like to live with you, but she knew you would feel she was in the way, and she begged me to send her somewhere else. If you resent this change, Tazy, you must at least remember to put all the blame on me! When I told Karen I wished her to go to Madame Perronet’s, she asked me to tell you myself, as she was so sure you would be annoyed. I am afraid you confirmed her dread by the way you spoke just now.’

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Tazy stood looking down. ‘I’m sorry. I don’t want her; it’s quite true. And she’ll know it now, for I can’t pretend. But I wouldn’t have said it to her if I’d known. I’d like to go and apologise to her, Miss Braithwaite.’

‘I hope you will. And try to be cordial to her, Tazy. Remember how difficult it is for her, being sent where she knows she is not wanted. She must expect the boys to feel as you do, of course.’

‘Yes, it is rather beastly for her. I-I suppose you couldn’t send Svea instead, Miss Braithwaite? She’s as old as Karen, and she’s jolly, and good fun, and all that sort of thing. I don’t believe Karen will have a bit of a good time. She’s quiet, you know, and she doesn’t shove herself into things, and-well, you have to, sometimes.’

‘Svea!’ Miss Braithwaite laughed. ‘No, Tazy dear, I couldn’t send Svea. I prefer to have Svea under my eye in the school. You must make it your business to see that Karen does have a good time. You are at home with the boys and Madame Perronet already; it is for you to welcome Karen and act as hostess and make her feel at home. You’ll do that, won’t you?’

‘It would be heaps easier if it were Svea!’ Tazy said longingly.‘I’m afraid it can’t be Svea, however. This new arrangement may prove to be very

good for Karen, as well as for you and the boys; I’ve an idea it is just what she needs. I hope you will all be the best of friends. Suppose you go and make a start now, Tazy!’

Tazy knew what Miss Braithwaite meant. She went slowly to her class-room, where the form-captains were consulting together on points of future procedure. ‘Oh, well, if you’ll see to all that, I’ll be grateful to you for ever!’ she heard Svea say, as she came up.

‘Karen, I’m awfully sorry I spoke as I did just now,’ Tazy said frankly, and Karen turned to her in swift surprise. ‘I thought I understood, but I didn’t in the least, and so I said far too much. All I knew was that Miss Braithwaite was sending another girl to live with us; I never dreamed it was to be you-I thought, of course, it would be the new girl. I wouldn’t have spoken as I did for worlds if I’d understood.’

‘I thought afterwards that you couldn’t have known,’ Karen said quickly. ‘Miss Braithwaite said she hadn’t told you. It was only for the moment that I-I thought’-

‘You thought I was an utter beast. I’m sure I don’t blame you! But I say! I’m not, you know. And I’ll make things as jolly for you as I can.’

‘Tazy, I’m sorry about it,’ Karen said hurriedly. ‘I know how you feel, though you’re trying to hide it. It’s awfully good of you, but I knew, even before you met me this morning. You don’t want anybody more dumped on you, but if there must be some one, I ‘m not the kind of girl you’d choose. You’d have put up with it much better if it could have been Svea, for instance. Did you say so to Miss Braithwaite?’ she asked, as Tazy gave her a startled look. ‘But she’s decided, so we both have to put up with it. I’ll try not to be in the way more than I can help.’

‘What is it all about?’ Svea asked, staring from one to the other.‘There’s a new girl coming,’ Karen explained abruptly, ‘and as the house is so full,

she has to have my room. So I am to board at Madame Perronet’s with Tazy, and come to school every day. Neither of us wants it, Svea, but we can’t help it. It has all been fixed up for us.’

Svea stared at her wide-eyed. ‘You’re going to live outside? With Tazy and all those boys? Oh, I say! How queer! How-how funny! I wonder how you’ll get on!’

‘It will be interesting,’ Karen said calmly. ‘I like new things. I’ve lived here for three years now; it will be a change.’

‘I must tell the others!-I say, Pilly! Edit! Gerda! Babette! Valerie! Karen’s going outside, to live with Tazy and the boys!’

The announcement caused surprise and excitement enough to satisfy her; and to annoy the two most concerned. Karen took out her books, and began to scribble figures and formulae. Tazy watched and listened to the comments, and had no doubt the ‘Mistresses’ Choice’ was listening also, though she showed no sign of it. But not much seemed to escape her.

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‘Karen!’ said Gerda scornfully. ‘She’ll never speak to the boys! She’ll be scared of them. What a waste!’

‘Yes, it’s a pity it wasn’t you,’ Phyllis laughed. ‘You really would have made the most of it, wouldn’t you? How blind Madame must be!’

‘Will you like it, Karen? Won’t you miss us all?’ Babette asked, sitting on the edge of Karen’s desk.

‘I shall see you every day. I think I can get on without you at night,’ Karen laughed.

‘But I say! What about being capitaine?’ cried Babette. ‘Won’t it be awkward? I shouldn’t have thought Madame would send one of the captains to live outside!’

‘She says she’s sorry about that, but Svea must be on duty in the evening, that’s all. I asked if they wouldn’t choose some one else in my place, but she said she would rather not. I shall be here from nine o’clock till after tea every day, and on Saturdays and Sundays too. I’ve nowhere else to go.’

‘Oh, won’t you want to stop at home with the boys?’ Phyllis mocked. ‘Gerda thinks you’re an awful idiot, Karen.’

‘I think, if Madame had thought about the boys’ feelings at all, or asked herself, or them, what kind of girl they’d like’-Gerda began scornfully.

It was a foolish speech, and was drowned in a storm of mocking laughter. ‘She’d have chosen you, I suppose!’ Phyllis jeered.

‘Why on earth should she consult the boys?’ Edith laughed. ‘They’ve nothing to do with it!’

‘You could have given her points as to the right kind of girl, couldn’t you, Gerda?’ Babette mocked. ‘Let’s see now! Pretty, of course-giggly-empty-headed-nothing in her; no

brains: but that wouldn’t matter a scrap. Who wants brains, anyway? Oh, you could have found her half-a-dozen in no time, sans doute! Or at least you could have found her one!’ and there was another laugh.

‘No; but she could not have found one more unsuitable than Karen Wilson!’ Gerda said contemptuously.

‘As to that, I guess we’ll have to wait and see,’ Tazy remarked to herself, as Miss Martin entered, and the girls scattered to their desks. ‘But I know this: she might have made an even worse choice. I don’t know yet how Karen will get on, and I don’t know what kind of girl the boys would have chosen if they had been consulted. But I’ve got to be there too, and I know there’s one kind I’d have found it harder to put up with than Karen. And that’s Gerda! That really would have been the limit. But I guess Miss Braithwaite knows. She seems to know her business fairly well. I don’t think Gerda can give her much help! Little toad! To say that to Karen’s face!’

‘Going to walk home with me?’ she asked casually of Karen at tea-time.Karen looked up quickly, pleasure in her face. ‘Another day I would love to. But I

still have to pack, and then I’m to drive with my trunk and things.’‘Right-o! I’ll get on quickly, and have things ready for you.’‘And break the news to the boys!’ she said to herself, as she set out by the

meadow-paths, her face graver than usual, her eyes on the track at her feet instead of on the mountains, her thoughts busy with the new situation Miss Braithwaite had so suddenly created for Karen, the boys, and herself.

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Chapter 14 - Making The Best Of It

‘I say, Taisez-vous, you don’t know what’s in store for you!’ cried the Spud gaily, as Tazy threw open the door of the study and stood looking at them before making her announcement.

‘Oh, dry up! Chuck it, Herbert!’ growled Prickles.The Spud flung a piece of india-rubber at him. ‘Don’t get spiteful, old thing! And

you needn’t blush; she’s got to know the worst!’‘I thought it was you who didn’t know the worst!’ Tazy observed. ‘What is it he

doesn’t want you to tell me, Spuddy?’‘The thumping honour that’s befallen you. Did you know who you were living

with?’Tazy’s eyes danced. ‘Three idiots and one lunatic,’ she said solemnly.‘I say! Hard on old Bones! What’s he done to deserve that?’‘No; I meant you,’ Tazy explained politely.‘How jolly decent of you!’ the Spud retorted.‘I ought to have said two idiots, one lunatic, and one slacker,’ Tazy said

suggestively.‘That’s because Dumps took the train on Saturday,’ Prickles remarked. ‘’Less she

means old Boney, of course! Better have another amendment, Ann-two slackers! What don’t we know?’

‘What were you going to tell me?’ Tazy demanded of the Spud.‘Only that old Bill is captain of the Senior Eleven. Fancy a kid like you being

allowed to live in the same house with him! You should see the new chaps and small kids look at him! As if he’d got wings and a halo.’

‘Really?’ Tazy turned to Prickles. ‘Oh, don’t trouble to throw things at him! He’s not worth it! I’m awfully glad, Bill.’ Prickles grinned. ‘I like people who can do things, and get chosen to be things. I didn’t know you were extra good at cricket.’

‘He’s not. It’s just a mere fluke,’ the Spud explained politely.‘The infant’s said a true word for once,’ Prickles assented. ‘It is just a fluke, Ann,

and that’s all about it.’‘Well, he couldn’t go about telling you, could he, Taisez-vous?’ the Spud remarked.

‘He couldn’t come to you and say, “You should see my bowling!” or “You should see me boss a team!”’

‘Herbert, you’re a little beast! Let my bowling alone, will you?’ his elder brother exclaimed. ‘I know it’s weak; you needn’t rub it in. We’re trusting to you there, and don’t you forget it.’

‘Good thing for you you’ve got me! Yes, it’s putrid,’ the Spud assented. ‘But you can place a team and win a match. But he couldn’t tell you that, could he now, Taisez-Ann? Besides, he didn’t know he was going to be chosen. The meeting was only this morning.’

‘Oh yes! You all went off early. I wanted you frightfully badly, but you’d gone.’The Spud rose, with much ceremony, and bowed profoundly. ‘We are greatly

honoured. The loss was ours!-You blighters!’ to the others, who were looking on unmoved. ‘Can’t you rise to the occasion? She wanted us frightfully badly, but we’d gone. Can’t you even say you’re sorry, Dumps, you old stodge? Bill, you might at least be polite!’

‘But I’m not sorry,’ Prickles said blandly. ‘I’m glad. It’ll make her want us all the more if she finds she can’t have us any old minute she thinks of it.’

The Spud gazed at him, speechless with admiration and surprise; but only for a moment. ‘Hear the words of wisdom from the lips of the Mighty One!’ he proclaimed. ‘It’s gone to his head already! He couldn’t have said anything half so deep as that this morning! That’s what comes of being elected to a post of responsibility and honour!’

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‘Oh, shut up, Herbert! Something’s gone to your head, I guess! What’s set you off playing the goat like this?’ Prickles demanded irritably.

‘Take some more water in your tea next time, Spud,’ Tazy advised, sitting on the window-sill and looking at them all. ‘You wouldn’t be so awfully jolly if you knew what I’ve got to tell!’

‘These dark hints and words of mystery from one so young!’ The Spud became suddenly serious. ‘Get it out, Ann! Let’s have the worst! Don’t hurt yourself keeping it in! Such-er-self-denial might do you lots of harm.’

‘What’s up, Taisez-vous? More rows at school? Capitaines got to fighting yet?’ Prickles asked sympathetically.

Tazy swung her leather case of books, and looked at them. ‘There’s another girl coming here-to live with us-and sleep with me. She’ll arrive in about half-an-hour.’

‘Great stars and garters! Why on earth?’ The Spud’s jaw dropped.‘Isn’t one enough?’ groaned Dumpy. ‘It’s downright cruelty.’‘To animals-donkeys! Yes, that’s what I thought myself,’ Tazy said swiftly.‘No, but really? True’s you live?’ Prickles asked anxiously.‘Oh yes! It’s all fixed up;’ and Tazy gave a brief account of the reason for the

upheaval. ‘I suppose the only person you can really blame for it is Olga’s mother for dying, or her aunts and people for leaving her here. You won’t have to argue now as to whether Prickles or Dumpy shall have me on his side of the table. There will be one of us for each of you. I’m sure it’s very thoughtful of Miss Braithwaite to even matters up for you! We were sort of lopsided before.’

‘Oh, beastly thoughtful, and all that! She’s an old’-‘No, she isn’t! She has to do something with this new girl. You’re not to call Miss B.

names!’‘Right-o, old thing!-Spuddy, my son, we’re not to call Miss B. names. Don’t you

forget it! But, all the same, she is an old’-‘What’s the girl like? The one who’s to come here?’ Boney from his end of the

table suddenly took a share in the conversation. He had been sitting up and listening with much interest since Tazy made her announcement.

‘Yes, that’s what matters, of course,’ Dumpy conceded. ‘What is the girl like? Trust Miss Euclid to be the one to point it out, though!’

‘Old Bones takes charge, and switches us back on to the main line in half-a-sec,’ Prickles remarked. ‘Awfully like you, Napoleon!-Well, Taisez-vous?’

‘Put us out of our misery, Ann!’ the Spud pleaded. ‘Is it very bad! Or might it be even worse? Is it’-in a tone of horrified dismay-‘is it the train-girl? It would be just like Miss B.’s thoughtfulness to pick her out because she’s your chum. But if it’s that girl-snakes alive! How she and Shut-up will babble! Thumping lot of prep we’ll get done!’

‘You’re doing an awful lot tonight, aren’t you?’ Tazy retorted. ‘No, it isn’t Svea, worse luck. Miss Braithwaite laughed when I asked if we couldn’t have her, but she wouldn’t hear of it. You’d have got on all right with Svea. I’m not so sure about this other girl. She won’t fight with you, but I don’t know if you’ll all make friends; and if there’s one of us an outsider, it will spoil all the jolly feeling. It’s the other capitaine, the “Mistresses’ Choice,” who’s coming, and she may be here any minute. You’ve kept me talking far too long. I’ve got to go and empty my drawers and pegs for her, and when I’m going to do any prep tonight I don’t know.’

‘We’ve kept you talking! I like that!’‘Yes, you have, you all talk at once, so that I can hardly get a word in.’‘What’s her name?’ demanded Dumpy.‘Karen Wilson. But she’s just as much English as I am.’‘Does she talk English as much as you do?’ the Spud inquired politely.‘Is she the one you said was queer and quiet?’ Boney asked, with interest.‘Spuddy, you’re a beast, and tonight at dinner I shall call you Herbert, and then

you’ll choke over your soup-before Karen, too! If I said that’-to Boney-‘I was an idiot.

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She isn’t queer. That was before I knew her at all. She’s only queer because she’s quiet, and so few people are quiet nowadays!’

‘Of course, you’d naturally find that queer!’ the Spud said promptly.Tazy laughed, but scorned to take any notice. ‘I’m not so much afraid that we’ll

find her in the way, now that I know it’s Karen who is coming,’ she said. ‘I was at first, when it was just any old girl! But Karen won’t be as bad as some. But I am afraid she may not shake down into one of the family, and if she doesn’t, it will feel like always having a visitor in the house.’

‘You came on Wednesday, didn’t you?’ the Spud asked politely. ‘And this is Monday night, and you’ve been away for the week-end. You’ve quite made yourself at home-not half!’

‘Well, of course. Oh, I was one of the family from the first.’‘From the time you rolled me on the floor and dragged out a handful of my hair by

the roots,’ Prickles agreed reminiscently. ‘I say, hadn’t you better get your prep done, my dear kid? You’ll be weeping and wailing all dinner-time, like that other night.’

‘No; she just glowered and did sums in her head all the time. You could see she was counting on her fingers under the table while Louise was changing the plates,’ the Spud jeered.

‘What a fibber you are, Herbert! No; I’m going to get my-our!-room ready for Karen. I say, you know! I hate having to share it with her.’

‘Then you know how we felt when you stalked in that first night and said you’d come to stop,’ was all the sympathy she received from Prickles. ‘Good-night!’ he added, politely but pointedly, and she laughed and ran off upstairs.

She was still flinging blouses, gloves, collars, and under-garments from one drawer to another when Karen arrived. Madame Perronet brought her upstairs at once, and Karen took in the situation with one of her quick, comprehensive glances.

‘I’m sorry, Tazy. I didn’t know I’d have to turn you out of half your room too. Don’t clear too much space for me; I haven’t a very great many things. And tomorrow will do quite well for most of them. I’ll just hang up my skirts and get out my blouses, and leave all the rest.’

‘Better change while you’re at it. Madame doesn’t like tunics for dinner.’ Tazy spoke as cordially as she could, though it cost her an effort, which Karen saw and appreciated. ‘Those pegs are for you, and these drawers; and that’s your bed. Isn’t the view beautiful?’

‘Yes.’ Karen stood thoughtfully by the window. ‘I wish we could see the Platz, but of course we’re too close under it here. I could just see it from my window at school-the whole line of the village, and the little church; Miss Braithwaite always gave me a room looking that way. It’s jolly of her to understand.’

‘She does understand. She’s a jolly good sort.’ Tazy was wondering secretly why Karen should want to look at the Platz and its church, but of course she could not ask. The explanation only came after she was in bed that night, when she remembered what Svea had told her about Karen’s mother; she wondered then that she could have been so dense.

Karen turned from the window. ‘Yes, it’s beautiful. You must love it. I’ll try not to be too much in the way, Tazy;’ and she began to change her blue tunic hastily.

Tazy looked up in dismay. ‘ Look here! You mustn’t go on thinking that all the time!’

‘Oh, I can’t help knowing. People don’t suddenly have to share almost everything they’ve got without feeling bad about it. But you know it’s not my fault, and that I didn’t want it. And you’re very fair; you’ll know it’s not awfully jolly for me either.’

‘If you’ve got it into your head that we don’t want you, it’s simply beastly for you,’ Tazy said forcefully, as she brushed out her hair. ‘And I shall feel it’s half my fault, because of the way I spoke this morning. I always am an idiot, of course. But you’ve simply got to get it out of your head again; see?’

‘Well, you don’t.’ Karen gave a little laugh. ‘Honestly now, Tazy?’

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‘We didn’t, of course. I don’t mind saying so, for you know it already. But I shouldn’t wonder if we were glad before long.’ Tazy knew this was rather an exaggeration of her present feelings, but thought it was justified in the circumstances.

‘That’s awfully nice of you!’ Karen spoke warmly. ‘At least I won’t let you find me always in the way, Tazy.’

‘I say!’ Tazy was staring at her.‘What?’ Karen had loosened her thick plait and begun to brush out a mane of

bright brown hair.‘Your hair! I say, don’t plait it again, there’s a jolly old thing!’Karen tossed back her hair and stared at her. ‘What do you mean, Tazy?’‘It’s such a topping colour! I hadn’t any idea. It doesn’t show when you plait it up

tightly-at least, hardly at all. I can see it now, but I’d never noticed it before. And you’ve such a lot, and it waves so beautifully. Oh, Karen, wear it loose at night!’

‘Goodness me!’ Karen drew an armful of thick hair over her shoulder and stared at it with startled eyes. ‘You’re the first girl who’s ever said anything about it,’ she said slowly. ‘Mother used to, but I’d almost forgotten. I thought it was just that-that she had only me, you know. She liked the colour, but nobody else has ever noticed it. Of course, there’s heaps more of it than she ever saw. It keeps growing, however much they cut it.’

‘D’you mean to say among all those girls at St Mary’s nobody has ever admired your hair? Don’t they ever see it loose?’

Nurse sometimes says it’s a pretty colour when it’s just washed. I mean, of course, when she comes to see that I’ve dried it properly. I can’t quite do it alone; there’s too much of it. But nobody else sees it; I don’t go running about the corridor undressed,’ Karen said.

‘No, you wouldn’t; it wouldn’t be like you. But you ought to let them see it, Karen! All that red in it hardly shows at all when it’s plaited-just a gleam here and there, that could easily be missed by everybody. I hadn’t any idea! Here, come into the sun and let me see it then! It will shine like copper!’

‘Tazy, don’t be silly!’ Karen laughed, unusual colour in her face. ‘Mother’s hair was a beautiful red colour, but I always thought I’d hardly got any of it.’

‘You’ve got your share. It will look lovely when you put it up, if you do it loosely and let it wave. The girls ought to see it sometimes. They think you-you haven’t-well’-

‘Haven’t anything at all,’ Karen said lightly. ‘Oh, I know! I’m plain and ordinary, and there’s nothing nice about me. I’m used to that.’

‘That’s why I want you to wear your hair loose at night,’ Tazy said bluntly. ‘Just wear your slide at the back of your neck and let it all hang below that. You see, the boys haven’t seen you yet, and it makes you look quite different.’

‘And you want me to have a good start,’ Karen said, with grave understanding. ‘Tazy, I’ll do anything you ask. And I think you’re not only very fair, but awfully generous. I believe you really want me to make friends and feel at home, instead of wanting to keep the boys all to yourself.’

‘I should be a pig if I tried to do that,’ Tazy said vigorously. ‘All I want is to have things go on being as jolly as they have been, and if you insist on being an outsider, and talking about “being in the way,” and all that kind of rot, they won’t be jolly a scrap. You’ve got to come in and be one of the family, or it will spoil things for us all. Don’t you see?’

Karen said no more on the subject, but she left the long chestnut tail waving loosely down her back, as desired. But though she said no more, she thought much. It moved her strangely that Tazy, instead of wanting to accentuate the difference between them, instead of rejoicing that Karen should appear plain and insignificant beside herself, should have seized with real eagerness on the one chance of making her new companion look her best, should have insisted on her making a good impression. She repeated to herself Tazy’s words concerning Miss Braithwaite. ‘She’s sporty, and a jolly good sort. She is too!’

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‘Won’t you tell me about the boys?’ she asked. ‘I know their names, of course; you told us all about Madame and the nicknames! But what are they like?’

‘Oh, I think I’ll let you get to know them for yourself. That’s always the best plan. You

may have different ideas about them, and you’d better form your own. I’m sure you always do have ideas about people. I wonder what you thought about me at the very first?’

Karen laughed. ‘My first ideas of you have changed a little. No, I won’t tell you what I thought, but I like you better than I expected to do. You’ve got more in you.’

‘Oh, well, I could say that to you!’‘You almost always can, when you get to know people,’ Karen remarked, as she

fastened the tortoise-shell slide on her hair. ‘Sometimes they disappoint you, and you find they really haven’t anything in them, but generally you can discover something. It’s always interesting to look out for it.’

‘Do you always do it? Look out for the interesting sides of people, I mean? It’s a topping idea!’ Tazy sat on the window-sill nursing her knee and gazing at Karen curiously. ‘Is that one of the things you’ve found to do instead of games and all that-studying people, and why they do things, and what they think? Is it, Karen?’

Karen had flushed. ‘It’s always interesting,’ she said evasively. ‘If you can’t have exciting things, there are always the interesting ones left.’

‘You said it would be “interesting” to live here, as a change from school,’ Tazy said thoughtfully. ‘And you said something once about seeing other people’s points of view. I say, Karen, are you going to be a novelist?’

Karen laughed. She had laughed more often than was usual with her during this last hour and she was certainly finding life interesting. ‘My father’s a journalist, and travels and writes for a big London paper. Perhaps it’s in my blood to look out for things.’

‘I jolly well guess it is! But what hard lines that you should be’- and Tazy stopped suddenly.

‘So nearly blind?’ Karen said quietly. ‘Don’t ever steal my glasses at night, Tazy, for I can’t see a single thing without them. But with them I’m all right. And there are things you can’t see even with the strongest glasses-things, I mean, that you don’t need glasses of any kind to see.’

‘You see a jolly lot with yours! I believe I’ve said that before. I’d love to know what you think of the boys here-each one separately! But I don’t suppose you’ll tell me?’

‘No, I don’t suppose I shall;’ and Karen coloured. ‘It’s not fair to chatter about one’s ideas of people, which may be all wrong. I often have to change mine. Can we get any prep done before dinner, Tazy? For I’ve a lot of work to get through.’

‘Grandma will have to let us have an hour after dinner, for once, because of your unpacking and my removing. But we might get in half-an-hour. Come on down, and I’ll introduce you to the boys. They’ll be swotting too, so we won’t interrupt them.’

‘We aren’t going to talk!’ she announced, as she flung open the study door. ‘We’ve stacks of prep, and we haven’t touched it yet. Shove up there, Dumpy, and make room for Karen; I’ll come on your side for good and all, Prickles.-Karen, this is Napoleon-old Bones, you know; and this is the Spud-no, I mean Herbert! Now you know them all.-Now don’t babble any of you! I’ve got geometry to do, to say nothing of literature, and a German letter to write-ugh! Disgusting!’

‘Putrid! Filthy!’ Prickles helped her out politely; while the Spud, true to his character, placed his chair for Karen between himself and the staring Dumpy, and found another for his own use.

‘Thanks, Bill! Yes, that’s just how I feel,’ Tazy said absently to Prickles.The boys were eyeing Karen dubiously. She thanked the Spud, sat down and

spread out her books, with a quick look at each boy as his name was mentioned, and a second at Napoleon. But there was no time to waste now, so she buried herself in

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her work without a word to any of the others, and after a glance or two at one another the boys took the hint and did the same.

It was only when they were going in to dinner, after a half-hour of concentrated energy, that Karen turned to Brown. ‘I’ve seen you before, but I can’t remember where. Where do you think it could be?’

The rest listened with interest. Now and then they remembered how little they knew about their silent companion; as a rule, content with their own friendships and interests, they forgot all about him, and Tazy had learned to do the same.

‘I’ve been at the coll. for six years, so there’s been time enough,’ he explained. ‘What about chapel, and other meetings?’

‘That’s not what I mean. I know plenty of the boys by sight; I’ve known you all for a long time. We all do, of course’-

‘I bet you Gerda does!’ Tazy remarked. ‘I’ve often seen you there. But I’ve always had the feeling that I ought to know

you, as if I had met you before somewhere. It’s queer, but it’s quite definite, and it’s you by yourself, not you and all the rest of the college. I’ve often thought if I ever got to know you I would ask you if I’d met you anywhere.’

‘Perhaps you dreamt about him,’ Tazy suggested, staring wide-eyed. ‘People sometimes declare they must have met in dreams!’

Boney had reddened under the astonished gaze of the other four. ‘’Fraid I didn’t have the pleasure of meeting you in a dream,’ he said politely.

The Spud chuckled. ‘Old Boney’s trying to churn out a compliment. Guess it wasn’t an awfully ripping dream for her, old bean! Nightmare, I should call it!’

‘It wasn’t in a dream,’ Karen said gravely. ‘But I believe I’ve met him somewhere. I’ve thought so for a long time, when I’ve seen him in chapel and other places-I thought perhaps you could help me to remember when it was,’ she challenged him.

‘I’d be delighted, but I really don’t remember myself.’‘I’ve been here for three years, of course. But I don’t believe it was at school. Have

you ever been in Brussels?’‘Never.’ He began to look puzzled also.‘It must have been at school, Karen!’ Tazy insisted, ‘Do you feel as if you’d spoken

to him?’‘No, I don’t remember speaking to him. But I have seen him somewhere,’ Karen

repeated, and sat silent and thoughtful throughout the meal.‘If she says she has, she has, you know,’ Tazy informed Boney, as she said good-

night, after an extra hour’s study after dinner. ‘She’s always sure about things; rather like you are yourself! You’d better be thinking over your past life, and see if you can help her out,’

‘It’s queer that our two odd ones should have some mysterious connection between them!’ she mused, as she ran upstairs. ‘For they are alike in lots of ways.-I say, Karen! I’ve got an idea!’ she said, as Karen, first to be ready, stepped into bed, her hair drawn into a big, loose plait for the night. ‘Take off your glasses sometime, and see if that helps Napoleon to remember you. You look quite different, you know. Perhaps you met him before you began to wear them. In that case, he wouldn’t know you again, of course.’

‘I don’t think I’d like to. It doesn’t matter; perhaps it’s only a silly idea of mine.’ Karen lay with her arm thrown across her eyes. ‘Be quick and put out the light, Tazy. It hurts; it’s too strong. And forget all about me and-and Napoleon. Quite likely I’m wrong.’

Tazy switched off the light, and pinched her lips at the sigh of relief from Karen’s bed. She finished undressing in the dark. ‘People oughtn’t to have to put up with things. It must be awful to know there’s some part of you will never be strong and all right,’ she thought, hurt and resentful for Karen’s sake. ‘And I don’t believe she is wrong, either. She isn’t often. But both she and old Boney are queer!’ and she pondered the question till she fell asleep.

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Chapter 15 - Two Kinds Of Eyes

As Tazy had expected, Karen’s coming made very little difference. She was not in the way, and, in spite of Tazy’s fears, she managed to make herself one of the little circle, at least to the extent of not seeming an outsider. She worked steadily, said little, and went on her own quiet way, but Tazy felt sure she was watching with the observant eyes behind the big glasses, and forming her own opinions of everybody. What these were no one could have guessed from her manner, and Tazy was too loyal to say anything to the boys which would prejudice them against the new-comer. So she gave them no warning, but watched in her turn. And she very soon saw that Napoleon was aware of and understood Karen’s quick, thoughtful glances from one to another, and was watching her also in his own reserved way; but that the other boys were quite unconscious of her continual scrutiny.

The girls walked to school together every morning, starting earlier than Tazy had been wont to do, since Karen’s position in the form demanded that she should be in good time, and she was not by nature a ‘last-minute person,’ as she said. And, to her surprise, Tazy found it pleasanter to have a companion than to go alone. Karen had been so long in the valley that she knew many details of its life, could tell the names of falls and flowers and mountains, and stories of the villagers and of their adventures among the snows. And Karen found a keener enjoyment in the freedom of their walk through the flower-meadows, alone with the mountains, the river, the bees, and all the early morning freshness, than she had done in years of morning walks with the rest of the school, and spoke more freely than usual in her delight. Tazy felt that in this, at least, she was a kindred spirit, and her heart warmed to her companion. And Karen was not afraid of the weather; she never grumbled when the wet mornings came, and they tramped by the long, winding road in mackintoshes and sou’westers and big boots; though her delight in these days was not so marked as Tazy’s.

‘I don’t say I enjoy the rain as you seem to do. I’ve never pretended to be a mermaid, or to revel in getting wet. But I’m not frightened of it,’ she said.

‘I simply love to feel it blowing in my face. It makes me think of a cliff and a wild, stormy sea, and flying spray!’

‘Yes; but you wouldn’t love it so much if it got all over your glasses, and you couldn’t see where you were going!’ Karen reminded her. ‘That’s one of the things that aren’t so awfully jolly!’

‘Tell me something!’ Tazy demanded, as they crossed a plank-bridge over a stream, on their way to school that first morning. ‘Do the schools often meet? The girls and the boys-officially and all together? I suppose we do sometimes; we’re more or less connected. You said something last night about chapel and meetings?’

‘We see the boys in chapel, of course, except those of us and them who have gone up to the Platz. A good many go to see their people, but they don’t go every week-end; Miss Braithwaite doesn’t like that. But she’s very good about giving leave, so long as you’re not late on Monday morning. But there are other things besides chapel; we don’t speak to the boys then, except perhaps brothers and sisters. There’s the cricket-match; that’s nearly due now.’

‘Do we play the boys?’ Tazy’s eyes gleamed. ‘Oh, I wish I’d been here long enough to be in the team! Well, I will be next year!’

‘The boys play left-handed. But, of course, they practise for it.’‘Oh, is that why?’ Tazy laughed. ‘He might have told me! I’ve been helping him to

train for playing against us, have I?’ and she told of the cricket practices behind the walnut-tree. ‘He is a-well, not a spud at all! Of course, if I’d been in our team it would have been fair enough; but he wouldn’t have done it then, because I’d have got used to his bowling! But as I’m not-oh, I do wish they’d let me play! Of course they can’t,

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but I am used to the Spud’s balls! I believe I could do something with them if I got the chance!’

‘It’s sometimes a close game. Some of our seniors are older than any of them; the boys usually go home to England earlier than the girls. Bill-Prickles’-Karen laughed-‘will be choosing his men and getting them ready. Now and then we have a tennis Saturday, when any boys who wish come and play on our courts; ours are better than theirs, but their cricket-field is better, so the match is always played at St John’s. Sometimes one school gets up a play or a concert, and invites the other; and the Musical Festival in July is open to both, though the girls go in for it more than the boys. But some of the boys enter for singing and reciting, and so on. Oh yes, we meet now and then!’

‘The Musical Festival? What’s that?’‘You’ve heard how certain places have festivals? Bayreuth, and Munich, and others

in Germany; and I suppose they have them in Italy; and of course in Wales. We’ve started one here, just for the schools, but the whole valley is allowed to come, and does come, and any others who think it’s worth the journey. People come down from the Platz and up from the lakes, and from the other valleys. We have all kinds of musical and artistic competitions; recitations, songs, solos, duets; and prizes for original work as well, such as essays, stories, poems, music, and so on. The boys come to listen and criticise, whether they take part or not; it’s held at St Mary’s, because our hall is better than theirs.’

‘Are you writing a story for it?’ Tazy looked at her shrewdly. ‘Are you going to put us all in? Is that why you watch people so carefully?’

Karen flushed. ‘No! I wouldn’t do that. I had a prize for a story last year,’ she confessed. ‘I thought of trying something different this time.’

‘A poem?’‘Oh no! I never could! I’m still only thinking about it, though.’‘Have you had one for violin-playing yet?’‘Yes, the first year I was here. I could try that again now; you’re not allowed the

prize in the same thing for two years in succession.’‘That’s only fair. I say, you must be good, though!’‘It’s easy to be good at a thing you love. What shall you go in for?’‘I? Oh, I don’t know. Reciting, if anything. I haven’t any voice to sing with. There

isn’t a prize for whistlers, I suppose? I believe I could win that!’Karen laughed. ‘Nobody has wanted one yet. You’d better suggest it!’Many questions were fired at them as they entered the class-room, both Karen’s

friends and her enemies seeming interested in her new experience.‘Well, capitaine, how did you get on? How do you like Tazy’s boys?’ asked Phyllis.‘We did miss you last night, capitaine,’ Babette remarked, sitting on Miss Martin’s

desk and swinging her legs. ‘Something very important seemed to have dropped out of life! It is queer, Karen! You don’t say much when you’re here, or seem to do much; but when you’re not here there seems a terrible hole left, somehow!’

‘What are the boys like?’ Gerda asked, her curiosity overcoming her pride. ‘Did you chase them on lawns, and play ball with them, and fight them for your books?’

‘Not yet,’ Karen answered very gravely. ‘I may get to that in time, Gerda, but we are not yet friendly enough for that.’

Tazy laughed as she turned to Svea. ‘She gets on quite all right. She just dropped into her place as if it was the most natural thing in the world. And I say! She’s got lovely hair! You should see it loose! I’d no idea. You need to sleep with a girl to find out some things. But the light hurts her eyes at night. It’s a beastly shame!’

‘She isn’t allowed to read much at night in the winter,’ Svea assented. ‘They’re all down on her if she does more than the limit. And she never does needlework. Even her mending’s done for her.’

‘Perhaps there’s something to be said for having weak eyes!’ Tazy groaned and laughed.

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Before many days had passed Karen knew all that Tazy knew about the boys, and perhaps more: how Prickles was cricket-captain and a good, dependable all-round player, though not brilliant in any one line; how the Spud was a very decent bowler and a necessity to the team; how old Bones and Dumpy did not play at all, Dumpy because he was a ‘slack old beast,’ and too fat, and Boney probably for the same reason, though he offered no explanation. She pursed her lips as she looked at him, still with the same puzzled air, which told that she had not yet solved her problem. And Tazy knew all the members of the St Mary’s team by sight, admired the captain, an English girl in the Sixth, called Dorothy Field, from a distance, and had been told by Phyllis that if she worked hard to overcome the ill-effects of her year in Geneva she might hope, with practice, to be chosen for next year’s eleven, as she had the makings of a good player in her.

The boys soon grew used to Karen’s presence and to the sound of her violin, as she practised before breakfast or after dinner. They grumbled at this at first, but soon ceased even to hear it, as the Spud told her frankly one night.

‘That’s rather rude, you know, Herbert!’ Tazy remonstrated.But Karen only laughed. ‘I’ve been trying not to practise during prep-hour, for fear

ofdisturbing you. But if you don’t even hear me, I needn’t trouble, I suppose.’‘One can get used to anything,’ Prickles informed her, and she laughed again.‘Tazy,’ she said that night, as she lay in bed, for Tazy dawdled and was always

last, ‘I’ve been wondering if you’d help me?’Tazy glanced at her. ‘I’d love to. I say! I’ll put the light out in half-a-sec., but I’m

not quite’-‘That’s all right. Don’t worry about me.’ Karen lay with her arm shielding her face

as usual. ‘It’s the festival, you see’-‘Yes, I want to hear. I thought you were ruminating over some brilliant idea-like a

cow chewing the cud, you know! You must have watched them up on the high pastures by the Platz. I hoped you’d tell me what it was. But tell me something else first! Does the light do your eyes any harm? For if it does I’ll undress in the dark altogether.’

Karen had laughed at the reference to her ‘ruminating’ habits. ‘I’m an old cow now, am I? No, I don’t think it does any harm, Tazy; it’s awfully good of you to care. They’re weak, and they ache in artificial light; I always have what the boys would call “rather a thin time” in winter. I practise a lot at night, but I can’t read much, and there are lots of other things I can’t do. I had it all explained to me by a very clever doctor. He wasn’t really an eye specialist; it was Dr Rennie Brown, the doctor who came to see Mother and sent her here to the Platz, so that he could look after her himself. You’ve heard about him, of course? He’s awfully clever, in every way, and awfully kind.’

‘I’ve heard of him, of course; everybody raves about him. But I haven’t seen him yet. I want to awfully, but he was away the week-end I was up at the Platz. What did he say to you?’ and Tazy sat on the edge of Karen’s bed and listened anxiously.

‘They say he often is away for week-ends. When he came to see Mother, he saw me too; it was before I had glasses, and he saw-well, how nearly blind I was. That’s the truth; I wouldn’t say it to everybody, but I can to you. He told Mother what doctor I ought to see; and he talked to me about being careful of my eyes all my life. I was only twelve, but he saw it would be better if I understood. So he told me, even at the risk of frightening me, he said. He explained how there was a limit your eyes could go to, but if you went beyond that something snapped, and it could almost never be joined up again, and then you couldn’t see at all in that eye. And he told me mine had been strained far too far, for my age, already; and I’d have to be very careful, as long as I was growing, that they didn’t go any farther. After I’m grown up it won’t be so dangerous, though they’ll never be as they ought to be, of course. But he said I simply mustn’t strain them for the next few years; so I have to be careful, you see. I

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go to see a good doctor every six months, to be sure they aren’t getting worse; if they do, I’ll have to stop reading any-thing at all. And I’m not allowed to go in for exams, like the rest, because that means extra study. Miss Braithwaite thought it would be wiser for me not to, but she wrote and asked Father, just to make sure he thought so too. And he said he’d rather I kept my eyes than passed a dozen exams.’

‘Well, of course! But have they got any worse lately?’‘Just a little; not much. Just enough to make me keep on being careful! But I cover

them up when I take my glasses off, because I can’t see anything, you know. It’s not that the light hurts so much, though it does dazzle; but that it worries me to see everything all blurry and smudgy. I’d rather not look.’

‘I can’t imagine what it must be like!’ Tazy said very soberly, as she switched out the light and sat on the side of her own bed, trying to understand an existence in which everything was all ‘blurry and smudgy.’ ‘Suppose something happened to your glasses? What would you do?’

‘Oh, I’ve got others! One doesn’t risk that!’ Karen laughed a little. ‘Of course,’ she added, ‘you get used to it gradually. You don’t start as I am now. It goes a little at a time, and you fit yourself into it, you know. You can get used to anything.’

‘Would you rather’-Tazy was pondering a new idea-‘would you rather be like you, not

able to see very much with your eyes, and yet with eyes inside you that see everything and more than most people see, or like the rest of us-me and Svea for instance, who can see all right but never notice things? It’s two kinds of seeing, really; outside and inside, I suppose. We’ve got outside eyes, but you’ve got the inside ones! Which would you choose, if you couldn’t have both?’

‘I think you’ve got a good deal of “inside seeing,” as well as the other,’ Karen remarked.

‘Svea? No, perhaps not. But you do see and try to understand.’‘Oh, Svea’s all outside! I found that out long ago. You’re all inside. Well, Karen?’‘If I had to choose, I’d rather be as I am-if I really have any “inside seeing,” as you

call it. I’m not so sure about it myself. But it’s a thing you can learn, you know, Tazy; you don’t have to be without it. You can practise and train yourself to notice things. I didn’t notice anything at one time; I don’t think short-sighted people do, as a rule; they get out of the habit of looking about them. But you can learn it, and-and increase your power to see.’

‘I suppose you can; just as you can wear glasses for the other kind! I think I’ll begin to practise! How were you going to let me help you, Karen? I’d be awfully pleased to.’

‘I’ll tell you in the morning,’ Karen laughed. ‘We’ve talked too much tonight. You’d think about it instead of going to sleep. No, I won’t tell you now. Good-night!’

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Chapter 16 - ‘Lady In The Dark.’

They had been enduring several days of rain, when the thermometer in the hall dropped twenty degrees, and every one shivered. The boys forsook their flannels, and the girls wore jerseys over their tunics, and all hinted longingly in Madame Perronet’s presence that fires would be quite comme il faut so long as this damp, clammy mist lay so heavily on the valley. Madame did not rise to the occasion to that extent, but when the girls went to bed their feet found hot-water bottles there before them, and after the first shriek of surprise they blessed Louise, and cuddled down in blissful rapture.

‘Though she might have given us warning,’ Tazy murmured. ‘Oh, isn’t it joyful to be warm? I’ve shivered all evening. What on earth will it be like up on the Platz, Karen? What an awful idea! I wish I hadn’t thought of it! They’ll be fruz!’

‘It’s worse in winter-in bad weather. But they’ll have big fires; they know how to prepare for it. And they may have had bright sunshine all the time up there; they get far more than we do. I’ve been up there when it was baking hot, and we wore muslin, and yet the valley below us was filled with mist, and we knew that meant rain and clammy cold.’

‘How weird! No wonder it’s good for them up there! The cold gets into your bones, doesn’t it?’ and Tazy hugged her bottle contentedly. ‘Dear, darling Louise! How I love you this night!-What a ghastly walk we’ll have to school tomorrow morning, Karen, my child!’

But the morning after the talk on ‘eyes’ broke clear and sunny, the mist gone, the colour come back to the hills, the mountains more beautiful than ever in their glistening new snow, every waterfall a foaming torrent instead of a mere white thread.

Tazy sprang out of bed and threw open both the windows. ‘Karen! Get up! Everything’s come back! We’re no longer shipwrecked castaways on a desert island in the middle of a sea of cold grey blanket! That’s how I’ve felt for three days! The mountains are still there, and whiter than ever; I thought they’d emigrated to America. And I really believe in an hour or two it may be warm again!’

Karen laughed, and sat up and groped for her stockings. ‘And are you going to help me to win a prize at the festival? I’m glad we didn’t talk about it last night; we’ll both feel far more like it on a morning like this!’

‘Oh, can I? Help you to win a prize? I’d love to; but how, Karen?’‘I don’t know about the prize, of course, but there’s a competition I’d like to go in

for, and you can help me a lot. I want to try something new this year. I told you I’d had prizes for a story and for violin-playing? I want to have a try at musical composition.’

‘Making up something quite new, do you mean?’ Tazy paused in the middle of much splashing to stare at her. ‘Could you, Karen? Have you any ideas? I couldn’t make up a note! If I tried, it would all be echoes of things I’d heard, that had stayed at the back of my mind.’

‘That’s the danger, of course. It’s difficult to be original, and to know when you are. But we’re not asked to make something quite new this year; Monsieur says he thinks we’re hardly ready to do that properly, and I expect he’s right. But there’s a competition for “variations on some well-known air.” You have to choose your tune, or tunes, and write your composition round it. Do you see what I mean?’

Tazy was much interested. ‘Yes, it’s a jolly fine idea. But I should think a good deal would depend on the tune you chose. Some would be fearfully hard to-to variegate!’

Karen laughed at the word. ‘Several girls are going in for it. I heard them talking about their ideas yesterday. They’re mostly going to choose some national air, something well known in their own country. I heard that little Olga speaking of some

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pretty Russian lullaby; her music’s rather good for her age. And Babette has chosen a French march, and Lucia an Italian song. Edith thinks she’ll write something round “God save the King!” I don’t envy her! I wouldn’t choose that for anything myself! But it will make the competition very interesting; we have to play the air, or airs-you can use two or three-first, and then show what we’ve made out of it.’

‘I like the idea!’ Tazy said warmly. ‘It will be quite thrilling to listen to! As a rule, those Eisteddfod things are so deadly dull, when everybody sings or plays the same piece over and over again, and you’re all bored stiff!’

‘Could you go in for it, do you think?’ Karen asked, a touch of anxiety in her tone.‘Me? My dear girl, I don’t know any theory to speak of. How could I possibly?

Goodness me, no!’‘Then I can ask you to help me.’ Karen spoke with much relief. ‘I’d have felt I had

to hand on my idea to you if you’d had any thought of working it out for yourself; but if you haven’t, there’s no reason why I should. Tazy, I want to use that pretty dance air you whistled for me the first day you spoke to me-when we talked about games, and I told you about Brussels. It was a real Old English folk-tune, wasn’t it? You said so?’

‘“The Old Mole”? Yes, of course, a real old folk-dance-hundreds of years old. What a topping idea! It’s as English as it can be! Shall I whistle it again for you?’

‘I’d need to hear it again. And I thought perhaps-oh, well! When you’re ready!’ Karen laughed, and put on her glasses hastily to watch as Tazy, very much undressed still, began to whistle and at the same time to dance with an invisible partner. She held out her right hand-‘I’m the man, of course!’-and quite obviously led her ‘woman’ forwards and backwards, turned to face her and to ‘set and turn single’ with her; repeated the whole movement; took four running steps away from her towards the wall, and back, and set and turned single again; followed the unseen partner to the opposite wall, tumbling into Karen’s bed as she did so, and repeated the setting and turning; then began the corner movement, advancing, retiring, and crossing to the opposite position, all in time to her whistled tune.

Then she collapsed abruptly on her own bed. ‘I can’t be three couples all by myself, and it’s hard work whistling too! After that there’s arches, four times, but it would be silly to do that alone; and corners again, and the siding and turning, and the heys and the cast-off! But that will show you how it fits the music. Could I teach a few of them to dance it while you play?’

Karen, her long hair hanging wildly about her, had watched in intense interest. ‘Not for this, I think. I shall only play it once, and then begin to work things out with it. But I’m glad you showed me how the dance goes; I’d like to see it all through sometime. Three couples, did you say? I like the rhythm. Now do you know any others? We may work in two or three, if we like. I thought a fantasy on Old English folk-dances would be a change. Nobody would know them, but if there are others as fascinating as that, they’d enjoy them. What others do you know, Tazy?’

‘If it’s only the tunes you want, I know heaps. Some of them might not be suitable, of course. I’ll whistle dozens for you, and you shall choose the ones you like best.’

‘No, the ones I can work with best. It may not be the same thing,’ Karen amended. ‘You’ll be as useful as a book of music, Tazy!’

‘Or a gramophone!’ Tazy laughed. ‘But I don’t know all the movements, you know. I can show you bits of some of them, but others I don’t know at all.’

‘How is it you know the music, then?’‘Oh, that was scarlet-fever’s fault! I had it, and in the summer term, too, and not

one other girl had it to keep me company! Wasn’t it rotten luck? I did think one at least might have been sporty enough to come and join me in the San.! But there I was, stuck for weeks and weeks, and only allowed out in the garden when all the rest were in classes. They were learning folk-dances for a display and fête at the end of the term, and the kindergarten-room, where the classes were held, looked on to the tennis-courts; and the garden of the San., where I was, was just beyond the fence.

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They had all the windows open, and I used to hear the dance-music every afternoon. There were easy dances for the infants, and brainy ones for the seniors, and what they call “longways” for everybody; and I heard them till I knew them by heart. Nurse used to find out the names for me, and sometimes the classes were held out on the lawn, and I could watch the girls dancing on the grass. I learned “The Old Mole” and two or three others before and after my time in the San., but mostly I only know the music.’

‘And you didn’t get tired of it?’ Karen asked thoughtfully.‘No, somehow I didn’t. You’d have thought I should, for I had it every afternoon!

But I looked forward to it; I hadn’t many books, and no company but nurse and those tunes! And they got right into me, I believe, in a weird kind of way; I know I could never forget them. And if I whistle or even think of one, I see the San., and the lawn, and nurse, and the medicine-bottles and the empty beds; and I smell the funny, clean hospital smell-disinfectant, I suppose; and I smell the roses outside my window; it all comes back when I hear those tunes! And in the same way, if I smell disinfectant it brings back that folk-dance music at once, and I find myself whistling “Argeers” or “Chelsea Reach,” though I may not have thought of them for weeks.’

‘Yes, sounds and scents do that for me too-get connected, I mean,’ Karen said thoughtfully. ‘Mother always had roses by her bed, and some one downstairs used to sing a certain song; I never heard its name, but I hear it again whenever I smell roses. Whistle some more dances for me, Tazy!’

While they dressed, and then out in the garden, Tazy obligingly whistled one after another of the old folk-dance airs. Some Karen at once put aside as ‘beautiful, but far too difficult. I want something very simple, to go with your “Old Mole,” and yet with something in it; I can’t tell you what, but I’ll know when I hear it.’ Others were ‘too perfect already. I wouldn’t dare to play about with a lovely thing like that!’ Some did not quite satisfy her, though she liked them all; those with two or three parts she said were too elaborate for her purpose, though some of them took her fancy greatly. But once or twice she gave an instant cry of joy, and adopted an air at the first hearing. ‘If all the World were Paper’ captured her by its simplicity and what she called its ‘swing.’ ‘It just sings along!’ she said. And presently, as Tazy sat whistling on the fence, Karen gave a shout which was most unusual for her.

‘That! That’s all of it, of course, Tazy? There couldn’t be any more? Oh, that’s simply perfect! What do you call it?’

‘“Lady in the Dark.” It’s a weird name, and rather a weird tune, I always thought. Oh, I like it too. Yes, that’s the whole of it, just one little sentence.’

‘No; one little verse, or story, or paragraph. There are several little sentences,’ Karen said swiftly. ‘It’s perfect! I’ll use that one. “Lady in the Dark!” H’m!’

Tazy looked at her. ‘What are you thinking, you-you queer thing?’‘That it’s a prettier name for me than “The Old Mole”!’ Karen retorted. ‘Go on

whistling, Ann!-No, here come the boys! On the way to school, then!’‘There’s one tune you mustn’t use, or I shall sit and fling things at you at the

festival,’ said Tazy, as they walked to school together, and she produced more dance-airs for approval or rejection.

‘Why, don’t you like it?’‘I like it. I like them all. But I can’t stand it! Of course, they all get monotonous

when you hear them over and over without seeing the movements; that little “Old Mole” has to be played twenty-two times through for the whole dance! It never gets on my nerves, somehow; I suppose because it’s so pretty, and I know what you’re supposed to be doing to it; but this other one does. When they were learning it at school I got so frantic at last that I went to the fence and yelled to them to stop, and asked how long it was going on without a change. They said there wasn’t any change, and it had to be played thirty times. So I went back to my room and shut all the windows tight. I really thought I’d have to put my head inside my bed and howl. It’s

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called “Greenwood,” and it goes like this,’ she said, whistling the tune. ‘You bet I’ll never forget it!’

‘I rather like it,’ Karen laughed. ‘There’s something triumphant and exulting in it. I believe I’ll close my fantasy with that, and begin with “The Old Mole” and then that pretty “Paper” one, and have a quaint, weird minor movement for “Lady in the Dark” in the middle. Is it minor, by the way?’ and she hummed the air again. ‘I don’t believe it is, and yet it’s certainly not major! I shall ask Monsieur; there’s something very curious about it! But I shall certainly close with “Greenwood,” Tazy!’

Tazy groaned. ‘It sounds all right! But have I got to endure you practising “Greenwood”? You won’t mind if I chuck books at you now and then?’

‘Oh, I sha’n’t have to play it very often! And you may not mind my variations, you know! Yes, I think I’ll make the whole thing work up to “Greenwood.” How pretty the old names are! Thank you awfully, Tazy! And you won’t tell anybody my idea?’

‘Oh no, I won’t give it away! I guess your piece will be the best of the lot, and I shall sit in the front row and feel like its grandmother, and grin at you proudly, and see our old San., and smell disinfectant, and hear nurse scolding me, and see the girls dancing on the lawn!’ Tazy remarked.

‘Your “Lady in the Dark” isn’t minor!’ Karen said triumphantly to Tazy that evening, after her interview with her music-master. ‘Monsieur and I worried it out; he was awfully interested, and told me heaps about old scales I’d never even heard of, far older than major and minor! He says lots of folk-music is written in them. He’d like to hear some more of your old dances sometime. You must teach them to me, and then I’ll get him to explain them. Really, he was quite thrilled, Tazy! We spent my whole lesson going over old funny scales, with weird, unusual intervals; I just wished you’d been there to give us tunes to illustrate them! But the thing that pleases me, and makes me feel “awfully bucked”-as the Spud would say-is that I knew it was queer; I felt it somehow, thought I didn’t know how or why. Monsieur was quite pleased, too.’

‘Oh, well! that was just like you! I always said you saw through things! I’m not a bit surprised!’ Tazy retorted. ‘I guess you’ll get that prize all right-unless you spend all your music-lessons worrying over old dead and forgotten scales, of course. How can there be other scales besides major and minor, anyway?’

Karen laughed. ‘Tazy, don’t be a baby! And they’re certainly not dead and forgotten! Not while there are lovely tunes like that to keep them alive! I liked it from the first, but I’m glad to understand it too.’

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Chapter 17 - Captain Bill

The talk of all the St Mary’s girls had begun to centre round the cricket-match with the college boys, the first of the social meetings of the two schools for the summer session. There were several such meetings, Tazy learned, ending with the Musical Festival at the close of the term. She heard rumours of a picnic, a tennis tournament, and sports, in all of which the girls and boys joined under the guardianship of their masters and mistresses. It was only unauthorised meetings which were frowned upon, she gathered. She had, personally, not the slightest desire for these, but admitted that her present home surroundings might have something to do with this. With plenty of boys for ‘dinner and breakfast,’ as she put it, she was content to do without them at other times. But she looked forward with a warm and healthy interest to meeting her own four and others on the cricket-ground, and to watching them play.

As Karen had said, the girls knew many of the boys by sight, from seeing them in chapel and at these mixed gatherings; and some who had brothers in the college, or whose friends had

brothers, had formed friendships with certain boys, and looked forward to greeting them again. As the match drew near there was no denying that the girls who were fortunate enough to have brothers became extremely popular. Tazy even found herself a person of considerable importance, as she was looked upon as an adopted sister to the rest of Madame Perronet’s boarders, and might be expected to be generous with her introductions.

She stared the first time a reference was made in her hearing to ‘Bill and Bert Thistleton.’ Then her eyes met Karen’s, and the two girls collapsed inside their desks, Tazy giggling helplessly enough to satisfy even Gerda, Karen’s usual self-restraint completely broken down by this ceremonious reference to the Spud and Prickles.

‘Bill and Bert! I suppose they are! I hadn’t realised it!’ Tazy laughed, and shook, and choked. ‘I shall call them that at dinner tonight! Spuddy’s face will be worth seeing! I suppose,’ she added, ‘we ought to feel awfully important living with so swank a person as Captain Bill. Well, there’s one thing certain sure! I’m not going to introduce Gerda to any of them! She can be as sugary as she likes; she has been sweet lately, now I come to think of it. It’s no use; I won’t do it!’

When she met Prickles on the lawn that evening she spread out the skirts of her blue tunic and made a low curtsy. ‘Good-evening, Captain Bill! How are your left-handers getting on? Has “Bert Thistleton” bowled any one lately? I couldn’t think whom the girls meant! I always forget the Spuddy One has a name!’

‘What on earth’s got hold of you tonight, Ann?’ Prickles demanded irritably.‘The girls are all talking about Wednesday’s match, and they seem to think Karen

and I ought to be overwhelmed by the honour you do us by consenting to have meals with us. In future I intend to stand in your presence, Mighty One! It will be jolly awkward for prep, though. I sha’n’t get much done.’

‘You won’t, if you don’t stop playing the goat. Don’t be an ass, Taisez-vous!’‘Even Captain Bill mixes his metaphors!’ Tazy murmured sadly. ‘I just stared when

the girls began talking about “Bill and Bert Thistleton”!’ she added. ‘You can’t think mow funny it sounded! Oh, they talked about you heaps! Both of you! Don’t blush, captain! They did really!’

‘Be seated, Anastasia!’ said the Spud graciously, and offered her a chair under the big walnut-tree, for at Karen’s suggestion the study table had been carried out on to the lawn, to the delight of all. They wondered why they had never thought of it before. ‘I know it’s a big thing for you to live with us! But we’ll try to be very kind to you. We’d really rather you’d sit down!’

Tazy solemnly curtsied again. ‘I’m absolutely overcome with the honour of it,’ she assured him.

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‘I thought you were. But don’t be shy; all great chaps have their weak points, even the great Bill. Look at him chewing grass! Bad habit he’s passed on to me! He’s pondering knotty points connected with long-stop, or the problems of leg-before; or perhaps deciding whether it would look too much like swank to put himself in first and get it over. That troubled frown-I know it well! It portends’-

‘It’ll portend something beastly for you in a minute! Look here, Spud! If you don’t dry up I shall come and put you over the fence! When d’you think we’re going to get any prep done?’ Prickles demanded wrathfully.

‘May I sit by you tonight, Spud?’ Tazy asked meekly, with dancing eyes cast demurely down. ‘I don’t like to sit by him! It would make me nervous. I’m sure I couldn’t add’-

Prickles sprang up and made a dash for her. Boney hastily put one hand on the inkpot and the other on his loose papers. The Spud crowed gleefully, like a happy baby, and Dumpy grunted in disgust.

Tazy darted away within a laugh of triumph. ‘You can’t catch me, you know! Even Captain Bill can’t catch me!’ and she caught up her skirt and curtsied again at a safe distance, behind the rose-bed which had once been her shelter from the Spud.

‘I don’t know what we’ve done to deserve this!’ Prickles groaned. ‘Why should a thing like this have been sent to plague us?’ he exclaimed, as he turned to his place and sat down again.

‘You are rude, Captain Bill!’ Tazy mocked. ‘“A thing like this”! Well!’‘Oh, sit down and get on with your work! Or else go away and leave us to do ours!’

he said irritably.Tazy sat down meekly in her usual place at his side, and wiped her eyes sadly with

her handkerchief. ‘Now he’s cross with me! Oh, captain! And I’ve been swanking all day because we’re friends! And I lo-o-ove you so!’ and she sobbed into her handkerchief.

Even Napoleon joined in the shout of laughter which Prickles and the Spud could not resist, though ‘Captain Bill’ laughed very unwillingly.

Tazy looked up with much satisfaction. Then she put away her handkerchief, and drew her books towards her. ‘Right-o! Now let’s get some work done.’

‘Thanks be!’ growled Prickles. ‘Thought you’d decided not to do any tonight.’‘What did you have for tea tonight, Taisez-vous?’ the Spud asked mockingly.‘Well, when you’re called “a thing” by one of your friends!’ Tazy was answering

the long-suffering captain. Then she turned to the Spud. ‘I haven’t time to babble tonight. Get on with your work, Sp-er-Bert!’

Four separate grunts of scorn greeted this statement and advice. She laughed and opened her books, and silence fell under the walnut-tree.

From the bedroom window above, Karen had been watching, violin in hand. She turned to her practising with a sigh. ‘They’re all quite nice to me. But I could never play about with them in that easy way, as Tazy does. She does it so naturally, too. They don’t know that the reason I’m always so quiet among them all is that I feel so shy and awkward. I can talk all right when they’re serious, but not when they’ve a fit like this on. Then I go all dumb and helpless, and haven’t an idea what to say. I feel such an idiot. Tazy knows how to tease them and just how far to go. She’s the right kind to be living here; I’m not, and I couldn’t get on at all if it weren’t for her.-Well, I wonder how my “fantasy” will go tonight!’

She glanced at the group under the walnut-tree as she raised her bow, and very lightly and daintily played the dance-air, ‘Greenwood.’ Tazy raised her head with a jerk, and Karen laughed, and drifted, as she knew how to do so cleverly, into the quaint modal ‘Lady in the Dark.’ Tazy bent over her work again, and Karen laughed once more. ‘Poor old “Greenwood”! How it does irritate her!’

At intervals, until the day of the match came, Tazy returned to her ceremonious manner, and treated Prickles with an air of exaggerated respect which irritated him intensely and delighted the Spud. She rose when he came into the room, curtsied

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when he spoke to her, sobbed into her handkerchief, or put down her head and sniffed, when he growled his indignation, and insisted on handing every dish first to him at meals, to Madame’s mystification and his intense embarrassment.

When Wednesday came, she said good-bye after breakfast with as solemn a face as if he had been setting out to climb the Jungfrau, as Karen said, and impressively wished him the best of all good luck, except victory, which, she explained, she dared not do, as every other girl in St Mary’s was praying he would be beaten. ‘Good-bye!’ she said tragically. ‘When we meet again it will all be over! The great struggle will have been decided for another year.’

‘You might speak to him before the match, though,’ Dumpy pointed out.‘What! in public? Me speak to him in public? I’d never dare! Would he-would he let

me?’ Tazy asked, palpitating with pretended shyness.The Spud and Dumpy shouted, and poor Prickles went crimson. ‘Ann, you’re the

biggest ass I’ve ever known!’‘An-as-tasia! Of course I am!’ she mocked. ‘I’m going to sit where you can’t help

seeing me, and cheer madly whenever you get the bowling, whether you hit the ball or not. You’ll get so mad that you’ll miss every time, and then we’ll win the match, and I shall have done my little bit to help!’

‘For goodness’ sake, keep her in order, Karen!’ Prickles begged in horror.Tazy laughed, and ran off with Karen through the garden and down the field-path.

‘He really believed I meant that! Did you see his face? I sha’n’t speak to them till it’s all over and off their minds; I simply wouldn’t dare, after saying that.’

However, all thoughts of the boys were driven out of her head by a message which awaited her at school. She was wanted by Dorothy Field, the cricket-captain, at once. She obeyed the summons hurriedly and in much surprise, and heard its explanation in still greater surprise, but with keen delight. One of Dorothy’s ‘men’ had sprained her wrist practising at the nets the night before, and two on whom she had counted as reserves were laid up, one with a bad cold, and one with neuralgia; Edith, who might have played, had been sent for up to the Platz on account of the sudden serious illness of her mother. Would Tazy play? ‘We won’t expect you to do much, for you’ve only had a month’s practice. But you’re shaping well, and you’ve improved a lot. Will you come in and do your best?’ Dorothy asked anxiously.

Tazy had looked serious at the news of Edith’s trouble; the cloud hung over them all too closely to allow of any lack of sympathy. Her face lit up at the thought of playing, however. ‘I’d simply love it! It’s awfully decent of you to think of me!’ she said warmly. ‘I’m so frightfully new. Won’t the others mind?’

‘We talked it over last night, and decided you’d be the best one to ask. The best for the game is all anybody wants.’

‘It ought to be, of course, and it would be with you. But it doesn’t follow it will be with everybody,’ Tazy said to herself. Then she chuckled at the thought of the Spud’s surprise. ‘And poor Captain Bill! Oh, I hope we go in first! Then they won’t know I’m playing till I go out to bat. I’ll keep out of sight till I’m called, and they’ll get a jolly old shock! Won’t it be a treat to see their faces? They won’t believe I haven’t done it on purpose!’

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Chapter 18 - Tazy’s Innings

Tazy’s unkind wish was fulfilled, as the boys won the toss, and Prickles, according to precedent on these occasions, gave St Mary’s the first innings. The big field not far from the college looked very gay, with a considerable number of visitors from the village, the Platz, and the valley seated on the banks to look on. The pavilion was given up to the girls, while the boys retired to a big tent at the opposite end of the ground; so Tazy had no difficulty in keeping away from her friends. The familiar colours of the two schools were well represented in the flannels and the scarlet blazers of the boys, the white dresses and the blue ties of the girls who were looking on, and the blue tunics and the white hats of the girls’ team, for Miss Braithwaite would allow no playing bareheaded in the fierce sun of that upland valley. The girls might, and did, grumble much, but they had to wear their hats, match or no match.

The girls who were not playing thronged the sloping bank below the pavilion, or sat on the steps and the railing, all in white; the blue-clad team waited their turn nervously on the veranda, or hung over the balcony-railing, and watched and cheered as Dorothy, Helga Andersson, Léonie and Greta, Phyllis and Babette, each went in in turn, and made varying but generally good score, Babette being lowest with eight, and Dorothy top scorer with forty-five.

Then Dorothy turned to Tazy. ‘You’re next man in, Tazy. Watch that Thistleton boy’s balls; they’re tricky. He gets there, left-hand or not.’

‘I know.’ Tazy’s eyes gleamed. ‘I’ve been watching him. But I know his bowling. I live with him, you know, and we’ve had some practice together.’

‘Oh!’ Dorothy looked at her quickly. ‘I’d forgotten that! That may make a difference. Do you think you can play his bowling, then?’

‘I’ll try! I know what to expect, anyway. I shouldn’t wonder if I got two or three runs off him before I’m out,’ Tazy said modestly. ‘I say, though! I wish the boys didn’t play left-handed. It’s so like giving us a big start; as if girls couldn’t possibly be as good as boys! And they can, you know!’

Dorothy laughed. ‘I’d feel the same if we were in England. But half our team are foreigners, Tazy, and haven’t played cricket very long. That makes some difference. The boys have eight out of the eleven all English; we’re only six, and five foreigners. I think the handicap’s about even.’

‘There is that way to look at it, of course. They’re lucky to get so many; and they could have more! They’ve got English slackers who don’t play!’ said Tazy, with thoughts of Dumpy and Napoleon.

‘I say! there goes Greta’s middle stump! I thought she couldn’t play that ball! Your time’s come, Tazy! Good luck to you, kid!’

Tazy nodded, and with a very serious face ran down the steps, passing Greta as she went.

‘It’s the bowling from this end,’ Greta remarked as they met. ‘It’s bad! Have you been watching? It’s the English boy they call Bert.’

‘No; it’s good,’ Tazy corrected. ‘Yes, I’ve been watching. It’s beastly, but it’s very good. Hard lines, Greta!’

‘Great stars and garters!’ hissed the Spud, as she passed him, with a laughing challenge in her eyes. ‘Where did you come from? Did you know? Have you been letting me practise you for this?’ he demanded wrathfully.

‘No; but you have!’ Tazy retorted. ‘Mean thing, not to tell me why you were so keen to work up your left hand! Now let’s see!’ and she faced him defiantly.

The other girls, looking on her as a beginner, held their breath, expecting her bails to fly at the Spud’s first tricky ball. But Tazy had not practised with him for a month for nothing. His first ball went to the boundary, and there was a gasp from all the

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onlookers, boys as well as girls. As she watched it go complacently, she murmured, ‘Good old walnut-tree! Now I’ll get a bit of my own back!’

The second ball followed the first, and the excitement among the onlookers began to grow, as they realised that the first hit had been no mere fluke. Then the Spud tried new tactics, but with no better result. Tazy knew from the look in his eye what was coming, and was wary. She blocked the first ball, just touched the second, refused to run more than one for it, and so kept the bowling in her own hands as ‘Over’ was called.

The Spud glowered, and her eyes gleamed again. ‘Poor old Spuddy! He’ll ramp with rage in a minute or two, and then he won’t know what he’s doing!’ she prophesied.

She played the strange bowler with extreme care, but contrived to score a single from the last ball of the ‘over,’ thus coming opposite to the Spud once more. As he bowled she watched his face as closely as she watched his arm and the ball, and nearly every ball went racing to the boundary.

Prickles had given an amazed start as she appeared. He stood watching in grim silence, with a deepening frown. The Spud was his most reliable bowler, and he did not want to take him off. Tazy would crow so abominably over his defeat, and so would all the rest of the girls, Captain Bill argued. And Léonie at the other wicket was obviously in terror of those balls. If only Tazy could be induced to make some blunder which would give the Spud a chance at Léonie!

But Tazy knew the game, and kept the Spud’s bowling in her own hands. Amid the almost hysterical delight of the girls in the pavilion, she sent his swift, treacherous balls flying to every boundary in turn; and, at the last ball of the other bowler’s ‘over,’ deliberately ran a single instead of an easy two.

‘That’s not playing the game!’ raged the Spud; and apologised handsomely later on. As he confessed, his feelings had got the better of him for the moment.

But after that Tazy was not likely to have any mercy on him. ‘A short life and a merry one! Old Bill won’t stand much more of this!’ she said to herself, and proceeded to punish the Spud’s bowling for a few more happy minutes.

‘You’d better take me off old man!’ said the Spud as he approached his irate brother at the end of another costly ‘over.’ ‘I can’t do a thing more. She’s got the bowling again; that last ought to have been a four, but trust her to make it a three! She’ll make her century if you don’t do something soon. And it’s awfully slack for the rest of you to watch her and me having a jolly little practice on our own!’

‘It is a bit thick,’ Prickles said gloomily. ‘Sorry, and all that, but you’re a bit too ex-pensive just at present, Spud. We’ll have you again later on.’

‘Thanks! I’ll retire into private life for a while. I was getting a bit fed up;’ and the Spud withdrew meekly. When the girls saw a new bowler come on in his place, their feelings partook both of triumph and of relief. They had all suffered from, or had been dreading, the Spud’s balls; it was soothing to know he had met his match at last.

Tazy’s doom came quickly now. Her wicket fell in the new bowler’s third ‘over,’ and she retired, with fifty-three to her credit, amid tumultuous applause, and remained top scorer for her side.

‘He’s been practising on me,’ she explained. ‘Oh, don’t talk as if I’d done anything wonderful! I’m used to him, that’s all; I know every old ball he’s likely to send down to me! But it was perfectly fair. He practised on me without saying a word about the match, or that I was helping him to get ready to beat St Mary’s. Of course, neither of us ever dreamt I should be playing. It serves him right.’

‘It’s jolly useful for us, all the same,’ said Dorothy, her hopes of winning raised considerably. ‘I never expected you to get more than perhaps four or five, Tazy.’

‘Never expected to myself, till I saw it would be the Spud I’d have to stand up to. It was a glorious moment! I really did begin to have some hopes then!’

‘The-what?’

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‘Oh!’ she laughed. ‘I mean Bert! He’s very spuddy when he’s not wild with rage! Just now he’s having a few words with himself, and he’d like a little pleasant conversation with me!’

The remaining girls made small scores, and St Mary’s total stood at 196, ‘Just about fifty more than I expected, thanks to Tazy Kingston,’ Dorothy remarked.

‘Oh no! Thanks to the Spud-Bert Thistleton!’ Tazy laughed. ‘He’s coming to have it out with me! Protect me, all of you!’

The Spud had come to apologise, however. He had come to himself, and knew that to allow himself to show his temper in such a way was among the things which were ‘not done.’ ‘I say, Ann! I’m sorry for what I said. You were playing a jolly decent game, but I was getting the wind up, and that’s a fact.’

Tazy nodded generously. ‘I’d have felt just the same. It was beastly for you, Spuddy One. But I couldn’t help hitting out after that, you know.’

‘Guess you hit out before it too!’ he groaned. ‘My poor average! I suppose you know you’ve ruined both it and my reputation, Taisez-vous? I say! How did it happen? You didn’t know this morning? You haven’t been in the team all along and been keeping it dark, and getting used to me on the quiet?’

‘No! That’s what you’ve been doing! I didn’t know till I got to school today. Just a series of mishaps, Herbert, but they knocked out all our reserves, and Dorothy gave me a chance. She’d forgotten that I lived with you, too; she didn’t do it on purpose! You’ve nothing to grouse about, Spud. You never told me you were practising to play against St Mary’s! I heard about the match from Karen!’

‘Oh, well, you wanted practice! You asked for it!’‘You trained me very nicely,’ she laughed. ‘You know our captain-don’t you?-

Dorothy Field. Oh, there’s Svea! I want you to meet her; the train-girl, you call her!-Here, Svea!’

Svea was looking very pretty this afternoon, in her white frock and shady hat, her light-brown hair hanging loose, as was allowed on these occasions. Tazy had begged Karen to leave hers loose also, so that the other girls might see those beautiful gleams of red; but Karen had refused abruptly, and wore her heavy plait as usual.

Tazy, proud of Svea’s appearance, introduced the Spud to her, and also Prickles and Dumpy, who came up at that moment. Captain Bill greeted Tazy with ‘rather a sickly grin,’ as she told him later, and demanded an explanation of her presence in the team; Dumpy, with appreciative eyes on Svea, turned to the Spud.

‘Jolly little duet you and Taisez-vous had!’ he mocked. ‘The fellows were in fits, old man!’

The Spud could quite believe it. ‘Bounders!’ he growled.Dumpy turned to Svea, who was ready to talk to anybody, so long as they would

speak French and not English. ‘We’ve heard heaps about you from Taisez-vous,’ he began.

Svea indignantly demanded an explanation, and the Spud and Prickles went to help. Tazy laughed at the sight of her girl-friend entertaining her three boy-chums, then turned to Dorothy, who had already asked her a question once. ‘What did Bert say to you that he felt he had to apologise for, Tazy?’

But Tazy laughed and refused to tell. ‘You don’t think I’d give him away, surely? Oh- how hateful!’

‘What?’ Dorothy asked in surprise. ‘Oh Gerda? Well, she is rather like that, isn’t she? She’s a horrid kid, I always think.’

‘She’s a little beast!’ Tory said wrathfullyGerda had wandered innocently up to her cousin’s side. ‘Introduce me, Svea, my

dear!’ said she. ‘For long I have heard of the great Thistleton cricketers, and longed to meet them!’

‘Svea’s so soft! Of course she’ll do it like a shot!’ Tazy murmured, and watched indignantly as Svea eagerly introduced her cousin.

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The Spud looked Gerda over curiously. As instinctively as Tazy, he knew her for a type of girl he did not like, and her first flattering speech, and others which followed it, confirmed his impression. She was pretty, of course, very like her jolly little cousin who was Taisez-vous’s friend, he said to himself; and yet he did not like her, he could not have said why.

Tazy, angry and helpless, flung herself on the bank by Karen. ‘That just spoils the day! And I’ve been enjoying it so much! Isn’t she a toad?’

‘Gerda? Yes, I saw. And I see still,’ Karen said soberly. ‘But you can’t help it, Tazy. She was determined to get to know them. I don’t think they’ll like her.’

‘Of course, I’ve absolutely no reason I could give anybody for not wanting her to meet them. I daren’t say anything. She’d only say’-

‘Yes, that you wanted to keep them all to yourself,’ Karen assented. ‘No, you can’t say anything, Tazy.’

‘It isn’t true, all the same. I wanted them to meet Svea; I’ve been keen that they should, because I like her. But I don’t want Gerda to make them as silly as she is herself.’

‘I don’t think she will,’ Karen said slowly. ‘Dumpy, perhaps; I’m not too sure of him. But not the others. They are real boys, as you’re a real girl. They won’t like Gerda very much.’

‘You would have opinions about them all, of course!’ Tazy grumbled. Then she laughed. ‘What did you think of my exhibition at the wickets? I suppose you understand the game, though you don’t play?’

‘Oh yes! I think’-and Karen laughed-‘that you shouldn’t let Gerda’s silliness spoil the day for you, for you’ve had a very good time so far! It was easy to see you were enjoying yourself, and poor Spuddy was not!’

‘Oh, I had a priceless time! Do him good!’ Tazy said callously.‘I saw him say something to you that made you angry,’ Karen added; ‘but he

apologised, didn’t he?’‘Trust you to see every old thing, even that! There’s not much “Lady in the Dark”

about you!’ Tazy mocked. ‘Oh yes! he did the proper thing. You see, he said’-‘I don’t want to know what he said,’ Karen said swiftly. ‘That doesn’t matter. I only

wondered if I’d been right.’‘Oh, you always are! The boys’ innings won’t be as-as dramatic and exciting as

ours, so far as I’m concerned. The Spud knows all about my balls, if Dorothy’s silly enough to put me on while he’s in.’

Dorothy knew better, however. She profited by Captain Bill’s experience, and arguing correctly that Tazy’s bowling, though no doubt good enough for other boys, must be perfectly familiar to the Spud and probably to Prickles, risked no repetition of the earlier performance. She bowled the Spud out herself, but not till he had made twenty-five; and dismissed Captain Bill for fifty-six, besides doing much execution among the ‘tail’ of the college team.

Tazy was tried for a few minutes, but did not distinguish herself, and had to be content with her fifty-three. Excitement ran high during the last few minutes, when the boys’ total crept up, only very slowly, from 160 to 170, then to 180, and 190, and their wickets fell with alarming, or delightful, rapidity, according to whether the point of view was that of the pavilion or the tent. Their total at last was 199, and Dorothy sighed regretfully, ‘Oh for just one more of Tazy Kingston’s smashers!’ But the girls had seldom come so near to winning before, and were jubilant; the boys’ confidence had received a severe shock and was distinctly chastened; and both sides made plans for next year, when a victory for the girls was freely prophesied.

‘I don’t know, though,’ Prickles said to Dorothy, as they talked it over frankly afterwards. ‘You only did so well because of the accident of Tazy and my young brother having practised together. That won’t happen again, you know.’

‘No,’ Dorothy acknowledged. ‘It was a tremendous bit of luck for us. But Tazy will be jolly good when she’s had more practice. I’m hoping for great things from her.’

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‘Oh, well, I sha’n’t be here to see it!’ Captain Bill laughed. ‘So I can afford to wish both you and the old coll. good luck.’

While St John’s was batting, the boys not taking part had been sitting on the banks to watch, in company with the girls with whom they had made or renewed friendships during the interval. Before the match both sides had been shy, and had kept to their own part of the field; but the pause in the play, and the excitement of cheering Tazy and condoling with the Spud, had broken down the slight awkwardness, and little groups of girls and boys had gathered everywhere, some renewing old friendships, some forming new ones with the help of brothers or sisters or cousins.

As Tazy went on to bowl she looked distastefully at one little party, where Svea, Gerda, and Dumpy sat together. Svea was watching the game, and gave her an encouraging nod; the other two were not, as Gerda’s peals of laughter betrayed. Dumpy was lying stretched on the ground, and was evidently exerting himself to the utmost to amuse her; he was certainly succeeding, though Svea did not seem to find his jokes and stories very funny.

‘But then Svea’s watching the game, and Gerda’s only thinking about him, because he’s a boy. How I loathe that silly giggling!’ Tazy muttered scornfully, and in her indignation proved a failure as a bowler.

It was soothing to her feelings to see that the Spud, when his innings was over, did not go to Gerda for consolation, but threw himself on the bank by Karen, who was sitting alone. ‘How jolly like him! He really is a spuddy one!’ was Tazy’s thought, as they waited for the new batsman to appear. ‘I expect he thought she looked lonely! He is rather a dear, really!’

‘D’you care for looking on?’ the Spud asked, a trifle awkwardly. Karen was still so quiet among them that he had not quite got over his shyness with her. ‘Thought you might be having rather a thin time of it if you didn’t.’

Karen coloured, grateful for the thoughtful act. ‘I always like looking on. But I’m not watching the cricket only, you know!’

‘Oh?’ He looked at her curiously. ‘What else is there to watch today? Clouds and mountains, and things?’ Was that perhaps the meaning of her rapt look? But how could one tell, with those big ugly glasses? He wished she did not need to wear them.

‘People!’ Karen said solemnly. ‘Clouds and mountains are always beautiful, and especially on a day like this. But people are more exciting-more thrilling!’

The Spud stirred uneasily. ‘I say! What have you been seeing?’‘You and Tazy, for one thing. Your face was worth watching from the moment you

knew she was going to play. I could tell all-well, some, at least-of what you thought.’‘Stars and garters! You bet you could!’ and the Spud sat up hurriedly. ‘What did I

think?’‘It would take a book to write it all down. But I won’t tell anybody, not even Tazy,’

Karen promised seriously. ‘Here’s another blade of grass-a nice juicy one! Chew that, and don’t worry about me! I see things, but I don’t chatter about them.’

‘How d’you know I’m always chewing grass?’ the astonished Spud began.‘Oh, I’ve seen you!’ she laughed. ‘You always nibble while you do your prep We’ll

have to move the table across the lawn soon; the ground’s getting quite bare under the walnut-tree!’

Rather stunned, Bert accepted the grass and sat chewing it and her words in silence. She watched him expectantly, her eyes full of amusement which he could not see.

‘Guess you don’t have such an awfully thin time, after all,’ he said at last.Karen laughed quietly. ‘You mustn’t grudge me the little things I do have. I have to

do without a good many.’The Spud made a note of this for future consultation in private with Tazy. ‘What

else have you been seeing?’ he demanded. ‘See me tell her she wasn’t playing the game? I don’t suppose you missed that!’

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‘I didn’t know what you said, and I wouldn’t let her tell me, of course. I saw you say something.’

‘You bet you did! And did you see me go and grovel about it afterwards? I had to, of course; it was a low-down thing to say, but I was mad.’

‘Oh, Tazy always plays the game! I saw you go up to them all, and I knew by your face you were going to say something and wanted to get it over quickly.’

The Spud gave an expressive grunt of surprise and disgust, at which she laughed. Then she said gravely, ‘At present I’m watching Dumpy. What do you think of him?’

‘Oh, he’s an ass!’ Bert said indignantly. ‘Yes, I see him, making a fool of himself with

that dolly-pretty kid. She’s as empty as they’re made, but that’s the kind he likes. Always goes on like a lunatic if he can get a silly girl to listen to him. T’other one, her cousin, is like her, but she’s got more in her. That dolly one, Dumpy’s friend, she’s not a chum of Ann’s, is she?’

‘Of Tazy’s? No, they don’t get on at all well.’ Karen had said nothing against Gerda, and she neither confirmed nor denied his description. ‘Dumpy’s talked more this afternoon than I’ve heard him do for the last month,’ she said gravely.

‘Sure thing! He’s got somebody to laugh at his jokes, you see. He doesn’t try to be funny

for us; ’tisn’t worth the fag! But give him a soft, silly kid of a girl, and he thinks he’s somebody big at once, and goes on like an ass. I’ve seen it all before.’

‘I shouldn’t say anything to him about it, if I were you,’ Karen said gravely. ‘If he thinks you’ve noticed him, he’ll consider he’s been clever. It’s generally better to ignore people like that.’

‘Right-o! I’ll pass the word round to old Bill and Taisez-vous, and we’ll talk cricket all dinner-time. Grandma will find it a bit stale, but anything’s better than letting Dumps think we admire him.’

‘Where’s Napoleon this afternoon? Isn’t he even watching?’‘Not he! He despises games. He’s gone off on his own somewhere. He is a queer

stick, isn’t he? D’you watch him too?’‘Yes but I don’t understand him yet! That makes him all the more fascinating to

watch, of course,’ Karen laughed.

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Chapter 19 - ‘The Jolly Red Herring.’

Karen’s violin rang out gaily in the merry tune of ‘The Old Mole.’ For a few minutes this held sway; then it was ‘If all the World were Paper.’ A sudden change of key and mode, and ‘Lady in the Dark’ floated out from the open upper window across the lawn. Karen loved the quaint air, and played it yearningly over and over again. Then she swung without warning into the triumphant ringing notes of ‘Greenwood,’ and laughed, as Tazy rose from the table under the walnut-tree.

She ended on an exultant chord as Tazy opened the door. ‘I won’t keep on at it, Tazy. I know it drives you silly!’

‘I shall be crazy-Tazy, instead of lazy-Tazy, if you do,’ Tazy said solemnly. ‘But play it as much as you like tonight; I came to tell you so. I’m going out into the fields for some cricket with Bill and Bert; we all planned to get well on with our prep so that we could have half-an-hour. So you won’t worry me; you can have all the “Greenwood” you want! I sha’n’t take my hat; it isn’t hot now;’ and she ran off bareheaded to scandalise Madame Perronet and the neighbours.

But in a moment she had put her head in at the door again. ‘I say, Karen! I shall have to make up words to those tunes, if you play them so much! I’ve begun with “The Old Mole.” It seemed to be saying something over and over again, and just as I was finishing my parsing it flashed into my head what it was. Like to hear?’

‘Your poor parsing!’ Karen laughed. ‘Yes, I’d like to hear your idea of words for it!’‘Unfortunately there’s only one verse. That’s where the joke comes in;’ and Tazy

solemnly sang the air:

‘Old Mole he went for a walk one day, He crept up out of the ground-oh! Poked his head up and sniffed the air; And what do you think he found?

‘I haven’t the remotest notion what it was, so don’t ask me. A dear little lady mole, perhaps. Don’t you think the words fit rippingly?’

‘Go away!’ Karen said indignantly. ‘I sha’n’t be able to play it without thinking of that rubbish. You’ll ruin my Old English fantasy! Go away, Tazy, or I’ll-I’ll play “Greenwood” thirty times without stopping!’

Tazy fled. She and the Spud and Captain Bill had buried their differences, and all found

keen enjoyment in practising together. The boys no longer played left-handed, and Tazy made no more fifty-threes off the Spud’s bowling. The practice was good for her, and she hurried through her prep each night in the hope of a little cricket before or after dinner.

Karen glanced down at the deserted study table. Dumpy was not there; he had not come in yet, and she wondered much where he could be. Neither had Napoleon, and she wondered about him too; but Dumpy had begun going for walks by himself instead of coming home to prep, and Karen was uneasy about him, while acknowledging it to be no business of hers.

‘I wish,’ she said wrathfully-‘I wish Tazy hadn’t made up that nonsense! I sha’n’t be able to play it now without seeing that little creature’s head coming up “out of the ground”-oh, she is a wretch! And I love it so!’ But she had a vivid imagination, and Tazy’s picture of the moles haunted her so that with an impatient jerk she laid down her violin and began to dress for dinner.

She was almost ready, when at an unusual sound she went to the window and stood staring down into the garden. Occasionally the Spud sang to himself as he worked, and he always did so when in his bath; Tazy and Prickles whistled all day

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long. But it was Boney, old Bones, Napoleon, who came strolling in from the gate singing an old song.

Karen stared at the most surprising sight. Then, as the air and the words reached her, she started and turned suddenly very white, and leaned against the wall beside the window. As swiftly as if she had taken off her glasses, everything vanished-garden, meadows, river, woods, mountains; the walnut-tree and Boney, all-unconsciously sitting on the edge of the table, swinging his leg, and humming that ridiculous song, while he stared thoughtfully across the lawn. In their place Karen saw a prim Dutch garden, beds of blazing colour, where bulbs flowered in perfection; her mother lying in a big chair; a grave, kindly, brown-faced doctor, and-yes, a small boy at his side. An overwhelming scent of hyacinths filled the room; but who ever heard of hyacinths in June? Madame Perronet’s neat garden was full of roses, lilies, and scarlet salvia, but it had known no hyacinths since April. Yet Karen felt almost sick with the scent; she sank down on the window-sill, hiding her face, and struggling with the crowding memories that song had awakened. And Boney, all-unconscious, sat and swung his leg and hummed:

‘What d’ye think I have made with my red herring’s head? As jolly an oven as ever baked bread; Oven, bread, and everything,

And I think I’ve done well with my jolly herring.

Hark! ’tis this like! No, no ’tis this like!Why didn’t you tell me so? So I did long ago!

Well, well and everything,And I think I’ve done well with my jolly herring.’

Obviously not thinking at all what he was doing, Napoleon droned on through all the verses. The red herring’s eyes, it appeared, had provided ‘as jolly old saucers as ever baked pies’; his tail ‘as jolly a ship as ever set sail’; his ribs had made ‘forty new cradles and forty new cribs’; the ‘fish as a whole’ had furnished ‘as jolly a wagon as ever hauled coal’; his backbone ‘as jolly a chopper as ever chopped stone.’ Boney sat and hummed his way to the end, and swung his leg and thought; and upstairs Karen quivered on the window-sill.

But when he came to the end she rose and ran downstairs. She was not one to hesitate at such a time, and she went straight to him, where he sat thinking on the edge of the table, just beginning again at the ‘red herring’s head.’ ‘I know who you are!’ she challenged him.

He looked up in amazement, then stared at her curiously, for she was still white. ‘Who I am? What on earth?-I say, is anything the matter?’

‘Nothing much. But that song took me back four years, to something I’d quite forgotten, and it was rather a shock.’

‘Song?’ he said vaguely. ‘Was I’-‘Yes, you were! I never heard you sing before. The “jolly red herring,” you know.’‘Oh!’ he laughed awkwardly. ‘What an ass I am! I wasn’t thinking. That’s one of

my dad’s songs.’‘Yes,’ Karen said grimly. ‘I know. I know now where I’ve seen you before, and who

your dad is, and everything!’‘I say!’ Boney stared at her blankly. ‘Do you, though?’‘Yes; but you’ve forgotten me! I don’t wonder at all. Would this make you

remember, I wonder?’ While he stared amazedly, she swiftly loosed the clasp at her neck and drew her hair on each side of her face, took off her glasses, and faced him. ‘That’s how you saw me before! No wonder you didn’t know me! You haven’t changed much, except that you’re ever so much bigger.’ She put on the glasses again, and looked quickly into his face. But in that moment when she could not see she had

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missed his first fleeting thought of regret that her eyes must always be hidden by the disfiguring spectacles.

As she searched his face, remembrance was creeping into it. ‘By all that’s queer! I have seen you somewhere before! Before school and all this, I mean!’

‘Yes! Of course you have. That silly song brought it all back to me. Four years ago your father came to see my mother in Holland, and ordered her to come to the Platz. And you were with him, a boy in knickerbockers. I was a shy kid of nearly twelve, so short-sighted that I had to peer at things to see them properly. You just stared at me; we didn’t speak. But when your father had done talking to Mother, he said, “Now let me have a look at that child’s eyes!” They say he never misses anything. You’re rather like him in that way.’ Boney laughed and reddened, but did not interrupt her eager story. ‘And all the time he was examining me and asking questions, and writing down addresses of oculists, he was humming under his breath about a red herring’s eyes! I was frightened, both for Mother and myself, for he told me plainly I’d be blind if I wasn’t careful; and the hyacinths nearly made me sick. I suppose I’d had a shock, or perhaps two! And you stared at me, and he hummed away about the red herring. Now do you remember?’

‘Of course, every bit of it,’ Boney said quickly. ‘I was an ass to forget so completely. But it was only for a few minutes, and you-you look different, you know’-

‘Oh, I know! You couldn’t possibly know me again!’‘I asked Dad as we went away if your mother would get better and if your eyes

would get worse. He said probably not, to both; but only if you were very careful.’‘He frightened me into being careful. I’ve thanked him ever since. Then your

father’-and she eyed Napoleon curiously ‘is Dr Rennie Brown, the most famous doctor up on the Platz. The doctor who is keeping the Spud’s mother alive, and hopes to cure Tazy’s mother and send her home again well. Don’t they know?’

‘No,’ Boney said brusquely, ‘and I don’t want ’em to. They-well, it’s got into a kind of habit with them to laugh at me, because I don’t fool about as they do, and because I’m not keen on games. I don’t want them saying, “With a father like that you can forgive a chap anything,” and putting up with me because of what Dad’s doing for their folks. Don’t you see how I feel? They think I’m queer, and I dare say I am; but there are reasons for it. I’m not going to trot out my dad as an excuse. And I’ll not have any one making up to me on his account; see?’

‘I see how you feel,’ Karen said slowly. ‘I don’t think you need to, but I can understand.’

‘I’m too proud of him, and what he’s doing up there, to cackle about him with all the crowd,’ Boney said abruptly.

Karen nodded slowly. ‘But I think they’d like to know. Of course they would! They’d all be proud too. They think an awful lot of him; everybody does. They’d be proud to have you living here. All that nonsense of the Spud’s about Tazy and Prickles would be true about you, if they understood.’

‘Yes. Well, I don’t want them to. It would be rot. I’m too proud of him to talk about it.’

‘It’s for you to say,’ Karen said gravely. ‘You don’t mind my knowing? I won’t say anything, of course. He saved my eyes, and though he couldn’t save Mother, he helped her and made it easy for her. I’ve always remembered, and wished I could thank him. Is that why you won’t tell your first name?’ she asked suddenly. ‘Tazy told me you wouldn’t, and so they had to call you Napoleon! Were you afraid they’d guess?’

‘My name’s the same as his-Rennie Brown. Rennie isn’t a surname in our case; it was his mother’s name, and they gave it to me. I haven’t any other. I couldn’t possibly tell them, could I? Think of their faces!’ and Boney laughed out.

‘Not without giving yourself away altogether,’ Karen agreed, and laughed also. ‘What a pity they didn’t call you John as well! And Boney? Bones? Is that because he’s a doctor?’

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Napoleon laughed. ‘That was years and years ago, when I first went to the coll. as a little chap. They knew about him then, and called me “old Bones” because I said I meant to be a doctor too. All the chaps who were there then have left, and nobody knows why I got the name but that’s the reason. You see, I’ve been there far longer than most fellows. With my dad and Mother living so near’- He paused.

‘Yes,’ Karen agreed, ‘there was more reason for you to stop on. But you’ll have to leave soon?’

‘I’m going home in August, to sit for matric. next September. That’s the beginning of everything for me, of course. But I’m preparing for it here. If I get through, I shall come back here to swot for my Inter. B.Sc.-may as well do it where I can be near them-and go home later on for the exam. Dad will always be here, of course; he’s found his work and he’s needed; but I shall have to go home in time, for college and hospital training.’

‘You’re going to prepare to help him?’ Karen’s eyes were bright.‘Rather! What d’you think? There’s nothing else.’‘No, there couldn’t be anything else worth living for, for you,’ she assented. ‘Do

you know, I think you’re like him-in your ways, I mean.’‘How?’ Boney glanced at her quickly, and waited anxiously.‘In the way you say so little, but see everything that goes on. I’ve heard the Spud

say you never miss a single thing.’‘You don’t miss much yourself!’ Rennie Brown grinned. ‘Remember last night?’‘At dinner, yes!’ Karen laughed, and mimicked Tazy’s voice. ‘“Isn’t it simply

hideous for the rest of us, Spuddy, with Karen at one side of the table and old Boney at the other, neither of them saying a word, but both looking on at us and making notes, while we make asses of our-selves?” You looked at me and grinned. It is true; you are like him! They say he sees everything, though he says so little. And the way you’re so exact about things; that’s awfully good practice for being a doctor, I’m sure. You’re never wrong; if you say a thing’s so, it is.’

‘If I’m not sure I don’t say. Old Dumpy calls me “Miss Euclid,” because he says I’m as

precise as an old maid, and as exact as a book of Euclid. I laughed when he said it, for it was the biggest compliment he could have paid me, though be didn’t mean it as one, of course!’

‘You’ve just got to be like that, if you’re going to be like your father,’ Karen agreed. ‘I do like the way you’ve let them all laugh at you and give you names, and just gone on and taken no notice of anybody! It’s what he would do, if he’d decided a certain course of treatment was best for a patient, even if everybody else said it was wrong or silly.’

‘Oh, he wouldn’t budge a fraction of an inch for anybody. But I don’t mind their rotting; it runs off me like water off a duck. If I heard anybody say a word against him, you’d see something then!’

‘Yes, I guess we should. But you won’t. They all worship him up there, and down here everybody knows.’

‘Oh, they all swear by the dad! Even Mackenzie’s second fiddle to him!’‘But how have you managed to keep people from finding out?’ Karen marvelled.‘Well, Brown’s not a peculiar name, ’less you tack Rennie on in front!’ he laughed.

‘We’ve two other Browns in coll. who are nothing to do with us.’‘But doesn’t he ever come to see you? Or don’t you go up to the Platz to see him,

and meet the other fellows there?’‘No!’ he glanced at her quickly. ‘Better leave it at that, unless you’ll swear not to-

but you wouldn’t. You aren’t the babbly kind.’‘You know I’m not. But don’t tell me any more if you’d rather not.’‘I’d like you to understand. Haven’t you heard them say you can’t be sure of

seeing Rennie Brown at the week-end? He’s sometimes there, but you can’t depend on finding him. Haven’t you heard that?’

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Karen shook her head. ‘I haven’t been up there for nearly two years, except just to the little cemetery for an hour now and then. I haven’t talked to people up there; I’ve no friends there now. Why isn’t he there at weekends? Does he go away somewhere to meet you? Oh, is that why you go off all alone so often?’

‘You’re getting warm!’ he laughed. ‘But the gossip “up there” is that his wife is ill, and he won’t have her among his other patients, so she lives somewhere else, and he goes to spend week-ends with her.’ He sat on the table, swinging his leg again, and looked at Karen gravely.

She was gazing up at him in absorbed interest. ‘And is it true? Your mother-you spoke of her just now! Oh, don’t say she’s ill; as mine was! It would be too cruel, when he’s helping everybody else, if his own wife’-

‘She’s got it too,’ Napoleon said very gravely. ‘She’s not bad; don’t look so cut up, please!’ as Karen gave a little cry of pity. ‘She’s really awfully well, and just now she’s better than he ever thought she would be. I guess that’s why I was humming that mad old song! I saw her this afternoon, and him, and he’s awfully pleased with her. Says he thinks she could go back to England safely for a three-months’ visit, if she likes, though she’d be just as well here for the winter again. And he knows! It’s top-hole to feel that your dad knows better than any one else in the world!’

‘Yes, if it’s good news. If it were bad, you might wish there was some one else to turn to,’ Karen said shrewdly ‘Tell me more about her, Boney! Oh, I can’t call you those silly names now that I know! When the others aren’t here, mayn’t I use your real name?’

‘Only if you’ll be jolly careful there’s nobody listening! You’d be much wiser not!’ he warned her, but he looked pleased that she should wish it. ‘Mother isn’t keen to go back to England, though she may go just to see her friends. But for us this is home, you see, both for her sake and because of his work. That’s all right! We all love it; we aren’t grousing!’

‘But where is she? And is she really ill?’‘Just a little. He took it at the very beginning with her, of course, and he’s keeping

it in check awfully well. I dare say she’d have been bad by now if she’d been anybody else, but he didn’t give the thing a chance. He built her a little house in a village away high up, just a collection of chalets, and she’s lived there for two years. She loves it; she never was one for fuss and company, and she isn’t lonely. She has her piano, and heaps of books, and the view from her windows is top-hole; there aren’t any words for it! She’s up that way’-with a wave of his hand towards the white seven-peaked range-‘and she looks right out at it, much closer than we are here, and rows and rows of other peaks as well; and away down at the foot of them all, between her and the mountains, there’s a little round lake of a wonderful blue colour. But you’ve heard of it! You’ve been here for years!’

‘Blue Lake?’ Karen said quickly. ‘Oh, I’ve been there, with the schools on Picnic Day, you know! I love it! I’d like to see your mother!’

‘We go whenever we can get a day off. I wish you’d come sometime,’ he said awkwardly. ‘If you’d come, and bring that fiddle, it would please her awfully.’

‘Oh, I would like to!’ Karen said earnestly ‘Do you think Miss Braithwaite would let me, if I went with you? Does she know about your mother?’

‘Oh, she knows her! She’s been to see her up there. It’s a stiff climb; there’s no funicular to help you! But you could have a mule. When you get there, the air’s as great as it is up on the Platz, and no crowds of other invalids to share it with her. I’m sure it’s better for her. Dad and I are used to the climb, but it would be too much of a pull-up for you. But you could ride. Will you ask if you may come?’ He was obviously eager that she should. ‘She doesn’t have many visitors, and it would please her no end.’

‘Oh, I’m game for the walk! Walking’s a thing I can do. I’d enjoy it. But how the rest will stare if you and I go off on our own sometime! Tazy will want to know where I am!’

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‘Tell her you’re going for the week-end to some friends you’ve discovered. You’d have to stop one night at least, you know; couldn’t possibly do it all in one day.’

‘I shall ask Miss Braithwaite tomorrow,’ Karen said fervently. ‘She’ll surely let me when she hears it’s to see Mrs Rennie Brown!’

Old Bones gave her a queer look. Then he said grimly, ‘Better be correct about it! She’ll only put you right if you’re not. Lady Rennie Brown! He had a baronetcy in the last Birthday Honours; you must have heard about it?’

‘Why, of course! But I didn’t-one always thinks of him as Dr Rennie Brown. I’d hardly taken it in. Then-then you’-

‘That’s what they say “up there.” They can’t get used to it,’ Rennie Brown, junior, grinned. ‘Neither can he, for that matter. Mother and I have been chaffing him no end. He didn’t want to take it but it was only right. He’s done so much.’

‘Oh, he’d deserved it! He ought to have had it long ago. I’ve heard lots of people say so. And in his position up at the Platz-yes, of course he ought to have it.’

‘Mother told him so, for the sake of his work. So if you ask Miss B., you’d better remember,’ Boney grinned.

‘I shall ask her to-morrow morning!’ Karen said eagerly.

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Chapter 20 - The Softness Of Svea

‘Pilly, where did Gerda get those chocolates?’ Tazy demanded, under cover of their desks

one morning.Phyllis looked worried. ‘I don’t know. None of us have been shopping in the village

lately, and we’re not allowed to get them by post. She keeps them out of sight when there’s any mistress round, or when Karen’s about, but they were being handed round on the quiet during prep last night.’

‘Not when Svea’s about?’ Tazy asked quickly. ‘She’s capitaine too!’‘Svea! Who cares for Svea? We all like her, and all that, but the girls do just what

they like when she’s there.’Tazy knit her brows. ‘I was afraid of that. Gerda doesn’t mind her a scrap.’‘Nobody minds Svea. She’s all right, but she’s soft.’‘Then you shouldn’t have chosen her.’‘Wish we hadn’t! Well, I don’t quite mean that. She’s jolly to have about, and all

that; but she isn’t a good captain!’‘No. But where did Gerda get the chocs., Pilly? They’re ripping ones! Haven’t you

asked her?’‘She says they were given to her by some one who likes her very much, and then

she smirks in an inane way, till I long to smack her. You’ll see they’ll disappear when Karen comes in from her music-lesson.’

Tazy did see, and thought it over. The chocolates had not been offered to her, at which she was not surprised; but she saw Babette, Valerie, Jeanne, and even Svea enjoying them. Gerda caught her eyes on them, and in an interval between classes said sarcastically, ‘I know I need not offer sweets to you, Anastasie. I am sure the boys keep you and Karen well supplied!’

‘Oh, why include Karen?’ Valerie tittered. ‘I can believe they give sweets to Anastasie, but which of the boys do you think gives them to Karen?’

‘If you sillies really knew Karen, you wouldn’t talk like that!’ Tazy said indignantly. ‘As for sweets, when any of us have any, of course we hand them round. What d’you think? I don’t want any on the quiet, thank you, Gerda!’

‘It’s all very well for you to talk good! You can have them when you like,’ Gerda said resentfully. ‘You’ve heaps of chances!’

Tazy felt the remark was not unreasonable, and she had no authority to exert, so she said no more. But Svea was in a different position; she had authority, and it was her duty to use it.

Tazy tackled her later in the day. ‘Svea, where did Gerda get those chocolates?’Svea stirred uneasily. ‘I don’t know, Tazy. I may guess, but I don’t know. It’s no

business of ours.’‘It is of yours, so long as you’re capitaine. Anything underhand that’s going on is

your business. That’s what you’re for; to help the mistresses in things they can’t know for themselves. What do you think you and Karen are for? To look pretty?’

‘Karen doesn’t do it, anyway,’ Svea said flippantly.‘She’d do something more to the point if she knew Gerda had somehow got

chocolates on the quiet.’‘Are you going to tell her?’ Svea demanded anxiously. ‘You aren’t a sneak, Tazy?’‘No,’ Tazy said slowly, ‘I sha’n’t tell her. I believe I ought to, but I can’t quite see

myself doing it. Besides, it would worry her, and I’d hate to do that. She’d know she must do something, and I guess she’d know what, and she’d do it, but she might hate feeling she had to. She cares more about that kind of thing than some of you think. But you ought to tell her, Svea.’

‘Me? Not likely! She’d go and make trouble.’

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‘All the same, you and she are captains, and you ought to work together. If you know there’s something wrong, and don’t care to deal with it all on your own, you ought to consult Karen and do something together. You two could stop Gerda; you could scare her into behaving decently. But if you won’t, you’ll make it very hard for Karen. If you leave her to do things all alone it will be mean!’

‘I couldn’t possibly tell on Gerda!’ Svea remonstrated. ‘She’d never forgive me! I can’t have my own cousin hating me for ever!’

‘She’d get over it. She might be mad for a while, but it wouldn’t last. You could make it quite plain to her that if she does this again you’ll go straight to Miss Martin.’

‘Tazy!’ Svea cried in horror.‘It would be right. It wouldn’t be sneaking even if you went now,’ Tazy insisted. ‘As

captain, you really ought to. But if you gave her warning it would be perfectly fair. You and Karen could do it together; it’s always better and easier for two than for one. In one it might look like spite or revenge, or anything small or mean. But with two, and two form-captains, nobody could think that.’

‘Oh, couldn’t they? You don’t know, Tazy. Gerda could, and would.’‘I believe most of the form would back you up.’‘I don’t!’ Svea said definitely. ‘Besides, why should I be so unkind as to worry

Karen, when you say you don’t like to?’ she demanded triumphantly.‘Because you and she are captains together. And I don’t see how you can take

Gerda’s chocolates when you’re form-captain, and she has them without leave.’‘Oh, do stop about me being captain!’ Svea cried irritably. ‘And, anyway, I couldn’t

resist chocolates like those, and I don’t believe you could either, if she’d offered them to you.’

And Tazy, puzzled and distressed, did not know what more to say or do. She noted that the chocolates disappeared while Karen was in the room, but were much in evidence during cricket practice, so long as Karen was at the other side of the field. She said nothing to the ‘Mistresses’ Choice,’ though she was very uneasy; but the chocolates would soon disappear at their present rate, and Gerda might not be able to get any more, however she had managed it this time.

But when, a few days later, the chocolates were followed by caramels, and Gerda’s self-conscious air increased along with the meaning looks and giggles of her friends, Tazy’s distress deepened greatly. It was plain that Valerie, Jeanne, and others understood the joke. Tazy was not sure that Svea did not know all about it also; she looked uncomfortable, but would say nothing when challenged. Something underhand was going on, something-since Gerda was the moving spirit-connected with a boy; that was obvious from her manner and the hints and smiles of her admiring circle. Its details were hidden from mere day-girls, but the broad fact was plain enough.

Karen the observant must have discovered it, in spite of the chances afforded by her absence from games and her frequent music-lessons and private theory and harmony classes, of which Gerda made full use. But Karen was absorbed in a new idea, and for these few days was not using what Tazy called her ‘inside eyes’ as she usually did. Miss Braithwaite had willingly given permission for her to spend one Saturday night with Lady Rennie Brown at her mountain chalet, and Karen was keenly excited over the prospect. To Tazy and every one who questioned she explained that she was going away to friends who were staying in a village near, and the surprise of the other girls showed Tazy how rare a pleasure this must be to her.

‘I’m jolly glad to hear it!’ said Phyllis. ‘You don’t get too much fun, old thing! The rest of us go up to the Platz every two or three weeks to see our folks, but you stick here for ever, except in the holidays. Are they people you like? It’s topping of them to ask you, anyway.’

‘But why didn’t they do it before?’ Svea asked, much interested.‘Do you call going up to the Platz “fun”?’ Karen queried, in her grave way. ‘It’s

rather mixed fun sometimes, isn’t it?’

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‘Oh, well, it makes a change, anyway. And Saturday night in a big hotel or hydro-dinner, and a dance or a concert afterwards-and all Sunday up there, to be as lazy as you like! It’s always rather ripping, you know!’

‘And even if your folks are ill, it’s jolly to see them,’ added Edith gravely. Her mother was better, but Edith had returned to St Mary’s with a serious look and a dread in her eyes which some of the girls understood.

‘Oh, I know that!’ Karen said swiftly. ‘It was only the word fun that struck me as-well, funny-in that connection.’

‘You’re a funny old thing yourself, Karen!’ said Phyllis good-naturedly; but there was affection, not mockery, in her tone.

‘I’ve been called an old mole, and Tazy calls me an old cow, and now you say I’m a funny old thing! I can only hope that “old” means something nice, for none of the rest of it sounds particularly inviting,’ Karen said solemnly.

‘Of course it does, old dear! Don’t your boys call one another “old so-and-so”? I’m sure they do! Perhaps they say it to you and Tazy too!’ Phyllis laughed.

Karen was always honest. ‘They do to Tazy!’ she said.‘And leave you out? Don’t you get on with them, then? Not after all this time?’

cried Svea the thoughtless. ‘Why, you’ve been there nearly six weeks! Haven’t you made friends yet? How funny!’

‘Of course we’ve made friends. Don’t be silly, Svea. But that doesn’t mean that they call me’-her eyes laughed behind her glasses-‘“old bean!” That’s quite a different thing. No, you don’t know what it means, of course. You couldn’t.’

‘You seemed to get on very well with Bert Thistleton at the cricket-match,’ Babette remarked. ‘Gerda was wild with anger! She wanted him to come and talk to her, but he went and sat with you instead.’

‘He’s a nice boy. I liked him that day,’ Karen said briefly, without giving her reasons.

‘Gracious! You are weird! Don’t you generally like him? Don’t you know half the class would give you anything you asked for if you’d only give them a chance to make friends with Bert Thistleton?’ Svea mocked.

‘There’s the school picnic coming next week. You might auction a few introductions to the great Bert,’ Phyllis said sarcastically. ‘Oh, don’t look at me in such disgust, old thing! I feel just the same. I’m speaking for the others. They’re silly about him, and they think you and Tazy aren’t at all sporty because you didn’t introduce the whole crowd. But don’t you like him, Karen? What’s wrong with him? Is he too much of a kid for you?’

‘Karen prefers them more grown-up,’ said Svea, watching her fellow-captain closely.

‘Yes, I do!’ Karen’s frankness was equal to Tazy’s on the subject of boys. ‘I don’t understand boys of the Spud’s-oh, well! Bert’s-age. I’ve never had anything to do with them, and I can’t fool about with him as Tazy does. I like him, but he hasn’t begun to grow up yet. I always feel silly and out of it when the rest of them are playing about. If I made friends, it would be with somebody older. Did you think I wouldn’t tell you? The thing I can’t stand,’ she said scornfully, ‘is wanting to make a secret of it when your friends are boys, and thinking it’s a joke, and something to grin and giggle at one another about. That’s utterly soft. Why can’t you be friends with boys as you are with girls?’

‘Oh, but it’s different!’ Babette informed her. ‘They’re different! We’re different!’‘I don’t see why. So long as we’re all at school together, what’s the difference?

Playing at being grown-up’s silly.’‘Better call Gerda,’ Svea laughed. ‘Tell her Karen’s giving a lecture on proper

behaviour towards boys!’‘Gerda thinks that’s her subject, not Karen’s,’ Phyllis mocked. ‘She’s passed with

honours! Karen’s only in the Kindergarten!’‘Thanks! I’ll stop in the Kinder. for a while,’ Karen retorted.

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‘After all, Gerda didn’t do so badly at the match, you know,’ Svea added, ‘She had Teddy Lorimer all to herself.’

‘And she hasn’t let us forget it either!’ Phyllis jeered.‘What do you mean?’ Karen asked sharply.‘What’s that about old Dumpy?’ and Tazy came up to join the circle. ‘Yes, Dumpy’s

Teddy Lorimer’s real name! Grandma did her best to get me to call him Edward, but I simply couldn’t. What were you saying about him?’

‘Only that Gerda had his company at the match, when you and Karen kept your-what do you call the poor boy?-Spud all to yourselves, and wouldn’t let her have a chance at him. She wanted to know him, and she was awfully mad.’

‘But she managed to put up with the other boy, all the same,’ Babette added. ‘We’ve heard enough about Teddy Lorimer ever since.’

‘How silly!’ Tazy said indignantly. ‘I do loathe Gerda! As for the Spud, he hasn’t any use for her, or any of her kind. Told me so himself.’

‘You want no one to know those boys but yourselves, you two!’ Svea grumbled.‘Silly idiot! You can know them all you want to, so long as you won’t be soft over

them. They’re too sensible, anyway, most of them. But I’m not so sure of Dumpy,’ Tazy confessed. ‘He’s such a slacker, both in games and work. If he was keener all round, he’d have more sense. Is that softy Gerda being silly about him, then?’

‘What about the fourth boy?’ Svea asked, changing the subject quickly. ‘We never hear anything about him.’

‘There isn’t anything much to tell,’ Tazy explained, while Karen knit her brow over the problem of Gerda and Dumpy. ‘He doesn’t say or do much. Sometimes he hardly speaks for days. But the other night he talked to Karen for hours, while we were having cricket practice. What was it all about Karen?’

‘Music, partly. He was humming an old song, and it reminded me of things I’d forgotten,’ Karen explained quietly. Rennie Brown’s secrets were not hers to tell, and though she spoke frankly enough, this friendship was not one which could be discussed.

‘Have you remembered where you’d seen him before?’ Tazy asked curiously.‘Yes; the song reminded me. That’s what we talked about. I saw him once at home

in Holland; his father-came to call on my mother;’ she changed the intended words just in time. ‘Napoleon was with him, but we didn’t speak. He remembers it too.’

‘How funny that you should have met before!’ Tazy laughed, and took her friend’s arm as they went in to tea; and Karen did not attempt to explain that it was not really ‘funny’ at all.

‘Karen,’ Tazy asked, as they walked home together beside the river, ‘how do girls manage who have brothers in the college? Aren’t they ever allowed to see them?’

‘Oh yes. They meet in chapel, of course’-‘I mean to talk to?’‘Brothers may come over to St Mary’s on Sunday evenings,’ Karen explained. ‘And

on Wednesday afternoons they’re allowed to come and see their sisters in Miss Braithwaite’s little garden. But not many trouble to come on Wednesdays; it interferes with games, so they’re quite willing to wait till Sunday.’

‘It’s only brothers who are allowed to come, I suppose? Not cousins or friends?’‘Of course not. Why, Tazy?’‘I was just wondering; I wanted to understand. I heard that little Olga say

something about “next time I see Stephan,” so I supposed she had a brother and was allowed to see him sometimes.’

‘He doesn’t live in the college,’ Karen explained. ‘They were full up, just as St Mary’s was, or our four boys wouldn’t have been at Madame Perronet’s, of course. So Stephan is boarding at Madame Lafitte’s, with two other boys from St John’s.’

‘I see,’ Tazy said quietly, and made only one comment. ‘I wonder what kind of boy he is?’

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‘I don’t know him. Miss Braithwaite told me about him. What does it matter to us, Tazy?’

‘Not at all, of course. Not to us!’ Tazy added to herself, but wondered if, after all, Gerda’s chocolates were so difficult to account for as they had seemed at first.

But she did not feel she could betray the trouble to Karen, who was still unconscious of it. That Svea knew all about it Tazy had very little doubt. But if Svea persisted in being soft where she ought to have been strong, what could a mere ordinary member of the form do? To tell the other capitaine was the only possible alternative to doing nothing, and Tazy shook her head at that. If Karen found out for herself, she would have one staunch supporter in Tazy, but neither Tazy’s sense of duty nor her scorn for Gerda could quite carry her the length of being the one to bring about the inevitable explosion.

‘All the same, Svea ought to do it. She’s just shutting her eyes because things might be unpleasant. And things are getting worse and worse. She is a soft!’ she said to herself. But with Karen she changed the subject quickly. ‘I’m awfully glad about your week-end! When do you go?’

‘Tomorrow afternoon. I’ll come home after lunch, while you stop for tennis.’ Karen’s face lit up at the thought.

‘They’re going to play the trials for the tournament, aren’t they? So the boys will have to be there. You’ll miss it. Gerda would say you were mad to go away this week-end!’ Tazy laughed.

‘They’ll get on all right without me,’ Karen said grimly. ‘They’ve always got Svea.’‘Oh yes, they’ve got Svea. Are you being sarky, Karen, old thing?’‘Perhaps a little.’ Karen laughed at remembrance of the talk with Phyllis and the

rest. ‘But never mind. It’s what they want. They don’t particularly want me. Svea will do brilliantly tomorrow and get into the final, and they’ll all be as proud as they can be.’

‘All the same, Svea’s soft!’‘She’ll have to stiffen up sometime,’ Karen said lightly, not allowing thoughts of

Svea’s weakness to cloud her joy in her unusual holiday.Tazy said nothing, but wondered if the time were not perhaps near when Svea

would have to choose between ‘stiffening up’ and remaining Svea the Soft, and how her choice would fall.

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Chapter 21 - ‘Greenwood.’

Tazy’s tennis was good, but Svea’s was better, and so it came about that Tazy sat on the steps and watched Svea’s triumphant progress towards the final amid the joy and delighted pride of her form-mates.

‘It’s topping when your capitaine can rise to the occasion, isn’t it?’ Phyllis said warmly. ‘I shouldn’t wonder if Svea were Middle School Champion for St Mary’s.’

‘Poor old Karen’s out of most of the fun,’ Doreen added.‘Poor old Karen’s going to win the prize for composition at the festival, unless I’m

mistaken,’ Tazy said sharply. ‘You haven’t heard her fantasy? Well, I can’t tell you about it, of course; but it’s top-hole. I’ve heard it till I ought to be sick of it, and yet I still enjoy hearing it, and wondering how she does it. She’s got the loveliest little bits in it.’

As she sat on the steps and watched Svea’s brilliant service, Tazy saw other things as well. To be sure, she was on the look-out for them, and saw just what she expected. ‘Old Bones’ was not present; he never was on these festive occasions, being popularly supposed to despise girls, games, and all social functions. Probably he had gone off ‘on his own’ somewhere, as usual. The Spud and Prickles played well, and Captain Bill was in the running for the final for some time, but was beaten at last. The Spud had already gone from the contest; the time of the two boys was so entirely given to cricket that tennis had suffered. To Tazy’s joy, though she gave no invitation, the Spud came at once to the corner where she, Phyllis, Edith, and Doreen were sitting, and presently Captain Bill joined them, and sat making comments on the play of Svea and the rest. And during the afternoon the six watched with wicked enjoyment a little comedy; or was it a tragedy?

Gerda had played a little, but was soon out of the contest, and lay in one of the few deck-chairs, which Dumpy had managed to secure for her. He was quite obviously delighted to be in attendance on her, and sat on the grass at her side, keeping her amused with a constant stream of jokes and stories, very surprising from the usually bored and silent Dumpy. To Gerda’s evident enjoyment, the other girls kept looking and smiling in her direction, or glancing at her and Dumpy, and then looking away quickly, with scornful laughter from some, but silly giggles from the greater number. Gerda, delighted and self-conscious, beamed and chattered away; Tazy turned her back on her in disgust, but admitted for honesty’s sake that several of the others were nearly as bad. ‘They’re making her worse by the way they go on! Why can’t they take no notice of the silly idiot, and let her make an object of herself if she likes?’ she said indignantly ‘As long as they giggle like that, of course she’ll go on and on.’

To her intense delight, she presently saw Miss Braithwaite herself stroll round the ground, and with a quite innocent face ask Dumpy to find her another chair, so that she too could sit and watch the game. ‘You have chosen such an excellent position. I think I must share it with you for a while.’ Gerda, with hardly-concealed vexation, sprang up to offer her chair, and looked meaningly at Dumpy as he brought another. But Miss Braithwaite was there with intention, and gave them no chance to slip away. She talked amiably to Dumpy, and discussed the play with him, and though he and Gerda raged inwardly, they could not escape.

When Miss Braithwaite left them some time later, they resumed their private talk hurriedly, but were interrupted again five minutes after, for by an unlucky chance Miss Martin chanced to stroll that way and to take a fancy to their position, just as Miss Braithwaite had done.

Dumpy reluctantly gave up his chair, and Miss Martin repeated Miss Braithwaite’s tactics so skilfully that the afternoon was spoiled for the two. Tazy laughed gleefully at their disgust; she knew, and her friends knew, and Gerda knew, that it was no chance that had taken Miss Martin along to that corner.

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Next day Gerda was summoned to the headmistress’s study for an interview, which was brief but pointed. Miss Braithwaite rejoiced in frank friendships between her girls and the boys, friendships based on the comradeship and competition of work and sports, and was willing that they should have opportunity for these in their games together. But Gerda’s premature attempts at flirting were as objectionable to her as they were ridiculous, and her comments and advice were scathing. Private

and particular friendships, where one boy or girl was singled out for whispered conclaves in corners, these occasions to be boasted of afterwards to classmates, with meaning laughter and significant looks, Miss Braithwaite would have none of.

Gerda was dismissed in disgrace, but she looked anything but penitent. Indeed, she looked contemptuous; and her scornful comments afterwards, to her own select circle, on Miss Braithwaite as ‘a dull old maid who could not possibly understand,’ made Tazy fear that no good had been done by the reprimand. Gerda knew she must be more careful in future in what she did in public; but for her private conduct she intended no amendment.

‘We could have spoiled their little game for them, if we’d only thought of it,’ Prickles said longingly. ‘I’d have loved to see old Dumpy’s face! If I’d gone and stuck there, and cut him out, he’d have longed to slay me. What an ass the fellow is! I shall jolly well tell him so tonight.’

‘No, don’t, old bean. Karen says it will only make the bounder think he’s done something clever; and I guess she’s about right,’ the Spud remarked. ‘That girl’s got nothing in her. She’s just a dolly object,’ he said scornfully, as they strolled away when the play was over.

‘All the same, it wouldn’t have helped matters for Bill and Bert to take a hand,’ Tazy said very truly. ‘Gerda would have been more pleased and giggly than ever. She’d have loved to have them there; though I wouldn’t tell them so. Of course, if we four girls had all gone as well’-

‘Yes, that would have been another thing. We’d have heard afterwards what she thought of us,’ Pilly laughed. ‘Captain Bill forgets that some of us have to live with Gerda.’

The consternation and amusement of all the girls, from Tazy and Svea to Gerda, and of all the boys, from Bill and Bert to Dumpy, would have been intense if they could have seen Karen set out to meet old Boney that afternoon. If she met him in the woods, where the cart-track left the main road, instead of setting out with him from the house, it was with no thought of avoiding Madame Perronet’s surprised eyes, but only because he came straight from the college, while she had been home to pack a little bag and change her school frock.

Napoleon met her by the bridge, as arranged between them the night before; he took her bag and violin, in spite of her protests, his own belongings being slung in a rucksac over his shoulder, and laughed at her indignation, as they set out along the springy brown track where the pine-needles lay like cushions. ‘It’s a long climb, and I’m used to it. Of course, I’m not going to have you lugging these along.’

‘Let me carry my fiddle, at least,’ she pleaded. ‘I’d be much happier, really, Boney!’

‘Not likely, when you’re taking it to please my mother. She’ll be awfully grateful to you. Say, though! I thought you weren’t going to call me that? It’s all safe here.’

Karen laughed. ‘I forgot. But if I get into the way of calling you-Rennie! Doesn’t it sound odd?-I shall forget when we get back to Grandma’s.’

‘Doesn’t sound odd to me,’ he assured her seriously. ‘Sounds a change from school and the other fellows, and more like home, that’s all.’

And Karen, whose experience of home for the last two years had been limited to her holidays spent with her aunts, found this a good reason for doing as he wished.

There was the beginning of a very real and lasting friendship between them as they climbed the forest path together, a friendship beside which Gerda’s silly behaviour seemed childish indeed, a friendship all the more likely to deepen into

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something greater because it was so frankly natural and unconscious, on Karen’s part, at least. It was not entirely unconscious on Rennie Brown’s side; but he was older than his years, the companion already of his parents, and he was not one to change.

As they sat resting in a forest glade, three parts of the way up to the high sunny shoulder, where the chalets lay among the pastures, gleams of white peaks coming to them between the shadowy purple of the pine-boles, with a glimpse of the lake far below, they talked at first of the two schools and their common interests-the tennis today, the match the week before, the school picnic and the Musical Festival still to come before the end of the term.

‘You’re writing some music for it, aren’t you?’ he asked suddenly.Karen flushed and laughed. ‘You must be tired of the sound of it. I’m trying. I think

it’s almost ready. One or two places I’m not satisfied with, but I doubt if I ever shall be.’

‘It’s a dance, isn’t it?’‘I thought nobody listened when I was practising!’‘It was old Prickles said that; or was it Spuddy? I never said anything.’‘As usual.’ Karen laughed. ‘It’s variations on four Old English folk-dances. Tazy

whistled them for me.’‘You must play it to Mother; she’ll enjoy it. Dad and she are keen on folk-songs-like

that old “Red Herring” that reminded you of me.’‘Those hyacinths! I smell them whenever I hear or even think of that tune.’‘I wish you’d play your thing to me! I’ve been hearing it in bits for weeks, and it

riles me. I want to hear it right through.’‘What! out here?’ Karen began to laugh. ‘Well, the last dance is called

“Greenwood”!’ and she reached for her violin. ‘But this wood isn’t green, is it? Red-brown, or purple-blue, if you like; but not green!’

‘It would be topping to hear it out here,’ he said.‘It would feel weird to play out here. But I’d rather like to do it, for once;’ and she

rose. ‘There are four dances,’ she said gravely. ‘I shall play each one, and then my variations on the air. I won’t stop to tell you when it’s a new one; you’ll feel the difference! The dances are very simple, just four little lines to each, but as pretty and dainty and quaint as any music you ever heard. Mine must sound awful after them! That’s why I’m so sure you’ll know the difference. The first is “The Old Mole,” then “If All the World were Paper”-that just sings along; it has words, of course. Then “Lady in the Dark,” and “Greenwood” to finish up. Tell me how you like them. But I never dreamt you’d been listening!’

Rennie had often listened while he worked under the walnut-tree, but he listened more intently now, curious to see what she had made of the old folk-airs. But even while he listened with care, his observant eyes were on Karen herself, and his comments when she ended and looked at him anxiously were twofold, but only one was spoken aloud. ‘That’s top-hole!’ he said warmly. ‘You’re certain sure of that prize. The dances themselves are ripping, and you’ve worked them up wonderfully. Mother must hear that; she’ll rave about it. Perhaps you could get her to come to the festival to hear you play it then. That would be topping; she hasn’t been anywhere for years, but Dad wants her to go. He says it would be good for her now.’ And to himself he added, ‘Queer how some idiots think being pretty is everything! What does it matter, if you’ve got all that inside you and know how to bring it out? Glad I’m not an ass, anyway! She makes some of them look jolly small and soft, pretty or not!’

‘Thanks awfully!’ he said abruptly. ‘When you play that at the festival, and all the crowd’s clapping like mad, I’ll remember you played it to me here in the woods.’

‘I didn’t play it to you, after the first moment. You set me off, that’s all. I forgot you in the silence, and, the shadows, and the mist among the trees. I think I was playing to the trees, or to those mountains peering through at us.’

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‘Sorry! Thought you were playing to me! But let’s get on,’ he said. ‘Mother will be looking for us;’ and he took up the violin again.

‘Those old dances seemed to fit the forest in a queer way,’ said Karen soberly, as they began the climb again.

‘Well-“Greenwood”! You’d expect that to fit, wouldn’t you?’ Rennie Brown laughed. ‘What kind of a dance is it, do you know?’

‘Tazy’s only watched it. She says the girls were in two lines, six of them, in threes, you know; and they kept running up to meet one another, and running away from one another holding hands, and making little rings of three, sometimes with one in the middle, and twisting in and out in lines of three, and swinging round in couples. But in between everything else the two lines of three ran up to meet, or ran away back to back, and then set to their partners. I can just imagine it in an open space in a big wood. It sounds almost fairy-like; don’t you think so?’

‘Sounds jolly pretty,’ he assented. ‘Yes, it fits the wood, as you say.’‘Did you have a good time, Karen?’ Tazy asked curiously when Karen appeared at

dinner on Sunday night. She had been up to the Platz to see her mother, and had returned to find Karen home before her.

‘Very! And I’m to go again. It was such a glorious change from school,’ Karen said warmly.

‘Were the people nice? You said you didn’t know them.’‘I didn’t, but they were as nice as possible. Such a dear little lady, and so fond of

music! She plays beautifully, and her husband sings to her. He’s very big and quiet, and awfully fond of her; he’d do absolutely anything for her.’

‘Any family?’‘One boy.’ Karen was brushing her hair over her face. ‘Quite jolly; older than I am;

fond of music too; big, like his father, and just as devoted to the little mother. I wasn’t shy of him; I’ve learnt a lot about boys lately, you see!’ and Tazy could not see her laughing eyes for her hair. ‘They’ve got a chalet away up as high as the Platz,’ Karen went on hurriedly. ‘The air’s like strong wine; I felt quite drunk. And the sunset-I suppose you saw it at the Platz, but up there-well, there aren’t any words for it! There were snow peaks wherever we looked, and I went out and watched it with the father and the boy-the little mother’s delicate; and all the mountains turned to fire. And we looked right down into the tiny lake. We had music till late at night, and again this afternoon. In the morning we all went a short walk, because the mother can’t go far, and then sat in the fields and talked. They’ve a tennis-court, and the father and the boy play together; so some day I’m to go up there and stay for a few days, and they said they’d practise with me, and not mind how badly I played.’

‘H’m!’ Tazy turned to stare at her. ‘You seem to have done well for yourself.’Karen laughed, and gave great attention to her hair. ‘I’m going to tell Miss

Braithwaite all about it in the morning. She knows them, so she’ll want to hear.’‘Well, yes! She wouldn’t have let you go off like that with people she didn’t know.

I’m awfully glad you enjoyed it. I say, though! I’ve got news too, Karen, old thing! Mother’s ever so much better already. She really has made lots of improvement, and she told me that Dr Rennie Brown truly thinks he can cure her, and she’ll be able to go home again. Isn’t it simply topping? You know, I’m so glad I don’t know how to think about it! We hoped he’d cure her, as she’d come to him at once, and he was quite hopeful from the first. Now he says he really thinks she’ll be all right. He must be simply wonderful!’

‘Did you see him?’ Karen asked, knowing the answer already, however. ‘I’m awfully glad about your mother, Tazy!’

‘No! The wretched man’s always away when I go there! That’s the one thing I don’t like about him! I’ve never seen him yet. But I mean to sometime, somehow or other. I don’t know why he wants to go away so much!’

‘Oh, you’re sure to see him sometime. I am glad! We’ve both had a good time since yesterday, then. I enjoyed every minute of mine, of course,’ Karen said simply.

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‘It was such a change for me. It was such a homey kind of home to go into! I felt as if I belonged there at once.’

She had said the same to Rennie Brown as they came down the mountain-side together. ‘I love your mother. She made me feel at home at once.

He reddened. ‘I hope you’ll go back. She’s counting on it; isn’t she, Dad?’‘She is.’ The kindly doctor’s grave face lit up with a smile. ‘You mustn’t disappoint

her, Karen. Miss Braithwaite must spare you to us again. Tell her I say so.’‘Oh, I think she will! She was pleased for me to come.’‘Now you be careful of those eyes!’ he warned her, as they parted.With his wife, he had been watching all day with much amusement their boy’s

manner towards his friend. Rennie had never brought a girl home to see his mother before, and, early as it was to say so, his father doubted if he ever would again. He knew his son to be very like himself; he knew how early he had made up his own mind, and how he had never wavered, nor regretted it. The girl was quite unconscious, but the father and mother believed the boy knew what he was about, and knew he was not one to change or to decide lightly.

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Chapter 22 - Dumpy’s Bombshell

‘Where’s old Dumpy?’ asked Tazy suspiciously. Prep had been in progress for an hour at the table under the walnut-tree, but Dumpy had not yet put in an appearance, though the other boys were almost ready to accept her invitation to cricket in the field beyond the garden fence.

‘Don’t know. Am I my Dumpy’s keeper? Said he was going for a walk,’ said Captain Bill absently, as he pored over his dictionary.

‘A walk? It doesn’t sound likely! Doesn’t he come home with the rest of you? He always used to.’

‘Oh, he’s chucked us! He’s always going for walks by himself now,’ Prickles said shortly. ‘I don’t know what the silly ass is playing at, so don’t ask me. He’s up to something, but goodness only knows what.’

Karen was listening, but had nothing to contribute to the discussion, so kept silence. Whether old Bones was listening or not, no one could say.

The Spud woke up suddenly from an absorbed study of Roman history. ‘Did any one say Dumps? I say, you chaps!’-this included Tazy and his brother, of course-‘such a joke! The silly ass must have come home after school, flung down his books, and gone away out again. I found this on the study floor, just under his shelf. Isn’t he an utter idiot?’-and before any one could protest he was reading aloud from a scrap of dainty notepaper, covered with neat little writing:

‘“Dearest Teddy,-Is it not sad that the picnic is put off for a week owing to the weather? I shall not see you, except in chapel, for so long. I count the days till we shall be able to have another long talk, all by ourselves. The girls were all jealous of me on Saturday afternoon! But was not Miss Martin too appalling for words? I saw how you felt, mon ami, and shared your disgust. Would you have believed any one could be so tactless? Miss Braithwaite, too, was nearly as unkind! Now, mon cher, send me some more chocolates like the last ones, to console me for the postponement of the picnic! If you do not, I will not look at you in chapel on Sunday morning. Our little messenger will be discreet, if you reward him well. From your good friend,”

‘There’s no name, but it’s not needed. We all know where old Dumps sends chocs., to. Suppose he’s gone to meet the “little messenger” now. Isn’t the fellow an awful ass?’

Tazy was staring at her book, in keen discomfort and shame for Gerda. Her first instinctive feeling had been one of relief that there had been nothing worse in the note than a request for chocolates; with Gerda, anything was possible. And the Spud would no doubt have read the note aloud with jeers, no matter what it had contained. Yes, she was glad it was no worse. But still- that Gerda should write at all!

Prickles stirred uneasily. ‘I say, old idiot, you hadn’t any right to read that!’ he protested. ‘It’s private’-

‘Course it is, very strictly private! But it jolly well hasn’t any right to be!’ the Spud retorted indignantly. ‘They don’t half know that kind of thing’s forbidden!’

‘All the same, you oughtn’t to have read it out to us. Tear the thing up and come along to cricket,’ Captain Bill said disgustedly, with a craving for healthier amusement than Dumpy’s. ‘It’s no business of ours if he chooses to make an ass of himself every day in the week.’

Karen looked up, her face white. She had only slowly been taking it in, for the facts which were known to all the rest had been hidden from her. Dumpy’s note was from a girl; that, of course, was strictly forbidden. Well, it was no business-but was it no business of hers? They all know who had written that note, though it had been

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unsigned; that was ominous. There must have been evidence in the past to make them all so sure. Hints she had heard about Dumpy and Gerda flashed into her mind, and she remembered hearing that Gerda had been in trouble during the time she herself had been away at the Rennie Browns’, because, as Phyllis had told her, she had been ‘making a fool of herself at the tennis trials with that silly Lorimer boy.’ Karen had put aside the incident distastefully; it was in Miss Braithwaite’s hands, and therefore no one else’s business. But this was different; this was secret, hidden from Miss Braithwaite and every one. If Gerda were the culprit, Karen began to see difficulties ahead. It was then that, growing rather white, she looked up from the book at which she had been staring with unseeing eyes.

‘Is the note from Gerda?’ she asked.‘Great stars and garters, yes! Didn’t you know?’ the Spud exclaimed in surprise.

‘He’s been keeping her in chocs. ever since the match.’Karen coloured swiftly, angry and ashamed that she had not known. ‘Tazy, did you

know?’Tazy’s eyes fell before hers. ‘Yes. Everybody knows. That’s why the girls all laugh

and look in that silly way if anybody speaks about him.’‘Everybody knows but me! I’m not usually blind about things like that!’ Karen’s

voice was sore.‘You couldn’t help it. She kept the sweets out of sight while you were in the room.

She could do it easily, because you were away at your music so much. And the rest wouldn’t give her away.’

Karen was thinking swiftly. Before she could speak again, Prickles said awkwardly, ‘Can we help in any old way? For if not, I guess we’d better clear out. Come on to the field, Bert!- Look here, Karen! I’ll settle that blighter Dumpy. I’ll tell him he’s got to drop it, and Spuddy or I will stick to him like a leech. He’s playing a low game, doing it all on the quiet. We’ll sit on him after this. See?’ He had not thought himself particularly fond of Karen, but some impulse told him he must help her now; she looked so distressed as she sat with bent head and knitted brows.

‘Snakes, yes! We’ll settle old Dumpy. Don’t you worry, Karen!’ The Spud spoke quickly, with the same instinct to help.

Karen looked up. ‘Thank you! I hope you will. I can’t do anything with him, of course. But I’m thinking of Gerda. It can’t go on. Either Miss Braithwaite’s got to know, or-or somebody must do something. I’m her form-captain, and I’m to blame if things go wrong. I don’t quite know yet what I must do, but I’ve got to do something. I couldn’t possibly do nothing, and let her go on like this. But if you’ll see to Dumpy, that will help a lot.’

‘He’s an utter ass!’ Prickles said wrathfully. ‘Come on, Spud!’ and they withdrew tactfully.

Rennie Brown, at the end of the table, had listened to every word, and had seen every change of expression on Karen’s face. Now he looked up, but she had turned to Tazy to ask a few pregnant questions, so he waited, his eyes gleaming in approval as he saw the drift of her thought.

‘Tazy, why didn’t you tell me?’‘Because it seemed like sneaking. No, it wasn’t that really! Because I’m a slacker,

and like things going easily! I was afraid you’d feel you had to do something, and there’d be a row. I know I’m a beastly rotter,’ Tazy said miserably.

‘It had to come sooner or later. You were only putting it off. And things generally get worse. You might have told me. Does Svea know?’

Tazy had been dreading the question, and jumped when it came. But she answered; Karen’s manner implied that she would go on asking till she got her answer. ‘Yes. I asked her to consult you, but she wouldn’t. I told her you two ought to work together.’

Karen’s lips pinched, but she only said quietly, ‘Do you know who takes Gerda’s notes to Dumpy?’

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Tazy shook her head. ‘I only guess. It isn’t fair to repeat guesses, Karen.’‘Is it Olga and her little brother?’ Karen asked quietly. ‘I’ve been very careless and

slack, but I have wondered why Gerda petted Olga so. Don’t bother to tell me, Tazy; I can see you think so too. He lives in the village, of course, so it would be easy enough. And as they’re new they might not realise how Miss Braithwaite would feel about it. But that Gerda-a big girl like that!-should use children like Olga and Stephan! It makes me sick!’ and she sat looking down, with tight lips and frowning brows.

Tazy watched her anxiously, and yet with a sense of relief which was an unconscious tribute to Karen’s force of character. She had felt guilty in keeping silence when she knew there were underhand dealings going on; she now felt both relieved and anxious, as if some one in authority, perhaps even Miss Braithwaite herself, had taken the matter in hand. But as yet she did not see how this answered her oft-repeated query as to why Karen had been the ‘Mistresses’ Choice.’

She watched her friend anxiously, and, unnoticed by either of the girls, old Boney watched her too, ready to give help as soon as it was asked. ‘Must you go and make a row about it, Karen?’ she ventured at last. ‘It will be awfully uncomfortable. I don’t know what you can do. Gerda won’t listen to anybody.’

‘She’ll have to listen to me; Karen said tersely. ‘Or else I’ll have to go to Miss Braithwaite. I shall tell Gerda so.’

‘Oh, Karen! You couldn’t! Tell Miss Braithwaite!’Karen looked up, her face quivering. ‘Tazy, don’t make it harder! If you knew how I

hate it!’ Her lips trembled. ‘I hate to make trouble, and have all the girls think me a beast and a sneak! Oh, I know how they’ll talk! They don’t like me now; they look down on me-lots of them do. They’ll all hate me if I make a row over this. I’d just love to do nothing, and pretend I don’t know. But I do know, and it wouldn’t be honest. I should be a slacker, and Miss Braithwaite has trusted me. I can’t do nothing! I hate to make trouble all round, but I can’t slack. Rennie!’-the name came easily enough after that Sunday among the mountains. Instinctively she turned to him for help. ‘Rennie, can I do nothing?’

‘Why!- Why do you call him that?’ gasped Tazy.In breathless amazement she stared, while Napoleon’s big hand reached out and

grasped the trembling one Karen had flung out to him in appeal. ‘No, old thing, you can’t do nothing, and you won’t. You’re capitaine, and you’ve got to bring this silly kid to her senses. I guess you’ll do it without going to the Head; but if she won’t listen to reason, you’ll go right ahead and do the straight thing, and not care a hang for any of them.’

‘Oh, you do help!’ Karen gasped. ‘No, I’m not going to cry! It doesn’t pay!’ She clung to his hand for a minute or two while she struggled for self-control, with much the same sense of relief that Tazy had felt a moment before-as if she had handed over her burden to some one still stronger than herself. Then she swallowed hard and looked up with an unsteady laugh. ‘I mustn’t cry! Your father told me not to four years ago! It does for me altogether; my eyes aren’t any good for hours. Rennie, I knew you’d understand. It would have hurt me awfully if you’d said I might slack over this business!’

Tazy gasped again, less at the repeated use of the surprising name than at Karen’s tacit admission that his opinion would have swayed her judgment. Tazy had thought Karen would change for nobody. She began to realise dimly that she was in the presence of something new. She knew herself forgotten, and stemming with a great effort the eager tide of questions which surged over her, she waited and listened in intense, eager interest.

‘They’ll all hate me,’ Karen was saying hurriedly. ‘But I can’t do anything else, can I, Rennie?’

Rennie! Rennie Brown? Tazy stared at him with wide, amazed eyes.

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‘You can’t let this thing go on, of course,’ old Boney said gravely. ‘You’re captain, and I guess it’s your stunt to keep things straight in the form, and prevent ’em worrying your form-mistress, if you can. Isn’t that about it? Isn’t it up to you?’

‘Yes, that’s what we’re chosen for. They can’t attend to everything.’‘Well, then, you’ve got to do it. But if it’s something too big for you to tackle alone,

you’ve got to get some of them to help. It doesn’t need to be Miss Braithwaite, but you’ve got to go to somebody. You can’t let things slide. It would be footling, and soft, and-and weak; and you aren’t that, old thing!’

Karen’s face lit up. ‘I was, for a minute or two! But I don’t mean to be. You’ve bucked me up; I knew you would. Even if none of the girls stand by me, I’ll see it through now.’

‘That’s it! I guess you jolly well will. But you won’t have to do it alone. Some of them will back you up. And, I say, Karen kid! call in your seniors to help, before you go to Miss Braithwaite. If the girl won’t listen to you alone, or to you and the rest of the form, she may listen to the whole of the Sixth if they try to sit on her.’

Karen’s eyes shone in relief. ‘Yes, that would help tremendously. Rennie, thank you awfully! You’ve given me just the help I wanted. I believe the Sixth will back me up, if our own lot won’t, and anything would be better than going to Miss Braithwaite. It seems far less like sneaking to tell Helga than any of the mistresses. And Helga’s her cousin. Oh yes! That will help. It will be beastly enough, as it is; I hate scenes, and we’re bound to have one. She’ll be furious, and they’ll back her up, and we shall get divided into sets-or else I’ll be left all alone! But I won’t be scared any more. I’ll see it through now.’

‘Karen, don’t be an idiot!’ Tazy had tried to get in a word several times. ‘You won’t be alone; there’s me, at least! And Pilly and Edith and Doreen all hate Gerda. And surely Svea’-

‘Yes, what about her? She’s the other capitaine, isn’t she?’ Boney asked curiously. ‘She must be rather a slacker. What will she do, Karen?’

Karen knit her brows. ‘I don’t know,’ she said at last. ‘You see, Gerda’s her cousin too.- Tazy, we’ll be very early at school tomorrow! I’ll have to see Svea before I tackle Gerda. That’s only fair.’

Rennie Brown nodded assent. ‘She ought to have the chance of going with you. She may not take it, but you’re doing the straight thing by giving her the choice.’

‘Unless you want all the-the credit of putting a stopper on Gerda,’ Tazy ventured. ‘After all, Svea’s known all about it for a fortnight and done nothing. Nothing but eat Gerda’s chocolates and look the other way.’-Karen looked up in quick dismay. -‘She hasn’t lifted a finger to stop Gerda. She doesn’t deserve to go sailing in under your wing as if she’d worked with you all along! Why don’t you leave her out?’

‘I’m sorry she took the chocolates. But I can’t leave her out,’ Karen said quickly. ‘I may think she’s rather soft, and too good-natured to boss anybody properly, but we’re supposed to work together, and I couldn’t go behind her like that. It wouldn’t be playing the game. It would give her away to everybody. I’ll give her the chance to go to Gerda with me, any way.’

‘You play the game a lot better than she does, and better than she deserves!’ Tazy muttered.

‘No, you can’t let her down,’ Boney agreed. ‘I’m glad Tazy thinks some of them will stand by you. Wish I could come along and do likewise!’

Both girls laughed. But Karen grew sober again quickly. ‘Some of them will stand by me at first, perhaps. But if it comes to going to Miss Braithwaite, or even to the seniors, they’ll all hate me. That kind of thing isn’t often done. It’s so much easier to lie low and say nothing.’

‘You couldn’t do that-not this time,’ Napoleon said gravely. ‘Some girls might, but not you. You’ll go ahead and do the straight thing, and not be scared by any old girl in the lot.’

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Karen flushed. But after a moment she said soberly, ‘But I am scared, and that’s the truth! Not of them, but of the unpleasantness. I do hate it so. I’d do anything almost sooner than make a row.’

‘But you’ll do it, all the same, and to do it when you’re scared is best of all,’ he said gravely. ‘It’s then, when you carry on, no matter how scared you are, that you’re really sporting, you know.’

‘After that, I sha’n’t dare to face you again if I allow myself to slack,’ Karen said, with a shaky laugh.

‘You won’t slack. It’s not your way.’‘All the same, I’d like to this time!’‘There’s the dressing-gong!’ Tazy groaned. ‘And we haven’t begun to get ready!

Come on, Karen, fly! But I’ve jolly well got about a thousand questions to ask!’ she informed her, as they caught up their books and fled into the house.

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Chapter 23 - Svea Comes Into Line

‘Now, Karen Wilson! Why do you call Napoleon “Rennie”? I shouldn’t have thought you’d have the cheek! Who gave you leave? And how long have you been doing it? I never saw you so friendly with any one before! Holding his hand and all!’

‘Tazy, I never did! Did I?’‘Of course you did-as if you thought you were going under at the deep end of the

baths, and he was holding you up!’‘Well, that’s just about how I did feel. I had to hang on to something, or I’d have

run away from all this row there’ll be tomorrow. I’d give anything to get out of it. But I knew he wouldn’t let me, unless it was all straight for me to do it.’

‘Goodness me, you do depend on him! Old Boney, of all the weird people!’‘Well, don’t you think he is dependable, and-and strong, and all that?’ Karen

demanded, brushing her hair vigorously.‘Yes, of course; but so are you. That’s how I always feel about you, anyway.’‘I like to feel there’s somebody behind me, some one I can rely on,’ Karen said

abruptly.‘But since when has it been Boney? And how long has Boney been “Rennie”? And

why? Is it really his name, that he wouldn’t tell me when I asked him? Why did he tell you? How did you find out?’ Tazy’s questions poured forth in a breathless, eager stream again. ‘But that makes his whole name-Karen!’ as the truth dawned on her suddenly.

‘I can’t tell you just now,’ Karen said quickly. ‘I said I wouldn’t. I’ve got to ask him first. If he doesn’t mind, I’ll tell you all there is to tell. Don’t tell the other boys, Tazy! Be decent! You heard all that by accident. We both forgot all about you. Don’t give us away to the Spud or Prickles!’

‘You’re taking it for granted I sha’n’t babble to Dumpy, and you’re about right! All right, Karen, I’ll play up! But I want to understand, you know. I can’t help guessing, and-well, it’s rather thrilling, you know!’

It was inevitable that dinner should be an uncomfortable meal that night. Karen had had no chance of a private word with Boney, nor Prickles with Dumpy, who had come in at the last moment. The girls were silent and restrained after those few stirring moments under the walnut-tree; Tazy, full of curiosity, kept looking from Karen to Rennie Brown; Karen was divided between annoyance at the way she had betrayed his secret and plans for the morrow’s interviews, and had nothing to say. Dumpy felt in a vague way the frosty atmosphere towards himself; Prickles and the Spud preserved an ominous silence, which foretold trouble for somebody. As usual, no one could have guessed what Napoleon was thinking but he was not talkative; and Madame Perronet looked helplessly at the silent six, and failed to rouse any of them to conversation.

But the situation developed rapidly after dinner. Prickles, in a voice which admitted of no argument and was very much that of the captain of the First Eleven, invited Dumpy into the study for a few words, and the Spud followed to add his contribution. Karen followed Boney into the garden, and they stood together in the dusk under the big tree for several minutes.

Tazy found the whole party disposed of except herself, and promptly vanished upstairs. ‘Nobody loves me! I’ll go into the garden and eat worms!’ she said mournfully, and dropped on the window-seat to watch Karen and Boney. ‘Those two are weird! They’re terribly chummy! And I had no idea of it! I wonder if he’ll let her tell me all about it! For she jolly well won’t without his leave; I can see that! Of course, I can guess lots; but I want to hear it properly, all the same!’

‘I’m awfully sorry, Rennie,’ Karen was saying hurriedly. ‘But Tazy wants to know heaps of things, and I think I’d better tell her, if you’re willing. For she’s so quick that

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she’ll guess; wouldn’t it be better to tell her? She wants to know why I call you that!’ and she looked up at him anxiously.

‘I guessed she would,’ he laughed.‘I meant to be so careful when any one was about,’ Karen apologised. ‘But in all

that fuss about Gerda I forgot. I am awfully sorry!’‘Don’t worry! You were upset and couldn’t think about me,’ he said easily. ‘I guess

you’d better tell Ann, but ask her to taisez-vous about it as long as she possibly can. Of course, if it does come out, there’s no deadly harm done; it’s only a silly idea of mine! But there’s no need for the whole bunch to know, so far as I can see. They’d babble so, and get the wind up no end! Tell her what you like, Karen but tell her not to give me away. See?’

‘I’m sure she’ll be careful. Thank you so much!’ and Karen hurried in, to find Tazy curled up on the window-seat in the dusk.

‘Well? Does the father-confessor give you leave to explain?’ Tazy mocked. ‘That’s what you looked like, as if you were confessing your sins!’

‘I’m sure I didn’t! How do you know how people confess their sins? He said I might tell you, but you’re to keep it to yourself-as I was supposed to do. I’ve known about him for a week. I’ll tell you how I found out;’ and Karen sat down beside her, and plunged into the story of the ‘Red Herring,’ the Dutch garden with its hyacinths, and Boney’s recognition of herself.

‘Dr Rennie Brown?’ Tazy said slowly, keenly interested, ‘The Dr Rennie Brown? He really is old Boney’s father? But how awfully queer! How-how frightfully thrilling! Go on, Karen! Tell me some more! Then was it his folks you went to stop with? You lucky bounder! And he was the big boy you weren’t shy of, I suppose!’

‘Lady Rennie Brown is a dear little thing, and awfully kind, and so fond of music. And they’re all so fond of her. Now you know all about it, Tazy, so let’s get to bed. We’ve got to be up early in the morning, and we’re in for a worrying time, and we haven’t half done our prep! You can think about all this, but don’t ask me any more tonight. And do be careful when you see Rennie in the morning. Don’t go calling him names! You’ve got to pretend you don’t know, you know.’

‘Goodness me!’ Tazy laughed. ‘Seems to me I shall be calling him names if I call him Napoleon or Boney or old Bones now! But I suppose that’s what you want me to do?’

‘Of course you must,’ Karen assented. ‘I wonder if the other boys have talked quite straight to that horrid Dumpy?’

‘I guess Bill will have given him a good dressing-down,’ Tazy said lightly, as she hopped into bed, last as usual, to lie thinking for long over the surprising transformation of old Bones into the son of the famous doctor, Sir Rennie Brown.

‘He is a queer old stick!’ she said to herself at last, as she turned over to go to sleep. ‘If ever I do see his daddy when I’m up at the Platz, I shall look hard at him. But isn’t old Napoleon chummy with Karen-not half? The rest of us aren’t in it! They are a weird pair! Well, there’s one thing certain sure’-and this was her closing resolve before she slept-‘I sha’n’t tease her about him, or put silly ideas into her head. I don’t believe there’s a scrap of silliness in her, and I won’t be the one to suggest it. I’ve always loathed that kind of joke, and I’ll have nothing to do with it!’ And she kept the resolve in the days that followed, when, to her, Karen’s growing friendship with Rennie Brown was very apparent.

The constraint and awkwardness of the evening were still to be felt at breakfast-time, and Tazy sighed, and wondered if they would ever be all jolly together again. She doubted if Dumpy would ever quite fit in with the rest. No doubt some of the things Prickles had said in the study had been unforgivable, it was a good thing there was hardly a month of the term left; perhaps after the holidays Dumpy could get himself transferred to another house. He looked very sulky this morning, and the Thistletons were, by contrast, extremely cheerful. They and Tazy were the most

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natural of the party, for Karen was burdened and anxious, dreading the inevitable ordeal at school.

Tazy was eager to know what had happened in the study, but her time for questions was brief, as Karen insisted on an early breakfast and an early start. ‘Did you and Prickles squash Dumpy as hard as he deserved?’ she asked eagerly of the Spud when they met in the garden.

‘Flattened him out. Old Bill can be very heavy when he really puts his foot down. The blighter didn’t exactly enjoy it, but he promised to chuck fooling with that silly kid, and we’re jolly well going to see that he does it,’ the Spud assured her.

Rennie Brown, late as usual, appeared just as the girls were finishing their rolls and coffee. He asked no questions about the interview in the study, preferring to form his own opinions; but he watched Dumpy and the rest, and soon knew all about it.

‘Good-morning- Napoleon!’ There was a meaning note in Tazy’s voice and a snap in her eyes as she used the nickname for the first time with full knowledge.

He laughed, and his eyes met hers steadily. ‘Good-morning, Taisez-vous!’ There was meaning in this also.

But Tazy was loyal to the compact and said nothing to rouse suspicion. She eyed him critically and with amusement from time to time, but if he was aware of it he showed no sign, and Tazy kept her new knowledge carefully to herself.

‘I sha’n’t call you anything but Boney or Nap,’ she informed him later in the day. ‘It’s too dangerous. If I once begin I shall go and forget, as Karen did.’

‘Right-o! I’d much rather you’d do that,’ he assented. ‘It’s different for her, because she’s been home and met my folks.’

‘But you are a queer thing, all the same!’ Tazy added.‘I don’t mind if you think so, not one scrap,’ he assured her gravely.‘Well, no, I don’t suppose you do,’ she admitted, with a laugh.As the girls walked to school Karen was still silent and apprehensive, quite

evidently feeling nothing but distaste for the duty before her. Tazy was full of speculations as to how the

Thistletons had ‘sat on Dumpy,’ and what Dumpy had said. ‘He looked sulky enough for any-thing this morning. I wonder if he’ll really listen to them!’

But though Dumpy would not have confessed it, and though he deeply resented the interference, he was not sorry to have an excuse to withdraw a little from the position into which Gerda had led him. He had begun to find the friendship expensive, as her demands increased, and had known it to be very risky. It was galling to be pulled up by Prickles, but even that was better than being found out by the Head. And, since to be flattered by a pretty girl in public was one thing, and to keep her supplied with expensive chocolates quite another, Dumpy was not in his heart sorry that Prickles had put his foot down so heavily and forbidden any more secret gifts or notes.

‘Whom do we tackle first, capitaine?’ Tazy asked, as they entered the school gates.

‘Svea, of course. Olga can wait. She’ll be easy,’ Karen said gravely. ‘Svea and Gerda are the difficult ones, so we’ll get them over first.’

‘Svea, I want to speak to you,’ Karen said abruptly, as they entered the class-room and found most of the girls there, just returned from the morning walk.

‘Yes?’ Svea asked lightly, but with an anxious note in her voice, for her conscience was uneasy. Had Karen found out anything? And was she going to be a nuisance?

‘Come out into the playground for a minute. It’s just you I want.’‘Goodness me!’ Svea laughed uneasily. ‘What on earth’s up? Can’t you say it here

before everybody?’‘Yes, quite well. But I think you’d rather I didn’t.’ Karen’s eyes met hers steadily.

‘Come on, Svea. It’s jollier for you. I’ve got something to say, and I’m going to say it. You can have it here or outside, as you choose. I don’t mind; I was only thinking of what would be nicer for you.’

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‘Awfully kind of you!’ Svea grumbled, but she rose as she spoke. There was no doubt from Karen’s tone that she would speak, and Svea saw the advantage of a private interview. ‘It’s not so very nice to be hauled out as if I were one of the babies who needed a scolding!’ she said indignantly, as she followed Karen and Tazy out of the room. ‘Are you coming to protect me, Tazy?-I don’t know why you should speak to me in that way, Karen!’

In a quiet corner Karen turned to face her. ‘You do know!’ she said, going straight to the point, as usual. ‘You jumped and looked anxious whenever I spoke. There’s something you’re afraid I’ve found out, and that you think I’ll make trouble about. Well, you’re right; that’s what has happened. Tazy didn’t tell me; you needn’t look at her. I just found out, through somebody quite different. Oh, Svea, you have been mean! You’ve known all this time, and you’ve let things go on and never told me. We could have stopped it long ago, if we’d only done it together.’

‘I don’t know what’- Svea began sulkily.‘I’m talking about Gerda and the Lorimer boy. I think you’ve been just mean, and

very unkind, to take advantage of my being outside the school in this way.’Svea stirred uneasily. She had expected Karen to be angry, but had not realised

that she might be hurt. Svea was very soft-hearted, and this had betrayed her into weakness; Karen knew her failing, and with characteristic insight she worked on it, and so gained a hearing when reproaches would only have irritated Svea.

‘I’m sorry,’ Svea said uneasily. ‘I didn’t think of it that way, Karen. I didn’t mean you to feel bad, but-it was so much easier to say nothing. I didn’t want to make trouble, and I was afraid you would. I suppose I am soft, as Pilly says. But I do like things going easily, and I do hate rows. You don’t care!’

‘She hates them too!’ Tazy said indignantly. ‘She’s been awfully worried all night, because she knew there would have to be a row this morning. Don’t think you’re the only one who likes everything smooth and easy, Svea! We’re all alike there. I don’t see why you should make that an excuse. We’d all rather lie low and say nothing. I’m every bit as bad as you; but, then, I don’t happen to be captain, and it isn’t my business to make a row. It is yours and Karen’s; and if you’re soft, she isn’t. She can’t let things slide when they’re going wrong, but she hates it all as much as you do. But she’s got to do the straight thing; she’s too-too strong not to. Goodness me! I believe that’s why! I believe I’ve got it, after all these weeks!’ Her tone was full of amazement at the simplicity of the answer she had puzzled over for so long.

The other two stared at her questioningly, startled by her change of tone. She said hurriedly, ‘Oh, go on! Get it settled, and don’t mind me! I saw something suddenly, that’s all. I’ll tell you afterwards.’

‘The mistresses chose her because she’s strong, and they knew they could depend on her. They knew she would do the straight thing for the form, and that if a softy like Svea were chosen Karen would balance her,’ she thought swiftly to herself. ‘And she’s strong because she’s plucky, and because she’s had so much to put up with and so many things to fight against. All that about finding you’d have to do without some things all your life, and finding other things instead-that helped to make her strong. Yes, I see now; I wonder I didn’t see it before. For she is! You always feel you can depend on Karen. And yet she depends on Boney. That’s very weird! But I’m missing everything;’ and she gave her attention to the crisis of the moment.

‘I do hate rows,’ Karen was saying. ‘Thank you, Tazy, for saying it for me! But there’s got to be one now, Svea. And I want to know whether I’ve got to go and be a beast to Gerda all alone, or whether you’ll back me up.’

‘Can’t you?’- Svea began, and quailed before Karen’s eyes.‘Let Gerda go on writing to a boy and taking sweets from him on the sly, and using

two of the little ones, who don’t understand, to take her messages? No, I can’t,’ Karen said shortly. ‘I’m going to tell her so, and I’m going now. The question is, are you coming with me, or am I going alone?’

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Svea stared at the ground, and shifted uneasily from foot to foot. ‘I’d rather not,’ she said at last. ‘Gerda’s my cousin, and she’ll hate me, and lots of the others will too.’

‘It would be simpler, perhaps, if they hated only me,’ Karen said grimly; ‘but’-‘I didn’t mean that!’‘Didn’t you? It sounded rather like it.’‘It sounded awfully like it,’ Tazy said indignantly. ‘Svea, how can you be so soft?

You can’t let Karen do the whole thing!’‘I don’t want her to do it at all!’ Svea muttered, very truly.‘But there’s more in it than just the question of who shall be hated by Gerda and

the rest,’ Karen explained gravely. ‘If that had been all, I wouldn’t have troubled you to choose. I’m thinking of your credit as form-captain. It will look awfully bad if you keep out of this. Everybody knows you understand. Don’t you see,’ impatiently, ‘they’ll all call you soft and weak if you show you’re afraid now? But if we tackle it together you’ll be taking your proper place as captain, and they’ll respect you after this. You really haven’t done it yet, you know! Surely it’s plain enough? I’m giving you a chance-the only chance-to show the girls you’re not soft where really wrong things are concerned. Svea, do be sensible, and do the proper thing, for your own sake! I’m not thinking of myself, really, though I’d rather have your company. But it will look so awfully bad if you aren’t in this too. Don’t you see that?’

‘It’s heaps more than she deserves,’ Tazy said to herself, as she watched Svea’s face anxiously, but had the wisdom to keep the comment to herself. ‘But Karen’s too-too strong to care about that, or to want all the credit for herself.’

Svea gave Karen a startled look. This side of the affair had not occurred to her. In a moment she saw how it would reflect on her, what a slacker she would seem, if this somehow reached Miss Braithwaite or Miss Martin, and they understood that one of their capitaines had taken no part in setting matters right. But would it go so far? Hitherto Svea had only thought of the girls’ attitude, and that, she believed, would be against Karen’s action. Now she saw another possible side to the question, if this ever came to the ears of the mistresses.

‘What are you going to say to Gerda?’ she demanded. ‘I must know that first!’‘That if she doesn’t stop writing to this boy, I’ll go first of all to Greta and Léonie;

they were last year’s captains, and it may be enough to get them to speak to Gerda. I’m sure they will, you know. If she won’t listen to them, I shall go to Helga and the Sixth. If that’s no use, I shall go to Miss Braithwaite. And I shall tell Gerda so quite plainly, so that she’ll understand.’

Svea gazed at her in horror. It was plain there was no escape for either her or Gerda if this programme were carried out. For all the seniors would condemn her slackness if they heard of it. ‘Karen! You-you are a horror! You’re so-so awfully cold-blooded and business-like about it!’ she cried.

‘I’m business-like, of course, for that’s the quickest way to get it over. But I’m not the other. I simply hate doing it,’ Karen said vehemently. ‘I wish you’d believe that! But I’m not baby enough to stop half-way. It’s got to be done, and the sooner and the more thoroughly the better.’

Svea collapsed in the face of the stronger will. What was the use of arguing with such a force as this? ‘All right! I’ll come,’ she said weakly. ‘But you’ll have to do the talking.’

‘One up for Karen!’ Tazy said to herself with deep satisfaction, as she followed them back to the class-room. ‘She’s worth a hundred of Svea! She knows what she wants and how to get it. And how she understands people! She’d make a topping headmistress! There wouldn’t be much rotting going on under her. I’m quite looking forward to seeing her settle Gerda.’

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Chapter 24 - Settling Gerda

Karen lost no time in approaching Gerda. She went straight to her, where she stood laughing and chatting with Babette and Valerie. But though Gerda laughed, her eyes had been resting apprehensively on the door, and at sight of Karen and Svea an ugly frown filled her face; for the others had told her of Karen’s strange summons to Svea, and Gerda’s conscience told her what was the matter.

Karen went up to her, disregarding the presence of the others. They all knew; Tazy had said so; so why pretend it was a secret? ‘Gerda,’ she said steadily, and with no sign of all that she felt at the moment, or of her fast-beating heart, ‘I’ve found out about your letters and presents from the boy Lorimer. You know how Miss Braithwaite feels about that kind of thing. You’ve got to stop it. See?’

‘And that’s that!’ murmured Tazy in the background. ‘Our capitaine doesn’t waste words! “I’ve found out. You’ve got to stop it!” What more is there to say?’

‘Well!’ flamed Gerda. ‘What right have you to interfere, I should like to know? And who told you? That Tazy Kingston? As if I’d listen to you, anyway!’

‘It wasn’t Tazy. One of your notes was dropped in our house; you can blame him for that! It was found and read to me before I knew what it was.’

‘Reading private letters!’ Gerda sneered. ‘What a sneaky lot you are at Perronet’s! And then you think you’re entitled to put everybody else right!’

‘It wasn’t Tazy or I who read it. We couldn’t help hearing it,’ Karen said quietly. ‘It had no right to be private, and you know that, Gerda. It’s you who have been sneaky. Are you going to stop writing secret letters?’

‘No! Not for a kid like you! Is it likely?’‘Yes, since I happen to be captain, it’s very likely,’ Karen said calmly.‘I knew she’d try to swank!’ Gerda jeered. ‘Karen, you’ve been simply unbearable

this term! Svea never boasts of being captain as you do.’Both the captains flushed, but for very different reasons. Svea was ashamed that

the accusation was true, for she knew she had not used her authority as she ought to have done; Karen shrank from the thought that she might have been boastful and domineering, though in her heart she knew she had not. At least she had not meant to, but some of the girls might feel that she had been putting on airs. But that was a personal matter, and she brushed it aside. Gerda should not turn her from her purpose so easily.

‘I hope I haven’t boasted. I don’t think I have. But you give us no choice this time, Gerda. We shouldn’t be proper captains if we did nothing now. You must stop this silliness. Svea agrees with me. She came to say so-Didn’t you, Svea?’

All eyes turned on Svea. She said unhappily, ‘Yes, of course. Don’t be so silly, Gerda! You can’t go on. Madame will find out, and then there’ll be awful trouble. You’d much better stop at once.’ Her tone was characteristically more pleading than commanding.

‘She’s got to stop,’ Karen said bluntly.‘You! You’ve been pleased enough to eat my chocolates, Svea Andersson!’ Gerda

taunted. ‘You’re only saying this now because Karen’s made you do it! You didn’t care what I was doing. You’ve known all the time!’

Svea’s eyes fell. ‘I’ve been stupid too,’ she said uncomfortably. ‘But it’s no use, Gerda. You’ll have to give in. Karen will make you, sooner or later.’

‘Karen! I knew it was all Karen! And why should we all be interfered with by Karen?’ Gerda grasped the strength of her position. If she could draw Svea back to her side, Karen would have to stand alone, and authority thus divided would be greatly weakened. Svea was obviously uncomfortable already; a few more taunts at her sudden change of front and she would come over to the majority. Karen alone could do little, Gerda thought she would never dare to go to Miss Braithwaite, of

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course. And how the girls would dislike her for making all this trouble about such a little thing!

So Gerda mocked triumphantly, ‘You like sweets as much as all the rest, Svea! Nobody seemed to care where they came from, so long as she got some! You’re hiding behind Karen’s skirts just now, but when you get over this very sudden proper fit and forget that you’re trying to be a good little girl, you’ll be as eager for my chocolates as anybody. And you’ll wish you had a friend to give you presents! Oh, I know you will!’

But Svea was not without her share of the family temper which had blazed up in Gerda, and this jeering mockery was the spark to kindle it. ‘I won’t, then!’ she cried hotly. ‘I’ve been soft, of course, but I haven’t liked the way you’ve been going on, and I’ll have no more to do with it, Gerda. You can give your chocolates to some one else. You’re getting them in a sneaky way, and I wish to goodness I’d never touched one of them. But you won’t have any more,’ she added.

Gerda laughed jeeringly. ‘Oh, won’t I? D’you really think I’m going to listen to you?’

‘No, I know you won’t. But you’ll listen to Karen!’‘Karen! What touching faith in her you have! That’-‘We’re wasting heaps of time,’ Karen said grimly. ‘Miss Martin will be coming in,

and she’ll want to know what it’s all about. Are you going to promise, Gerda?’‘You’d jolly well better, Gerda.’Help came from an unexpected quarter as Pilly spoke up sturdily. ‘You can’t carry

on with both captains against you, and at least half the form. We’ve all been idiots to take your sweets; Svea’s no worse than the rest of us in that, so you needn’t let her have all the rowing. But it has been sneaky, and we haven’t liked it, and it’s time it stopped.- Karen, I’ll back you up all through, and so will heaps more of us.’

‘Rather!’ said Doreen, Edith, and Babette all together.Karen flushed. ‘Thank you awfully. It can’t go on, of course. I’m sorry to be a

nuisance, but there’s no help for it.- Well, Gerda?’‘I won’t do a single thing you ask!’ Gerda snapped. ‘There! Now what are you

going to do? You can’t do anything, you see!’ triumphantly.‘Have you quite made up your mind?’ Karen was reluctant to descend to threats if

she could help it.‘Oh, quite!’ Gerda laughed. ‘What are you doing?’ she demanded in sharp dismay,

as Karen turned to the door. All the rest were watching her curiously. ‘You aren’t going to tell?’ gasped Gerda incredulously. ‘I didn’t think even you would do that!’

‘You surely didn’t think I’d do nothing, after what I’ve said?’ Karen asked scornfully.

‘Are you going to Madame?’ Gerda cried, astounded and unbelieving, while the others looked at one another doubtfully. ‘I understood that was a thing English girls never did!’

‘I say, Karen, old thing, that’s rather’- began Doreen doubtfully.‘But what else can she do?’ Phyllis cried sharply. ‘After all, she’s captain. If she lets

Gerda jump on her authority like this, she may as well resign at once.’‘I’m not going to Miss Braithwaite yet,’ Karen said deliberately, a distinct threat in

her tone. ‘I’m going to ask Greta and Léonie what I must do. The proper ones to give me advice are last year’s captains.’

Gerda’s face fell, as Pilly’s and Doreen’s brightened. Tazy chuckled under her breath, as Phyllis said warmly, ‘That’s a bully idea, Karen! They’ll tell you what to do-I guess you’d better climb down, Gerda. You know Greta wouldn’t have stood it.’

‘I’m quite sure Léonie won’t like it.’ said Babette.‘If Gerda won’t listen to them,’ said Karen deliberately, as the gong rang for

classes, ‘I’ll get them to go with me, or go alone, to Helga. I know what she’ll say and do;’ and Gerda’s black dismay increased, as did the delight of the other girls. ‘If such an unlikely thing should happen as that Gerda won’t listen to Helga-though I haven’t

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the slightest doubt as to how any of these seniors will look at the matter, you know; they’ll back me up, every one of them-but if Gerda won’t listen to Helga, I shall go to Miss Braithwaite and say I must resign, as I can’t manage things in the form. What will happen then I don’t know. She’ll want to know the reason, of course. I may be able to put her off without telling her everything; she’s very good, and she may not insist on being told. Or she may guess; I shouldn’t wonder! But there’s just one thing certain; I’m not going to be captain if there’s underhand work going on. I don’t want to resign, for that means I’ve failed, and they trusted me with the job. I’ll try all other ways first, as I’ve told you. But if none of them are any good, I shall tell Miss Braithwaite as little as I can, but say I can’t be captain any longer. You can be thinking it over, Gerda, and tell me at recess. Now you know just what I mean to do.’

Gerda dropped into her seat with an angry bang as Miss Martin entered, and began to rummage furiously for books, to hide her scarlet cheeks and blazing eyes. For she knew herself beaten. She doubted if she dared face Greta and Léonie; she knew she could not defy Helga; while, if Karen carried out her final threat of resignation, the result would certainly be an explosion which would bring about full discovery.

‘I say, old thing, you haven’t half thought it all out, have you?’ Phyllis whispered admiringly to Karen; while Svea, very uncomfortable, and Tazy, delighted and triumphant, and the rest, curious and excited, went to their seats with no thoughts of English literature in their heads.

Karen opened her desk and leaned her head on the inside of the lid. ‘I thought about it all night. Tazy didn’t know; she went to sleep. But I couldn’t. Pilly, you don’t know how I hate it!’

Phyllis looked at her anxiously. ‘No, I didn’t know. I thought you were rather enjoying it.

I thought you were the kind that would revel in a good old flare-up, and you settled that little pig so beautifully that I thought you’d be chortling inside.’

‘Oh, I wish I could! I just hate rows! But I couldn’t slack about a thing like that!’ Karen’s lips were quivering in the reaction, and her hands shook as she turned over her books.

‘I say, buck up, old dear!’ Phyllis said in distress. ‘If you go and collapse now-well, think of Gerda.’

Karen laughed unsteadily. ‘Yes, wouldn’t she crow! No, I won’t. I mustn’t cry, anyway;

It’s against rules for me. But-oh, I’m so tired, Pilly!’‘Well, I think you’re just a downright sport, to tackle her like that, when it turns

you all up inside like this!’ Phyllis whispered admiringly. ‘It’s a far bigger thing than if you’d done it easily, of course. I didn’t know you cared; nobody could have guessed.’

‘Oh, I was all shaking,’ Karen confessed. ‘But I hoped no one would see.’‘No one did. You didn’t show it a scrap. I say, don’t worry about recess. I believe

she’ll climb down; but if she doesn’t, I’ll carry on for you. I’ll help all I can.’‘It’s jolly decent of you, Pilly,’ Karen said gratefully. ‘You and Tazy and Svea can

help a lot. I don’t think Gerda will let me go to Helga. It’s not nice to have the Head of the school down on you, even if she is your cousin.’

‘Especially if she’s your cousin, I think you should say. Helga would be mad to think that any one connected with her was up to these sneaky tricks. She’s easy-going, like poor Svea, but she wouldn’t stand that. She’d be furious, and Gerda knows it. Oh, you’ll come out on top! You can’t help it, old thing!’

‘But they’ll all hate me for ever. Even Svea won’t like me when she has time to think about it.’

‘Oh, rot! I say, Miss Martin’s got her eye on us! Doesn’t want to row you because you’re capitaine, but can’t stand much more!’

Karen laughed unsteadily, and for Miss Martin’s sake pretended to give her attention to Shakespeare. For Gerda’s sake, too, she must not get into trouble this

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morning. Any failure on her part would cause Gerda to exult unmercifully, and would weaken Karen’s authority. But the whole class was difficult and inattentive this morning, and Miss Martin had a hard two hours, and left them feeling discouraged and indignant, though she would not have blamed them if she had understood.

Gerda thought much and angrily during those two hours, but all her thinking brought her only to one point; the correspondence with Dumpy, and even the chocolates, had been exciting and enjoyable, but were not worth the storm that now threatened her. She dared not let her doings come to Helga’s ears, and there was no doubt that this horror of a Karen would carry out her threats. It was abominable to have to give in to her, especially after all her jeers; it would, of course, be necessary to pay her out in some way. But for the moment there was nothing for it but to give in.

But she could at least be annoying about it, and keep her tormentor in suspense. She went up to Karen as soon as recess began. ‘You’re a perfect beast, and I’ll get even with you in some other way, if I do as you want in this! But I want time to think it over. I’ll let you know later.’

Karen looked at her steadily. ‘I don’t see what good thinking it over will do. You’ve had two hours. I’ll give you till lunch-time. If you don’t promise by then, I shall go to Greta and Léonie directly after lunch, before games.’ There was no sign of nervous faltering about her.

Phyllis looked at her admiringly again. ‘I say, Karen, you are topping, the way you stand up to her! Any one would think you enjoyed it.’

‘Well, I don’t. I’ve been dreading it all night.’‘She’s going to climb down, you know. All that about thinking it over is just to

annoy you.’‘I know. She’ll give in, but she’ll hate me for ever.’‘She didn’t love you before, did she? Never mind, old thing! We’ll all stand up for

you!’‘I’m awfully glad you’ve been so nice about it,’ Karen said warmly. ‘It makes all

the difference, for they don’t count Tazy, because we live together; and Svea isn’t really’-

‘No, Svea isn’t!’ Phyllis laughed. ‘Svea’s only in this because you dragged her in. We all knew that. Why didn’t you leave her out, Karen? She hasn’t really been any help to you.’

‘I couldn’t. It wouldn’t have been fair to her. Keep them from worrying me, Pilly!’ Karen pleaded. ‘I simply can’t talk about it just yet.’

‘You’re fagged out. I’ll see to them!’ Phyllis promised, and kept the rest of the girls at bay. ‘You’re not to plague the capitaine! She’s been awake all night worrying about this business,’ she informed the crowd. ‘Oh yes, she has!’ as Valerie laughed incredulously and Gerda sniffed. ‘She’s going to swot up her history now, or there’ll be trouble. I won’t have her worried;’ and she stood on guard while Tazy fetched Karen’s and Phyllis’s glasses of milk before going for her own.

The rest of the girls looked uncomfortable and subdued. Gerda, in one corner, had Valerie and Jeanne and a little group round her; Svea, in another, told Babette and Edith how Karen had insisted on having her company in the action she proposed to take. ‘And she said she’d done it for my sake! I’d never thought of it like that. But, of course, if she’d gone to Helga’-

‘Yes, Helga would have asked straight away what you were playing at and why you weren’t there,’ Edith assented. ‘I say, it was jolly decent of Karen to think of your side of it. She might easily have left you out. She’s a downright sport!’

‘Svea doesn’t look so awfully grateful,’ Doreen remarked. ‘You will be when you think it over, my dear! You’d have been left in an awful hole but for Karen. A slack captain, too nice to everybody to be any good-for you have been slack, Svea! You’ve known it yourself.’

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‘I don’t think I like being captain!’ Svea said gloomily. ‘If you do it properly you make people hate you. And if you don’t they row you.’

‘That depends on the people. We aren’t going to hate Karen for this business. Don’t you make any mistake about that! We feel she’s done the proper thing, and you always think more of people when you feel that.’

‘That’s only some of you; only you English lot. The others won’t feel like that.’‘So much the worse for them!’ Edith laughed. ‘But perhaps you could hardly

expect them to know what’s what.’‘Of course, if you want people like Gerda to like you’- Doreen began, then stopped

and laughed.‘Gerda’s my cousin!’ Svea snapped.‘So she is! I’m sorry for you, ma cherie! You’ll have to put up with her, that’s all. If

it causes a quarrel in the family, I should tell Helga all about it in the holidays,’ Doreen advised.

Even Tazy failed to draw Karen into conversation till Gerda’s decision had been given. There was still a dread chance that she might refuse and try to brave the matter out, and then more unpleasant scenes would have to follow. Karen waited in dire suspense, and Gerda knew it, and would have prolonged her waiting if she had dared. In answer to Karen’s brief, ‘Well, Gerda?’ after lunch, she said defiantly, ‘I haven’t made up my mind yet.’

‘I have, then;’ and Karen turned to the door.‘I didn’t say I wouldn’t promise!’ Gerda’s tone had an instant note of alarm.‘I didn’t ask you to say. I asked you to promise, and you haven’t done it;’ and

Karen opened the door.‘Karen, you’re an absolute beast! I suppose I’ll have to, then,’ Gerda jerked

indignantly.‘You’ve made me be a beast about this, I didn’t want to. I don’t like being horrid to

people’-Gerda snorted her unbelief-‘but you’ve given me no choice. Will you promise not to write to that boy or take presents from him on the sly again?’

‘I’ve done it once. I won’t say it again,’ Gerda snapped.Karen looked at the rest of the girls. Phyllis said quickly, ‘She did promise, Karen.

We’ll keep her up to it. She won’t dare try it again.’‘If she does-if you do, Gerda, I’ll go straight to the seniors. I’ll give you warning

when I’m doing it, but I won’t ask you for any more promises. You won’t stop me then by saying you’re sorry and making excuses. If you don’t play fair this time, you won’t get another chance.- Oh, I do hate having to talk like this!’ she cried wearily. ‘It isn’t like me at all. I know none of you believe it; you think I don’t mind. But I do! It’s difficult all the time.’ Her voice was quivering.

Phyllis saw she was on the verge of a breakdown. She slipped her arm round her. ‘Karen, old girl’-

Karen swayed and dropped into a chair, hiding her face from them all. Her shoulders were shaking as Phyllis bent over her.

Tazy’s voice rang out. ‘Clear out, you others! Don’t be pigs, standing there staring! Svea, get them out into the garden! Sometimes’-savagely-‘sometimes those who win battles pay for it more than those who lose! Gerda, what an utter bounder you are!’ for Karen was crying brokenly, worn out with strain and nervous excitement. And Gerda had laughed.

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Chapter 25 - The Victor Pays

‘Karen dear, you mustn’t, you know!’ Phyllis whispered, her arms round the unstrung girl. ‘You’ll have an awful headache, won’t you?’

‘Last night she said she wasn’t allowed to cry,’ Tazy muttered ‘Oh, what beasts some people can be!’ She was holding Karen’s glasses carefully, having got them from her somehow, she hardly knew how.

Karen lay exhausted, her head resting on her arm. ‘How-how silly!’ she whispered ‘You must think me an idiot. They all will.’

‘Not at all, old dear!’ Phyllis said promptly. ‘They’ll believe what you said about it having been difficult, that’s all. You up and proved it in the only way you could. Girls don’t howl like that for nothing; at least you don’t. I don’t believe I ever saw you collapse before.’

‘I never-was so worked up before,’ Karen explained breathlessly. ‘You don’t know how it hurt. I say, Pilly! Could I go upstairs, do you think? I can’t go out to games; Svea must do that today.’

‘No; you’re all shaky. You must go and lie on my bed. I’ll tell Miss Martin you’ve a headache. I’ll get you a jolly book, and you can forget all about us, and have a nice slack afternoon, and be all right by tea-time.’

‘Book!’ Karen laughed unsteadily. ‘Pilly dear, you’re awfully good, but you don’t understand.’ She sat with her head resting on her hands. ‘I daren’t try to read anything today. I’m afraid I may have to confess before I’m done. I don’t mean about Gerda,’ at Tazy’s exclamation. ‘That’s done with, and nothing would make me tell now. But that I’ve been going on like an idiot. I can’t read, or do my prep, or music, I don’t know for how long, but just now I simply wouldn’t dare. It’s bad enough already; I’m not supposed to cry. Who’s got my glasses? Tazy?’

Tazy gave them to Karen in silence, her lips pinched. She looked at Phyllis. ‘Can’t we get her up to your room? She ought to bathe her eyes. It’s awfully bad for them, you know, and it’s dangerous for her.’

Phyllis looked at them in dismay. ‘I didn’t understand. Yes, come along, Karen, old thing! Everybody’s out in the garden. Can you walk straight?’ she asked doubtfully.

Karen’s shaking fit had passed, but her eyes were dim and swollen, and she could hardly see. It was more by instinct, and the help of Tazy’s arm, than by sight that she reached Phyllis’s room in safety. At her earnest request the other two left her presently, lying on the bed, a cold bandage on her aching eyes. Phyllis drew down the blind, and Tazy pulled up the quilt over her friend. Then they crept away and left her to rest.

‘What beasts some people can be!’ Phyllis said wrathfully, for she, too, had heard Gerda’s laugh. ‘It won’t do her eyes any harm, will it, Tazy?’

‘I don’t know. I don’t know much about it. I think it would if she used them as they are just now. But she knows she mustn’t. She told me she had to be very careful of them. I knew she felt bad about this business, but I had no idea she cared so much. She was miserable all last night and again this morning,’ Tazy said unhappily.

‘She’s downright sporting, the way she carried on, although she felt so awfully bad!’ Phyllis said warmly. ‘I can see that, and I’ll make the others see it too! Some of them will under-stand, if they don’t all.’

Karen came down to tea very grave and silent. She confessed to a bad headache when questioned by Miss Martin, but her eyes no longer betrayed its reason. Miss Braithwaite did not come in to tea, being over at the college calling on her brother; so Miss Martin, on her own responsibility, sent Karen and Tazy off directly after tea, with orders to Karen to go to bed at once if her head was still bad by the time she reached home, for every one knew that Karen’s headaches were serious. ‘I’ll excuse your

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preparation tomorrow if you don’t feel able for it,’ she said; and Karen thanked her gratefully.

‘Pilly promised to speak to Olga for me,’ she said, as they walked home through the fields, where the flowers and the long grass had all been cut for hay. ‘She’s so small and new that she’ll listen to any of us elder ones; we all seem like seniors to her. It’s not like one of our own set; then Svea or I would have had to do it. When Olga understands how bad a thing she was doing she’ll be easy to manage. I’m sure she simply didn’t understand.’

‘Has all this fuss hurt your eyes?’ Tazy asked anxiously.‘Oh, I don’t think it’s done any harm. But they ache, you know; I wouldn’t dare to

read tonight. Perhaps I can practise a little. But I’m frightfully tired. It is silly!’‘I think you should go to bed, as Miss Martin said. I’ll explain to the boys.’‘Please don’t tell them,’ Karen said quickly. ‘I’ll tell Rennie myself; I’ll not have

secrets from him. Besides, he’d find out; he always does. His eyes are just like his father’s; they see everything-as Prickles and the rest found out long ago, without understanding the reason. But there’s no need for the others to know.’

Tazy’s eyes widened as they drew near to the garden gate, for Napoleon was waiting there for them. He had never come to meet them before, and she realised that his thoughts must have been with Karen all day. ‘They are weird!’ she said to herself again. ‘I really believe they care about one another a lot! Just think of it!- Old Boney! And Karen! I’d never have expected it of either of them. Well,’ she said to herself again, ‘I sha’n’t chaff Karen about him. That would be being like Gerda. It’s what she would do, and laugh, and be silly. I believe Karen really cares; and if so, it’s nothing to be funny about. Why shouldn’t they, after all?’ But her eyes followed Karen curiously at times, as her conviction grew that here was no ordinary friendship, but some-thing deeper and more lasting. She saw plainly, however, that Karen had realised nothing of this as yet; she merely relied on Rennie Brown, and turned to him unconsciously for help, with no thought of more. ‘I’ll not be the one to put anything else into her head. But he’s jolly fond of her; any one can see that-any one who knows!’ Tazy decided at last.

‘Well, Karen? How have you got on? Come out on top?’ Boney’s eyes searched her face anxiously.

‘Yes; but we had a fight about it first. The form’s divided now into those who hate me and those who don’t.’ Karen tried to speak lightly.

‘The ones who do being the ones not worth considering,’ Tazy put in.‘Oh, well, if there are plenty who don’t, and the kind who do are the silly kind, I

shouldn’t worry over that.’‘But I hate to feel they’re divided into two sets at all, and about me most of all.’‘What about the other captain? Did she come to heel?’‘Yes; she didn’t like it at first, but she went with me to tackle Gerda.’‘She didn’t do much, though. Karen did it all,’ Tazy remarked. ‘Svea hadn’t much

choice, the way Karen put it to her. She simply had to play up, or let every one see how slack she was. You’d better tell him all about it, Karen; you said you’d confess! I’m going indoors;’ and she disappeared with her books up to their bedroom. ‘There! I’m sure that was nice and kind and tactful of me!’ she remarked triumphantly to the empty room.

‘Confess?’ Boney knit his brows. ‘Don’t tell me anything you don’t want to, Karen. Of course, I want to hear. You know that. But-what’s up with you, anyway?’ He had been scanning her face anxiously since they met. ‘You don’t look right, somehow.’

She laughed. ‘I knew you’d see. You always do. Your father would if he were here. He’ll be angry with me, but I really couldn’t help it, Rennie. I was all worked up, and I hadn’t slept all night, and it was so hateful to have to speak to Gerda like that. I went all shaky, and then-then I cried like a baby. I’m awfully ashamed of myself; I didn’t do it till it was all over and she’d promised. But then I just-well’-

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‘Just went all to pieces!’ he said wrathfully. ‘’Twasn’t your fault. I was afraid you would. You were worked up to it, and then you snapped, that’s all. But it’s a rotten shame that it should all come on you! Wish I could have been there to help.’

Karen laughed a little. ‘Well, you couldn’t. I’d have been only too glad to have you. I think I’ll go and practise; I mustn’t read, you know, after-after all that.’

‘No, you don’t!’ he said forcefully. ‘You aren’t going to tire yourself any more.’‘It wouldn’t tire me. It doesn’t, really, Rennie.’‘It’s standing. You always do stand when you fiddle. It’s not fit for you tonight;

you’re all done up. Come and sit in the woods where it’s cool, and talk for an hour; that would do you good.’

‘I’d love to!’ Karen said wistfully. ‘But I don’t think I’d better. Miss Braithwaite might say it wasn’t quite the thing. It’s different when I’m staying with your mother. Here we’re part of the schools. What do you think?’

He made a grimace. ‘I guess you’re right. You mustn’t give your little friend Gerda any chance to be nasty. She’d jump at it, of course.’

‘Or if Dumpy saw us-no, we won’t do anything that we’re afraid for him to see, even if we know there’s no harm in it.’

‘Then you’ll either go to bed and let Taisez-vous bring up your dinner, or come and lie in the hammock,’ said he, in a tone of authority.

And, to her own surprise, Karen submitted meekly, and lay in the hammock till it was time to dress for dinner, leaving Tazy and Napoleon between them to satisfy Prickles and the Spud as to the events of the day, and her own apparently lazy fit.

‘I don’t know why I do what Boney tells me,’ she said at night, as she lay with her face turned from the light, waiting for Tazy to get into bed. ‘I wanted to work at my fantasy this evening, but he said I mustn’t, so I lay there and did nothing, just to please him. He’s very-very emphatic sometimes, just like his father.’

‘An awful bully!’ Tazy assented. ‘Still, he’s always right; we all know that. So you may as well. He was right about you this evening, anyway. Sorry!’ and she switched off the light. ‘How are your eyes now? You haven’t damaged them, have you?’

‘Oh no! But they’re very tired-like the rest of me. They’ll be better tomorrow, and quite all right in a day or two. It’s good of you to care so much.’

‘I say! I’ve found out one thing today. Something I’ve been wanting to know for ages- all term, in fact.’

‘Oh? What was it? And who told you?’‘Nobody. It just dawned on me suddenly. I ought to have seen it before. It’s the

reason why the mistresses chose you for captain.’‘Gracious! I wish you’d tell me!’ Karen exclaimed. ‘I’ve wondered often enough.’‘It was because they knew they could depend on you to do the straight thing, if

anything went wrong; because you’re strong, and they knew you wouldn’t fail them,’ Tazy explained. ‘They knew you’d play the game.’

‘Oh, rot! It couldn’t be that,’ Karen said hurriedly.‘Perhaps they knew Svea was a favourite and likely to be chosen, and they wanted

you to balance her,’ Tazy said wisely.Karen said nothing to that, but lay wondering. ‘Wasn’t Pilly a brick today?’ she said

suddenly. ‘I never thought we’d get so much help from her.’‘She likes fair-play, and she saw you were playing the game like a sport, so she

played up too. That’s all,’ Tazy explained. ‘It was all there inside Pilly all right, though she’d been eating Gerda’s chocs. like all the rest. But it needed you to drag it out. She played up to you, that’s all.’

And Karen lay and thought this over till she fell asleep.

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Chapter 26 - Gerda’s Mistake

For several days the atmosphere of constraint among the girls of the Fourth at St Mary’s was very uncomfortable. Gerda would not speak to or look at Karen, and included Tazy and Phyllis in her dislike. Doreen, Edith, and others promptly threw in their lot with these three, and would not speak to Gerda. Babette declared for Karen, Valerie and Jeanne for Gerda. Svea, very unhappy, perforce ranged herself on Karen’s side, but without enthusiasm; she deeply resented Karen’s action, which had brought about this division, and destroyed the peace of the form; but she dared not openly go over to Gerda now.

Karen regretted the division even more keenly than Svea, but was powerless to end it. Gerda would respond to no overtures, and no one could prevent the rest of the girls from sympathising with one or the other. The seniors and the mistresses could not help seeing that there was trouble, of course, but no one would explain exactly what was wrong. The girls looked embarrassed when questioned by the mistresses, and were uncommunicative to the seniors; so they were left to themselves, in the hope that matters would come right in time.

The awkwardness was still acute, however, when the day arrived for the annual united picnic to the Blue Lake, and there was a sense of relief in several quarters when it became known that Karen was not going to the picnic, as her unknown friends had chosen this weekend to invite her to their home again.

‘We couldn’t possibly all be jolly together if both Karen and Gerda were there,’ said Svea.

‘But we could do without Gerda better than Karen!’ Doreen retorted. ‘Oh, sorry! I always forget she’s your cousin. Awfully hard lines on you, Svea, my child!’

‘I believe you forget on purpose!’ Svea said huffily.‘Karen’s going to have a far jollier time than if she came with us, so you needn’t

worry over her, Doreen,’ Tazy observed. ‘She’s awfully keen on these friends, and she’s looking forward to Saturday tremendously. She’s been to ever so many school picnics, she says, but it’s years since she felt so much at home anywhere as she does with these people. It’s the mother’s birthday on Saturday; that’s why they asked Karen this week-end, in spite of the picnic.’

‘I’m jolly glad she’s going. She needs a bit of fun to buck her up before the festival, if she’s to play as she ought to do and win that prize,’ Phyllis remarked. ‘How’s her piece getting on? I suppose you hear it morning, noon, and night?’

‘Not noon, because we’re here,’ Tazy laughed. ‘But I have heard it a good deal. It’s all right, Pilly, I do believe. I don’t think there’ll be anything else half so good. Of course, I’m its grandmother-oh yes! Didn’t you know? I gave her her tunes to variegate. I can’t tell you what they are, of course, but I always feel I’m related to that fantasy when I hear her playing it.’

‘Karen won’t mind missing the picnic,’ Edith remarked. ‘Now Gerda must think she’s mad to choose this week-end to go away. For the picnic’s such a fine chance for meeting boys. But Karen doesn’t care two pins about boys.’

‘Oh no! She ignores their existence,’ Pilly agreed.‘Oh, absolutely!’ Tazy said gravely, with a sudden vision of Karen and Rennie

Brown deep in conversation under the walnut-tree.For several days beforehand the talk of the girls centred round the picnic. It was

the custom, Tazy learned from Karen, for the girls to drive in big coaches to the shore of the lake, which lay at the foot of one of the giants of the snow-capped range opposite the Platz, and for the boys to cycle and meet them there. Lunch and tea were provided in the garden of a little hotel just above the waters of the lake; sports were organised by the masters and the mistresses, including a race for the mistresses in which Miss Braithwaite always took part, ‘like a sport!’ Boating was allowed under

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proper supervision, and much time was spent on the shore of the lake, whose beautiful deep-blue colour was the wonder of tourists and even of scientists.

‘You can look right down to the bottom, even out in the middle, where it’s ever so deep! The water’s as clear as glass,’ Svea explained eagerly, as they waited for their coaches in brilliant sunshine.

‘And at the bottom there are branches and tree-trunks and things all turned to stone,’ Doreen added. ‘Yes, really, Tazy. No one knows what does it; it’s something in the water.’

‘And the snow mountains are just up above you all the time. It’s a gorgeous spot for a picnic,’ Phyllis said warmly. ‘The only place you’re not supposed to go into is the woods, for they stretch for miles and miles, away up the mountains, and it would be so easy to get lost. But we go into pine-woods often enough; there’s nothing new about them! There’s top-hole scrambling on the rocks by the lake, and the loveliest little pools. And then there are the boys, you know-if you care about them!’

‘We’re allowed to be with them today, then?’‘As much as you like, so long as you’re out on the beach, or in the meadow above

the lake, or in the gardens. You’re not supposed to go and get lost in the woods with a crowd of boys, of course!’

‘Much more likely to do that with one boy! I’m not thinking of Tazy, though,’ Doreen

remarked.‘I’ve no desire to get lost with anybody. But, I say, Pilly! Our boys want to get to

know you, because you were so sporty in standing up for Karen. They said so this morning.’

‘Oh, they know all about that, do they?’‘They had to, because of Dumpy-Teddy Lorimer, you know. They attended to him,

while Karen settled Gerda. He’s hardly spoken to them since. He’s in an endless state of sulks.’

‘Awfully jolly for all the rest of you!’ Doreen remarked, while Phyllis laughingly expressed her willingness to meet the boys as much as they wanted.

‘Oh, we don’t take any notice of Dumpy now. He never did count much, anyway, Suppose we-you three, Svea, and I-invite the two Thistleton boys to take us out in a boat and show us the stone things at the bottom of the lake; shall we? I know they’ll do it.’

‘Right-o! Sounds topping!’ Phyllis said warmly.‘But there’s another boy besides those two and Teddy Lorimer; a big one. Are you

going to leave him out?’ Doreen asked. ‘Don’t you speak to him either?’‘Oh, just sometimes!’ Tazy’s lips twitched.‘The boy Brown; I’ve seen him in chapel. What about him?’ Svea asked curiously.

‘Is he too old? He’s nearly grown up, isn’t he?’‘He’s not a bit too old. But he won’t be here today. He always goes off on his own

when there’s a picnic, or sports, or a match; any one will tell you that. They say he can’t stand girls,’ Tazy said demurely. ‘But he’s always quite nice to Karen and me.’

‘Yes; he never does come to things. You never see him anywhere,’ Pilly agreed. ‘I suppose he and Karen haven’t gone off together, by any chance?’ and the others laughed at the ridiculous idea, ‘Oh, well, I guess we’ll have enough with the two Thistleton boys for today!’

Tazy’s invitation was given and warmly accepted; and after lunch in the garden of the inn, where long tables were spread among the roses, and girls and boys sat all mixed up together as they pleased, the seven went off to find a boatman with a big boat, to show Tazy the petrified tree-trunks, and were one of the merriest parties on the lake. Afterwards they admitted that it had been thoughtless to care only for their own amusement, when an obvious duty had stared them in the face; but the thought of watching Gerda had never occurred to the girls, any more than the boys had dreamed of keeping an eye on Dumpy.

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As their boat reached the beach, and the Spud sprang out to help the girls ashore, Léonie and Babette hurried up. ‘Is Svea there? Svea, where’s Gerda?’

‘Gerda? Goodness gracious, don’t ask me! Hiding in a corner with somebody, I expect,’ Svea said flippantly.

‘Where’s that Lorimer boy? Ask him,’ Phyllis suggested.‘Is Gerda lost, Léonie? What’s the matter?’ Tazy asked curiously.‘Miss Braithwaite wants her. I think you’d better go and see if you can do anything,

Svea.’ Léonie looked worried. ‘They’ve been looking and calling for Gerda for half-an-hour, but no one seems to have seen her since lunch.’

‘Well, I can’t do anything! What do you want her for!’ Svea sounded distinctly injured. Was this, she wondered wrathfully, because she was the only capitaine present? Karen ought to have been here to do her share. But fancy sending Karen to find Gerda!

‘There’s a message from the Platz,’ Léonie said abruptly. ‘It was ’phoned down to St Mary’s, and the gardener-boy cycled after us with it. Gerda’s wanted up there in a hurry.’

‘Is aunty worse?’ cried Svea in alarm.‘Is it her mother?’ Phyllis and Tazy spoke together, while Doreen looked grave.‘Oh, I am sorry!’ Edith said pitifully, for she had had recent experience of a sudden

summons.‘She’s very ill, and they think Gerda should go to her at once. You’d better go to

Madame, Svea; she’ll tell you all she knows. She sent for Helga, of course. She’s at the inn.’

Svea set off at a run, her face anxious. ‘Gerda’s awfully fond of her!’ she said as she left them. ‘Try to find her, Tazy! I do hope’- and she raced away.

‘I hope Gerda isn’t fooling somewhere with that boy, and hiding so that we sha’n’t be able to find her!’ Tazy said vehemently, voicing the fear that was in the minds of all. ‘She’ll never forgive herself if she is.’

‘I hope she isn’t too late to see her mother,’ Edith said anxiously.‘Why, is she as bad as all that?’ Tazy’s distress deepened.‘I heard about her when I was up there a fortnight ago. They told me she wasn’t

expected to live long.’‘I don’t see how Gerda could go on as she has been doing, if that’s so!’‘Oh, but Gerda might not know! They wouldn’t tell her. Svea certainly didn’t know.

Let’s find Gerda if we can.’They explained matters to Prickles and the Spud, and constituted themselves a

search-party in real earnest. But Miss Braithwaite had already done her best to find Gerda, enlisting all the girls and boys who were at hand. To the distress of all, and the deep anger of the head-mistress, the truth soon became plain that Gerda was not in the meadow, the garden, the inn, or one of the boats, and that she was not among any of the parties scattered along the shore. The lower pine-woods were searched also, with no better result. The only fact conclusively proved was that Teddy Lorimer was missing too, and Miss Braithwaite’s face hardened, and then filled with pity as she realised that in this case the disobedience would carry its own punishment with it. For every one knew that where her mother was concerned Gerda was not careless; she seldom spoke of her, but she cared for her deeply.

A second message, more urgent than the first, arrived within an hour. The first had suggested that it might be well for the girl to be with her mother; the second, from Sir Rennie Brown himself, was an imperative demand that Gerda should come at once, as his patient was obviously wanting her, though she was too weak to speak; he did not think she could live more than an hour.

Miss Braithwaite, helpless to send Gerda and in great distress, told Helga and Svea the truth, but refused to let them go in Gerda’s place. It would only trouble your aunt,’ she explained. ‘It is her daughter she wants just now. She would want to know why

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Gerda could not come, if you could. You would do more harm than good, my dear children. The only thing any of us can do is go on trying to find that poor, foolish girl.’

Svea broke down and cried. Helga, very nearly crying also, set out on another feverish search, with Dorothy Field to help.

Gerda and Dumpy had no intention of being found till they were ready, however. They were sure to be scolded, and perhaps punished, for going into the woods together, so they deter-mined to have some fun for it first. To sit on the beach among the crowd would have been far too tame; Gerda liked to have her little attempts at flirting admired, but today she intended her class-mates to see that one boy had preferred her company to that of all the rest of the school. She was a good walker, and Dumpy would not hang back where she led, though by nature he was lazy.

They slipped away into the woods as soon as lunch was over, and finding they had escaped unseen, began to climb the upward path, in the hope of getting beyond any other wanderers, but with the full intention of coming down again in time for tea. To miss a meal would be to court discovery by the authorities; it was quite possible that their absence during the afternoon might pass unnoticed, though Gerda intended to make much of it afterwards.

Dumpy was not a great walker, but Gerda had plenty of energy, and kept urging him on. ‘There’s a bare, bumpy rock sticking out up there. I believe from it we could look down on the lake, and see all the good little girls and boys on the shore,’ she laughed. ‘Then we’ll be able to tell them we saw them, and how far we went.’

The rock was farther than she had thought, but she was not easily turned back, and Dumpy could not let her go on alone. They reached the clearing at last and began to cross it, passing the inevitable black chalet, towards the rampart of rocks which overlooked the valley and lake so far below.

Suddenly Gerda caught Dumpy’s arm and dragged him behind the chalet. ‘Teddy! Did you see? No? Then look-but very carefully! Don’t let them see you! See there! Karen Wilson and a boy-one of your college boys! There! Among the rocks, looking down as we meant to do!’

‘Great snakes alive!’ hissed Dumpy. ‘It’s old Boney! My hat! Does she go off with him when she says she’s going to friends? The-the bounders! What a rotten trick!’

‘The boy who lives with you?’ Gerda’s eyes snapped at this deliverance of her enemy into her hands. ‘But what a glorious chance! Come away down and tell Madame and the rest quickly!’

‘Oh, I say!’ Dumpy protested. ‘That’s hardly playing the game, is it? They don’t know we saw them. But we’d better go down, or we’ll be jolly late for tea.’

Karen and Rennie Brown, quite unconscious of their presence, were among the rocks watching the picnic-parties on the lake and the shore, and laughing and talking in a way that made Dumpy stare at them open-mouthed, so great was the change in them both. Karen had gone up the mountain on Friday evening this time, Rennie carrying her case and violin as before. Miss Braithwaite had bidden her go a day earlier if she wished, as the whole of Saturday would be given up to the picnic. They had spent the morning in the meadows of their high pasture, where the hay was being cut; but after lunch they had driven Lady Rennie Brown, in her pony bath-chair, through the woods for several miles, and then, leaving her to rest and sketch, had walked on themselves to this vantage-spot, from which they could look down on their schoolmates.

‘I shall tell them on Monday that I saw them,’ Karen laughed, as she leaned over a big rock and gazed down at the lake and the boating-parties. ‘But you mustn’t, Rennie, unless you’re going to explain everything. Once they find out that I visit your people, they’ll soon go on to the rest.’

‘It wouldn’t be frightfully deadly if they did,’ he said lightly. ‘It’s only a silly idea of mine, anyway. If you find you want to tell them for any reason-why, just go ahead! I’ll get over it all right. And if Mother carries out this idea of hers, of coming to the festival to hear you play, that will give things away, of course. For, if she goes, Dad

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will go. And if they both go, I suppose I shall. Besides, I want to hear you get that prize, too; I’m going in any case.’

Karen laughed enjoyably. She had ceased to wonder at the absolute feeling of being one of the family which she had found in the chalet up on the heights. Already it seemed natural that they should all take an interest in her success or failure, as if she had always belonged to them. She did not trouble to analyse the fact, as she might have done if some one else had been concerned; she merely accepted and revelled in it, and felt herself truly one of the little circle.

‘And if they both come, and you’re there too, you’re not likely not to speak to them,’ she laughed. ‘And, anyway, you’re so like your father that when people see you together they’ll know all about it. It’s only because they’ve never thought of it that they haven’t guessed already. But you’ll all make me nervous.’

‘Oh, you won’t think about us,’ he prophesied. ‘You’ll be too busy seeing fairies dancing, or watching Taisez-vous’s two little moles “creeping up out of the ground,” or dodging the things she throws at you, if you give her too much “Greenwood.”’ For there was not much which concerned Karen which he had not heard by this time.

‘Talking and laughing as if they’d known one another all their lives!’ Gerda said indignantly, as she set out downhill with Dumpy. ‘Of course I shall tell Madame! It’s my duty! That’s what that Karen said to me about your chocolates. She was going to tell tales, and she made no secret about it,’ she went on, forgetting the essential differences of Karen’s position as form-captain, her fair warning given, and the chance of escape offered to Gerda by giving up her wrong-doing. The differences were not apparent to Gerda; she honestly thought the cases were parallel, and that she was only proposing to do what Karen had already threatened to do to herself.

Dumpy was uneasy, however. ‘I don’t like it. Seems like going behind old Bones.’‘Oh, don’t be silly!’ said Gerda impatiently. ‘Here come some of the girls-looking

for us, I suppose. I do hope Madame isn’t on the warpath! Well, I’m not the only one this time, anyway! Surely she’ll have something to say to her dear good little Karen! It’s some of our crowd; that’s a good thing! Tazy would want to stand up for Karen, and make all sorts of excuses for her.’

Babette, Léonie, Valerie, and Greta had met and joined forces with Helga and Dorothy, and had ranged the woods for a greater distance in this direction than any of the others. Tazy, the three English girls, and the two boys were hunting on the wrong side of the valley.

Gerda, with a sudden brilliant idea, turned to Dumpy. ‘You keep out of sight. I’ll say I’ve been for a walk. It’s true! You come down when we’ve gone.- I say! Valerie! Babette! Such sport!’ and she went racing down the path and into their midst. ‘Oh, Helga, are you there? Well, you ought to know too! That Karen Wilson, who sets up to be such a saint, is away up there in the woods with one of the boys from Madame Perronet’s; the big one they call- Why, Helga, what’s the matter?’

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Chapter 27 - Too Late

‘Aunty’s very ill.’ Helga knew no way to break the news more gently. ‘Come to Madame quickly, Gerda. There was a message hours ago; you are wanted. We’ve all been searching, but we-we couldn’t find you.’

Gerda, suddenly white and shaking, gave her a look of terrified dismay that the others never forgot. Then, without a word, she set off down the steep path at a run.

‘She won’t help matters by falling and twisting her ankle, you know!’ Dorothy cried, and set off in pursuit. ‘Gerda, do be careful! The pine-needles are so slippery! If you hurt yourself, you won’t get there at all.’

Gerda’s only answer was a brief question as she ran. ‘Where is Madame?’‘At the inn. She’s sent for a motor from the village, and it’s waiting.’‘When did the message come?’ gasped Gerda, a stricken look on her face at this

evidence of the need for haste.‘The first was about two o’clock,’ Dorothy told her gravely. ‘It’s nearly four now.’

What need to say more in the way of reproach?Gerda grew whiter, and the shamed misery in her eyes deepened. ‘The first?’ she

asked presently, as the full import of Dorothy’s answer dawned on her overwrought brain.

‘There was a much more urgent message an hour later. Sir Rennie Brown himself ’phoned to the school to know why you hadn’t come, and the message was brought here. That won’t help, Gerda!’ Dorothy cried sharply, as Gerda stopped suddenly and leaned helplessly against a tall, straight pine-tree. ‘You must go as fast as you can!’

They had far outdistanced Helga and the rest. Dorothy put her arm round Gerda as she swayed for a moment. She was deeply sorry for the girl, but her sympathy was inevitably tinged with blame. Gerda’s distress could have been avoided so easily.

‘I’m better now,’ Gerda said shakily. ‘I didn’t understand it was as bad as that. Oh, if only!’- How often she would say, ‘If only!’- She set off running again, and Dorothy ran beside her, watching her closely.

Miss Braithwaite, waiting in restless helplessness and keen distress at the inn, not knowing from which side Gerda would come at last, saw them as soon as they came out of the woods. She stepped into the waiting motor, and met them as they reached the road.

‘Thank you, Dorothy!- Come, Gerda dear!’ The mistress saw that no words of reproach were needed. Every one knew that Gerda’s father had died two years before, and that she cared more for her invalid mother than for any one or anything else in the world. Miss Braithwaite saw that Gerda understood; she, too, would never forget the shame and distress and fear in the girl’s eyes as she sprang into the car, and then, trembling all over, asked brokenly, ‘Is there any more news, Madame?’ as she dropped exhausted on the seat.

‘Nothing since Sir Rennie Brown’s message, but that was urgent enough, my dear. Did Dorothy tell you the whole message?’

‘I don’t know!’ Gerda looked up with wildly frightened eyes. ‘She said he-he wanted to know why I hadn’t come;’ and she covered her face with her hands.

Miss Braithwaite said nothing, hesitating whether to tell her more. But Gerda looked up,

in an agony of fear. ‘Was there more, Madame? Oh, please tell me! Is it-am I too late already?’

‘I don’t know, Gerda dear. The message reached us about three o’clock, but had taken nearly an hour to come. It had to be brought by cycle from St Mary’s, you know. He said your mother wanted you, but was too weak to speak, and he feared she could not live more than an hour. It is better for you to know. We will hope she has rallied, and that you may yet be in time. But we cannot reach the Platz in less than another

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two hours, I fear; we shall have to wait for the six o’clock train. We have just missed the four o’clock.’

If Gerda needed any additional punishment, she suffered it during that terrible hour and a half’s waiting in the little station. There was nothing to do but wait, of course; the car could not climb the cliff and to go on foot or by mule would have taken longer than the train. Miss Braithwaite insisted that she must come and have some tea at a hotel, and forced her to take a little food and to sit still for a few minutes. Gerda wandered restlessly about, knowing something now of what Miss Braithwaite had endured while waiting for her to come down from the woods. The obvious way to end her suspense never occurred to her till they were sitting in the little train, waiting for it to start. Miss Braithwaite slipped away while Gerda was pacing restlessly up and down the garden of the hotel, and promptly rang up the Platz to know the latest news; but the answer she received was one it was better Gerda should not hear so long as she was condemned to this terrible waiting; and the fact that hotel and station must be on the telephone did not occur to Gerda till it was almost time to start. Then she turned swiftly to Miss Braithwaite, hope dawning in her tired eyes. ‘Oh, Madame! couldn’t we ’phone from here? There might be later news.’

‘Gerda dear, I rang up Sir Rennie as soon as we got here, and again ten minutes ago. Your mother rallied for an hour, but is weaker again now, and he cannot promise you will see her alive. He says she is just slipping away from him. It would have done no good to tell you, my dear; we could do nothing more. If we had only caught the earlier train, you would have been in time.’ A fact which Gerda would never forget all her life long.

Miss Braithwaite did not add the rest of Sir Rennie Brown’s characteristic message. ‘Found her, have you? She should have been here all afternoon. It’s too late now, of course; but you’d better let her come. You’ll only have a scene with her if you try to stop her now. But it’s too late; her mother won’t know her; she’s just going. I’ll do all I can.’

Gerda, utterly overwrought and exhausted, broke down as the train started. ‘If I could only tell her I’m sorry!’ she whispered at last, lying in Miss Braithwaite’s arms, her face hidden.

‘Dear!’ the head-mistress warned her gently, ‘I fear your punishment will be the knowledge that you were too late, and that she had to go with her last wish for you unsatisfied. You will never cease to regret that. But she will know you are sorry; of that you may be sure. But you will always regret that you could not comfort her at the last. Here is the station, and Sir Rennie himself to meet us. Then you must be brave, Gerda dear, for we are too late. He would never leave a patient while he could do anything for her. You would like to go on, I suppose? You will want to see her once more;’ and she half-lifted the broken girl from the train.

Up by the shore of the Blue Lake, the very thought of which would be a reproach and a misery to Gerda all her life, the other girls waited restlessly till it was time to go home. Not many of them were fond of Gerda, it is true; but the blow which had fallen on her overhung many of them, and all could guess what she must be feeling. Even Tazy, who knew her mother to be well on the road to recovery, thanks to early treatment and Sir Rennie Brown’s care and skill, could imagine how she would have felt in Gerda’s place. To enjoy themselves with such a shadow clouding the day was impossible, and they were relieved when by general consent the sports and the races were cancelled in the circumstances, and would have been glad to go home early. But

Miss Martin and Mr Braithwaite decided against it; and after a rather gloomy tea with the boys in the inn garden, the girls were sent out on to the shore of the lake again for a time. The little ones were sent off home in one big coach, however, and at their urgent request Helga and Svea were allowed to go too, in the hope of hearing the latest news when they reached the school.

It was only as they sat on the shore that Babette and Valerie remembered Gerda’s wild words as she met them.

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‘What on earth do you suppose she meant?’ Valerie questioned.‘Nothing bad about Karen,’ Babette said stoutly. ‘I shall ask Tazy; she’s sure to

know.-Taisez-vous, where are you? I want you!’Tazy, Phyllis, and Doreen were chatting together, sitting perched on a pile of

rocks, their faces turned to the snow mountains beyond the lake. Edith, sitting with them, was silent, for she knew that as far as her mother’s health was concerned she might any day be in Gerda’s place.

Babette and Valerie went across and joined them on the rocks, and Babette, balancing herself on a great boulder with her feet dangerously near the water, repeated Gerda’s words. ‘She said Karen Wilson was away up there in the woods, all alone with a boy. One of your boys from Perronet’s, Tazy; the big one. What do you suppose she meant? Karen would never do that without leave.’

‘Besides, she’s away for the week-end,’ Valerie added.Tazy laughed, and laughed again as Phyllis looked up in dismay. ‘Oh, it’s all right,

Pilly dear! Don’t worry about Karen! She hasn’t got a scrap of sneakiness in her. But she can keep quiet about things when they’re other people’s secrets. It’s quite all right, Babette; Madame knows, or Karen wouldn’t be there. Gerda and Dumpy must have gone a very long way up the hill, though. Look here, Valerie, I can’t tell you why Karen was up there with old Boney! I know, of course, but it isn’t my business to tell you. You can ask her yourself on Monday. But if you go telling other people, or making a mystery out of it, or pretending it’s a secret and there’s something to hide, you’ll make yourself look awfully silly. For there’s nothing in it-nothing at all. I should wait and ask Karen, if I were you.’

‘If it was anybody else, Karen would say Madame ought to know,’ Valerie grumbled.

‘All right! You go and tell Madame. She’ll turn you down fast enough. You’ll get a lecture on interfering in other people’s business, likely enough.’

Her tone was not encouraging. Valerie, much crestfallen, decided to wait till she had heard what Karen had to say on the subject. She did not want to make a fool of herself. She was secretly not a little afraid of Karen; if there were really nothing wrong or underhand in the matter, she would certainly look silly if she reported it to the head-mistress.

Tazy, watching her closely, added, ‘You’re not quite sure about it, are you? Well, I won’t say a word to Karen. If she should come home tomorrow night, there’ll be plenty to tell with all this about Gerda. I won’t warn her; then you can ask her yourself, and see how she takes it. I expect she’ll laugh. She may not tell you anything, or she may tell you to go and ask Madame. But there’s nothing she’ll be ashamed for you to know. As for Dumpy-of course he was there too? He’s not likely to say anything; he’s been sulking for a fortnight, and he’ll be worse than ever now.’

No one among the girls doubted that Dumpy had been with Gerda, though, thanks to her precautions, they had not been seen together. Those in authority had not much doubt either, for Miss Braithwaite and Miss Martin had not forgotten that tennis afternoon. Miss Braithwaite had said a word to her brother during the search for Gerda, and when Dumpy strolled in to tea all alone, a few minutes late, he was summoned to a private interview with his head-master, one of the results of which was a warning that next term he would not be allowed to live outside the college, since he evidently could not be trusted. Dumpy did not, of course, communicate this verdict to the rest at Madame Perronet’s, but relapsed into a gloomier fit of sulks than ever. He was secretly as much afraid of old Bones as Valerie was of Karen, and for the same reason-an unconscious recognition of a greater force of character than his own very weak one; and so, without Gerda to urge him on, he thought it better to say nothing to Napoleon of what he had seen, at least until he saw what move Gerda was likely to make. He watched Karen and Boney at dinner on Sunday night with stealthy curiosity and a gloating feeling of superior knowledge, but said nothing either to them

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or to the rest. So Karen went to school on Monday morning unconscious that Gerda and Valerie had a surprise in store for her.

Valerie plunged into the matter as soon as she saw her. ‘I say, Karen! Have you heard about Gerda?’

‘Of course. Tazy’s been telling me. I’m not surprised, but I’m awfully sorry for her,’ Karen said soberly. ‘She’ll never forget that her mother wanted her at the last, and that she wasn’t there. I don’t think I could bear it. And Gerda cared a lot about her mother. It must have been awful for her to know she was too late, and to feel she could have been there quite well. Is she back yet?’

‘No; she’s staying there for a few days, with friends of her mother’s in the hotel. Karen! She said something so odd just before she heard about her mother.’

‘Oh! What kind of thing?’‘About you. She said she’d seen you away up in the woods somewhere.’ Valerie

watched her closely, wondering if she would try to deny that she had had company.Karen looked at her quickly. ‘Gerda saw me in the woods? On Saturday afternoon?

Why, she must have been miles away from all the rest of you! We came down as far as the rocks and had a look at you all; I saw the boats, and crowds of girls on the shore. But how did Gerda get so far?’

‘Who’s we?’ Babette asked curiously. ‘Gerda seemed worried because you weren’t alone, Karen.’

Karen looked at her in frank surprise. ‘She didn’t think I was spending the week-end alone on the mountains, did she? I was with my friends, of course. Oh!’ with sudden understanding. ‘Did Gerda see me and Napoleon when we walked on and left his mother and her carriage? And did she want to know why I was out with a boy?’ She looked round at the undeniable interest on their faces.

Phyllis and Doreen looked as eager as Babette and Valerie. Only Tazy’s lips were twitching. ‘Do explain, if you can, Karen,’ said she. ‘Pilly’s so awfully worried, and the rest can’t understand. Gerda evidently thought she’d caught you out that time, you know.’

Karen laughed, and so fulfilled Tazy’s prophecy. ‘I was staying for the week-end with his mother,’ she said, looking at Phyllis. ‘They are friends of Miss Braithwaite’s. Saturday was his mother’s birthday, and as his father couldn’t be there, for several reasons’-her eyes met Tazy’s; the reasons were not unconnected with Gerda’s recent trouble-‘she wanted Boney to be there, as he’s all the rest of the family. I thought it was so jolly of them to ask me too, but his mother likes my fiddle. It’s quite all right, Valerie, so you and Gerda needn’t worry over me.’

Valerie, crushed and disappointed, said no more. If the boy’s parents were friends of Miss Braithwaite’s, she would risk more than a snubbing if she approached the head-mistress on the subject. There was no more to be said, of course.

Karen laughed again, and turned to her desk. ‘Quite a blow for Val!’ she murmured to Tazy, who nodded.

Phyllis said curiously, ‘Then is it always that boy’s mother you go to stay with, Karen? I thought nobody knew anything about his people? I asked Bill Thistleton about him, and he said old Boney was a regular old hermit, and an absolute oyster, and never told anybody anything, and no one knew a scrap about him or his folks.’

‘Bill Thistleton doesn’t know everything,’ Karen remarked.‘But have you known Mrs Brown long? His name is really Brown, isn’t it?’Karen’s eyes met Tazy’s, and they both laughed. ‘Oh yes. That’s his name,’ Karen

answered gravely. ‘I met him and his father years ago; I’ve only just got to know his mother, but I’m awfully fond of her already. She’s going to England at the end of the term, and I’m to travel with her and Boney, and spend part of the holidays with them. His mother’s coming to the festival on Saturday, so you’ll see her then.’

‘Really, Karen?’ Tazy’s face lit up. ‘That’s to hear you play, of course. How pleased Napoleon will be! But-I say, Karen!’ and then she stopped suddenly.

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Karen nodded in answer to the unspoken words. ‘He is pleased. His father will come too, if he can get away.’

‘But that will give the whole thing away, Karen!’ Tazy remonstrated in an undertone, sitting down beside her. ‘Everybody knows his father by sight. Why, in this village if King George himself walked down the street people wouldn’t know him any better than they’d know old Boney’s father!’

‘Not so well, I expect,’ laughed Karen. ‘ All the same, they’re coming, Tazy. His mother really wants to, and if you understood you’d know that’s enough for him. He’s just too glad for words that she’s well enough to want to go anywhere; she hasn’t been anywhere or done anything for two years. But she’s ever so much stronger, and she’s keen to come. They’re both just delighted.’

‘She’s coming to hear you win that prize with your fantasy,’ Tazy said.Karen flushed a little. ‘They seem to think that may have something to do with it.

Rennie thanked me on the way down through the forest last night. It seems too much to believe that she should care enough about me, but I shall feel awfully jolly at having somebody there who will be almost like my own people. It’s been so lonely other years; I’ve got prizes, but I haven’t cared very much about them, because there was nobody to care with me. This will be quite new. I feel somehow as if everything was changing for me this summer, and getting jollier in every way-living outside the school and making friends. And think of the holidays, Tazy!’

‘I’m awfully glad!’ Tazy said warmly. ‘And you’ll go on being friends with Boney’s folks all your life, I expect- Even if you aren’t more than friends some day,’ she said to herself.

‘Oh yes. We’re friends for always,’ Karen said quietly.

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Chapter 28 - A Surprise For Bill And Bert

The Musical Festival at St Mary’s drew as big a crowd as usual, and produced several surprises, though Karen’s prize for musical composition was not one of these. It had been prophesied with such emphasis by Tazy that many of the girls had come to look on it as a certainty, much to Karen’s distress. ‘You’ll make me look so silly if I don’t get it, Tazy!’ she had remonstrated again and again. ‘And you’ve only heard my piece; the others may be ever so much better.’

‘I don’t believe it. They couldn’t possibly!’ Tazy was confident of the success of the folk-dance fantasy. ‘Why, look what a big thing it’s done already, in bringing Boney’s mother out of her hiding-place! It’s bound to win the prize after that!’

‘I don’t see that at all,’ laughed Karen.The visitors began to arrive early in the afternoon, before the boys had come

across from the college, and from the moment they appeared all interest centred in the pony bath-chair and the little lady enthroned in it, who was evidently among Miss Braithwaite’s most honoured guests. Very soon those girls who knew whispered the news that the big man in constant attendance and watching her with such care was the great doctor from the Platz, on whose wisdom hung the lives of so many, and Tazy was among those who looked at him most curiously, seeing him for the first time, though she had heard of him so often. Not a girl there but knew his name, however; to many of them he stood for the only hope of saving the lives of their parents. It was most amazing to see him there, even for so great an occasion as the festival, the event of the summer term; but still more surprising to see his wife, of whom many had heard, but who was known to nobody. She was plainly well known to Miss Braithwaite, however, and the girls, thrilled and delighted, watched from a respectful distance, while the competitors collapsed in sudden nervousness at sight of such a distinguished audience.

‘I shall die; I know I shall!’ Babette moaned. ‘My music’s such utter rubbish! I thought it was all right till this moment, but it’s not good enough to play before the Rennie Browns!’

‘Mine’s utter drivel, too,’ Phyllis agreed. ‘Karen, aren’t you even nervous? You look quite calm and comfortable.’

‘Oh no, she doesn’t!’ Tazy knew the meaning of that flush on Karen’s cheeks. ‘But she isn’t feeling as bad as the rest of you,’ she added, with a laugh.

‘I think I’m more excited than nervous.’ Karen had considered the matter with characteristic care before replying.

‘I’m excited, and nervous, and terrified, all at once!’ Babette proclaimed. ‘I think I’ll retire from the contest.’

‘Oh no! That would be funking! You couldn’t do that-not even on account of Sir Rennie Brown,’ said Tazy. ‘They say his wife’s frightfully fond of music!’ she added wickedly, and the nervous candidates groaned again.

‘Tazy Kingston, you’re a pig! Taisez-vous, can’t you?’ Babette pleaded.The next surprise of the day was when Karen, reading permission in Miss

Braithwaite’s look in her direction, ran forward to kiss Lady Rennie Brown, to greet the great doctor warmly, and to stand talking with them until it was time for them to take their places in the hall.

‘Karen knows them!’ marvelled Phyllis. ‘No wonder she wasn’t nervous! I say, Tazy, come here and explain this mystery.’

‘Where did she get to know them, Tazy?’ Svea demanded. ‘She never speaks about them.’

‘Karen doesn’t babble, as some people do,’ Tazy said solemnly. ‘Oh, I’m not going to explain anything. Yes, Pilly, of course I knew. But you can ask her anything you want to know afterwards.’

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‘Their name’s Brown!’ Phyllis said slowly, in startled whisper.Tazy gave her an amused look. ‘So it is! Funny name, isn’t it?’‘Tazy Kingston, I shall shake you in a minute! Do you mean to say’-‘Oh, not in public, Pilly!’ Tazy pleaded, and broke into a laugh. ‘Lady Rennie Brown

would get such an awful shock. Remember it’s her first visit to St Mary’s. We must create a good impression. And think of Madame’s feelings.’

‘Have you been living with Dr Rennie Brown’s son in your house all this term, and never told a soul?’ Phyllis demanded indignantly.

Svea gasped. ‘Tazy! That big boy-Boney? Do you mean that he?’ -‘His name’s Brown!’ Tazy teased. ‘Pilly dear, it’s Sir Rennie Brown, not Dr! It’s rude

to forget.’‘Goodness gracious me!’ said Phyllis, and collapsed weakly on a seat. ‘I say, Tazy!

Tellus all about it! Be an angel! Don’t go away!’ and she caught her by the skirt. ‘How

did you find out? How does Karen know them? I say! Isn’t she lucky, just?’‘When Karen began calling him Rennie, instead of Boney-well, I guessed, don’t you

know,’ Tazy explained. ‘But you’ll have to ask her the rest. They’re going in, so we’d better go too. And here come the first of the boys. I’ve no more time to spare for you, Pilly dear. I’ve got to see what kind of a sort of a shock Prickles and the Spud get when they find out who old Boney’s father is.’

‘Don’t they know?’ cried Svea. ‘And they’ve been living in the same house with him for years! But I should have boasted about him to everybody I met, at the first possible moment!’

‘There are several little differences between you and Napoleon, Svea, my child,’ Tazy said dryly. ‘No, they haven’t a ghost of a notion. I’m going to see the fun, whatever happens. Bye-bye! I’ll see you later! Good luck to you poor things! Glad I’m not going in for anything.’

Boney, ‘with an eye to dramatic effect,’ as Tazy told him afterwards, was late; he so seldom came to any entertainment of the kind that only Tazy, Karen, and his parents were expecting him. Bill and Bert and the rest of the boys had grasped the fact that the Rennie Browns were present, and that Karen apparently knew them, without realising its significance, when Napoleon strolled in, gave one quick comprehensive look round the hall which seemed to include everybody, then went up to his mother, sitting in the front row, kissed her, and sat down beside Karen on the floor at her feet, where a double row of boys and girls had been allowed to take their places in front of the visitors.

Tazy, sitting at the side of the hall close to the Spud and Prickles, watched their faces. ‘Well, Spuddy?’ she whispered, chuckling, as he stared open-mouthed.

Prickles was quicker. One look from old Bones to Sir Rennie Brown was enough; he knew the great doctor well by sight, but had never realised the likeness, strong as it was, till he saw these two together. ‘Great Scott! Napoleon!’ he hissed. ‘Bert, d’you see that?’

‘He sees it, but he doesn’t understand,’ Tazy whispered. ‘Hush, Bill! Don’t make a scene! The music’s beginning.’

‘My stars and garters!’ gasped Prickles, and sat and stared incredulously at Napoleon and Karen.

‘Does he-do you mean’- began the astounded Spud. ‘Tazy, old Boney- He can’t be!’

‘It looks rather as if he was, all the same!’ Tazy retorted. ‘Just look at them both together, Spud. You can’t doubt it.’

‘Did you know?’ Prickles demanded at the end of the song, of which he had not heard a note. ‘And Karen? How long- Columbus! D’you mean to say it’s his folks she’s been going to stop with?’

Tazy nodded solemnly. ‘I’ve known since before the picnic. She? Oh, since soon after the cricket-match. You know that day you had to sit on Dumpy? Well, she asked

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Napoleon what she must do at school, about Gerda, you know; and she called him Rennie. So of course I guessed.’

‘Not half!’ Prickles assented, with a grin. ‘You couldn’t help it. And did he own up? I say, what a queer stick he is, though, isn’t he? Why wouldn’t he let anybody know?’

‘That was his business. They told me, but said I wasn’t to babble about it.’In the intervals between the competition items she told of Karen’s recognition of

Boney, and of all that had followed from it. Prickles and the Spud listened, amazed and rather indignant.

‘I’ll go for the bounder tonight! We jolly well ought to have known!’ said Prickles.‘You can go for him as much as you like, but he won’t care twopence. I guess you

know that by this time,’ Tazy retorted.Prickles groaned. ‘True for you, Taisez-vous! If I’ve tried to annoy that chap once,

I’ve done it a dozen times, but it simply doesn’t come off.’‘No; and it won’t this time, either. Now stop babbling, you two! The compositions

are next, and I want to hear them all. Of course, I know mine and Karen’s is the best, but I want to hear what kind of stuff the other girls have turned out.’

‘Yours and Karen’s! I like that!’ the Spud jeered.‘Of course,’ Tazy said composedly. ‘Karen is its mother, but I’m its grandmother.

She couldn’t have done it without me.’Following Lucia’s medley of Italian songs, Babette’s French march, and Olga’s

peasant lullaby, Karen stood up to play her Old English fantasy. She had meant to play to Lady Rennie Brown, and to think of no one else; but as she drew her bow across the strings for the first dancing notes of ‘The Old Mole’ she caught Tazy’s eye, and a meaning look flashed laughingly between them. As plainly as if Tazy had spoken, Karen saw the ‘grandmother’ repeating that doggerel verse and the picture of the old mole’s peeping head, and the little waiting lady mole, rose before her indignant eyes. She banished it with an effort, and swung into the lilting air, and then, conscious that feet were tapping to the rhythm on all sides, played it again before taking up her variations. Once launched on her own work, she forgot Tazy’s nonsense, however, and forgot also to be nervous. The singing, dancing music carried her away as it did every time she played it, and this time she carried her audience with her. She had caught the lighthearted enjoyment and the freedom of folk-dancing in her interpretation of its music, and many among her hearers felt and entered into its spirit, with no need of visible dancing figures to show the movements. The singing notes of ‘If All the World were Paper’ told their own story, and gave her a fascinatingly dainty second theme. ‘Lady in the Dark’ was another matter; it was quite as full of lilt and swing, and perhaps even more haunting, but with that subtle difference which had charmed Karen from the first. She had felt it instinctively, but thanks to her master’s explanations she now understood what she had felt, and had worked out her composition in perfect harmony with the ancient modal tune. Lady Rennie Brown loved this movement, and Karen smiled at her as she played, with memories of the mountain chalet where they had discussed it together. Many others felt its beauty and enjoyed it keenly, while wondering why it seemed so strange. ‘Greenwood’ was a triumphant climax, its notes ringing out exultantly, and Karen had carried their spirit into the closing lines of her own work, Tazy watched her spellbound, and quite forgot to pretend to throw anything at her, as she had fully intended to do; but Karen was not seeing Tazy, or the audience, or even her new friends, but a ruddy-purple pinewood with blue mist and gleams of white peaks among the trees, and fairy-like figures of girls dancing forward and back, to and fro, hand in hand, in rings and lines, as she had seen them when she described the dance to Rennie in the woods. She had never played quite like this before, never lost herself so completely in the spirit of the music she had created. From her own work, she swung back into Greenwood for one final turn, swept up to a triumphant chord, and stood dazed and tired out, only slowly coming back to a world of reality.

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‘Where were you, dear?’ Lady Rennie whispered, as Karen, reaching her somehow, some instinct guiding her quite unconsciously, dropped bewildered and weary on the floor at her feet.

‘Playing for the fairies? Rennie told me.’‘In the pine-wood-yes! You were there, weren’t you, Karen?’ Rennie junior looked

at her curiously. ‘Say! You mustn’t play to people if it’s going to knock you up.’‘I’m all right!’ Karen laughed, and came to herself with a jerk. ‘I’m awake now.

Yes, I was in that wood with you, with girls in white dancing, just as we said. Oh, I enjoyed it! But I’m tired! Isn’t it funny?’

‘You’re certain of the prize,’ said the great doctor, beaming down at her. ‘You have given us a great treat. Hear them clapping! You’ll have to go up again-if you’re fit for it, that is.’

‘Oh, I can’t!’ She shrank. ‘I’d forgotten all about the prize. I just enjoyed it. But I could never do it again-not today! That would ruin the feeling of it. I couldn’t-couldn’t possibly’-

‘Get worked up to that pitch again. No, it wouldn’t be good for her, dad,’ Napoleon said promptly. ‘She can’t stand too much. She’ll go all to pieces. Make them shut up!’

‘Rennie, you pig! I wouldn’t!’‘All right, my son; she sha’n’t play again. Another girl’s going up; no encores!

That’s very wise.’‘We wouldn’t have had you play again,’ Rennie informed her. ‘We’re not going to

have you knocked up for any old school crowd!’Karen laughed, and leaning against his mother’s knee, rested while the

competitions continued.‘Not bad, some of them.’ Prickles came stalking up when an interval gave him an

opportunity. ‘But none of ’em could touch Taisez-vous’s. Oh, didn’t you know? Did you think it was yours, Karen, old thing? Ann says she’s its grandmother.’

‘Well, she is.’ Karen laughed. ‘I owe that prize to her.’‘Good thing for you I can whistle-and that I had scarlet-fever that summer;’ and

Tazy came up to congratulate her. ‘I was smelling disinfectant and seeing empty beds all the time you were playing, Karen.’

‘Now, old man, what have you got to say for yourself?’ Prickles turned challengingly on Rennie Brown.

Napoleon smiled at him pleasantly. ‘Say? Nothing, dear chap. What do you want me to say?’

‘He wouldn’t be old Boney if he’d got anything to say. You ought to know that by this time, Bill,’ said Tazy severely.

Sir Rennie Brown laughed. ‘Both by the internal evidence of that speech, and by her likeness to a patient of mine, I judge this young lady to be Mademoiselle Taisez-vous! Glad to meet you at last, my dear! Your mother is going on excellently; I hope to send her home cured in the spring. If only everybody would come to me at once, as she did, I’d do the same for more of them. But most of them don’t give me a fair chance.’

‘We have heard of you, Tazy,’ The little lady smiled as Tazy, speechless for once, looked her gratitude and admiration at the great man. ‘Both Karen and Rennie have told us much about you.’

‘I’m so awfully glad to see you at last!’ Tazy faltered, shy for the first time in her life. ‘Karen talks about you all the time.’

‘What do you want me to say, old man?’ Napoleon asked amiably of Prickles.‘Say? Why, apologise for making fools of everybody for years and years!’‘I shouldn’t think of it,’ Rennie Brown laughed, while his father and mother

watched and listened in amusement. ‘’Twasn’t any old business of yours, anyway.’‘But we ought to have known!’ the Spud complained loudly.‘Sorry, Spuddy, and all that. But I don’t see it.’

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‘And you told the girls, and not us!’ The Spud’s indignation rose to high-water mark.

Karen and Tazy laughed. Napoleon said gravely, ‘Oh, no, I didn’t. The girls found out. I didn’t tell them. It’s a little way girls have, don’t you know.’

‘And you let us say things about your folks. What did we say, by the way?’ Prickles asked anxiously.

‘Nothing bad, or I’d have squashed you like a ton of bricks. Oh, I enjoyed the way you babbled at times,’ Boney assured him blandly.

‘Of course you did, you-you bounder! Laughing at us all the time, I bet!’‘They’re going to have the recitations now. You’d better all taisez-vous,’ Tazy

warned them. ‘Even swanks like you and Karen and Captain Bill aren’t supposed to chatter all through competitions-Rennie!’ using the name for the first time, with dancing eyes.

‘Well, I say you’re a downright rotter, Napoleon Brown!’ and Prickles subsided, but sat nursing his injured feelings during the rest of the afternoon.

As the festival drew to its close, Sir Rennie asked a question of his wife, and then, satisfied with the answer, said a word to his son.

Napoleon turned to Prickles, the Spud, and Tazy. ‘I say, Taisez-vous; and you chaps! Karen and I are going back to the “Grand” to spend the evening with my folks; and the Dad says he’ll stand a dinner for the whole crowd, if you care to come. Spuddy, you might scoot back to Perronet’s and tell Grandma we won’t be home till late. Care to come, all of you?’

‘Not half!’ said Prickles sincerely.‘Top-hole! I’ll scoot like the wind,’ the Spud said warmly.‘To celebrate Karen’s prize for my fantasy! And because you’ve come out of your

shell at last, Napoleon!’ Tazy added. ‘What a simply beautiful idea, Boney! Every other girl in the school will be green with envy of us two!’

‘Quite worth while!’ Rennie Brown grinned.‘Dinner with your father and mother! How I’ll swank tomorrow!’ Tazy sighed

happily.

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the two form captains

Documents

bert chapter

prep set

form captains

present boys

younger boys

miss euclid

big study table

grins of satisfaction