01 The School at the Chalet

Chapter 1.

Madge Decides.

‘IF only I knew what to do with you girls!’ said Dick in worried tones.

‘Oh, you needn’t worry about us!’ replied Madge.

‘Talk sense! I’m the only man there is in the family-except Great-Uncle William; and he’s not much use!’

‘Jolly well he isn’t! Poor dear! He’s all gout and crutches.’ And Madge threw back her head with a merry laugh.

‘Well then! I ask you!’

She got up from her seat on the Chesterfield, and walked across the room to her brother. ‘Dear old Dick!

You really mustn’t worry about Joey and me. We shall be all right!’

He lifted his fair boyish head to look at her. Not pretty in the strict sense of the word, yet Madge Bettany was good to look at. She was slight to the verge of thinness, with a well-poised head covered by a mop of curly dark-brown hair. Her eyes were dark brown too-the colour of old brown sherry-and were shaded by long, upcurling, black lashes. Dark eyes and hair presupposed an olive complexion, but there, Madge had deserted the tradition of the Bettany women, and her skin showed the wonderful Saxon fairness of her mother’s family. Her mouth was wide, but with well-cut lips, and her slender figure was as erect as a young poplar. There was enough likeness between her and Dick, despite the disparity of colouring, to proclaim them unmistakably brother and sister. Now she slipped a hand through his arm as she announced, ‘I’ve got a plan all ready for us.’

‘Let’s hear it,’ he commanded.

‘Well, the best thing is to go over all the possibilities.’

‘Oh, for Heaven’s sake, don’t make a long story of it!’ he implored.

‘All right. But I want you to see my point, so–’

‘That means it’s something you think I sha’n't approve of,’ he said shrewdly. ‘Well, get on and let’s hear the worst.’

‘You see,’ began his sister, balancing herself on her toes, ‘whatever happens, Joey and I must keep together. We are all agreed on that point. But-there’s no money; or, at any rate, very little. You can’t keep us on your pay; that’s quite out of the question! So last night, I thought and thought after I had gone to bed; and, honestly, I think my plan’s the only one possible.’

‘Oh, for Heaven’s sake, cut all that!’ groaned her brother. ‘What do you want to do?’

‘Start a school,’ was the sufficiently startling reply.

‘Start a school!’ He stared at her. ‘My good girl, that sort of thing requires capital-which we haven’t got.’

‘Yes, I know that as well as you do!’ retorted his sister. ‘At least, it does in England. But I wasn’t thinking of England.’

‘Then where were you thinking of?’ he demanded, not unreasonably. ‘Ireland? Shouldn’t advise that! You might wake up one morning to find yourself burnt out!’

‘Of course not! I’ve got some sense! And I do wish you’d try to be a little more sympathetic!’ she returned rather heatedly.

‘But, my dear girl, it’s an awful undertaking to run a school. And you look such a kid! Who on earth would have you as Head? And anyway, you haven’t told me yet where you want your blessed school!’ he protested. ‘You don’t suggest coming out with me to India and starting there, do you?’

‘No, of course not. Though, if there hadn’t been Jo to consider, I might have done it. But we couldn’t keep her there; and I won’t leave her in England. So what I’ve thought of is this. D’you remember that little lake in the Austrian Tyrol where we spent the summer five years ago-Tiern See?’

‘Rather! Topping little place, right up in the mountains, ‘bout an hour’s train run from Innsbrück, wasn’t it? You went up in a mountain railway from some rummy little town or other-I forget its name!’

‘Spärtz,’ supplied his sister. ‘Yes, that’s the place. It was gorgeous air up there; and you could live for next to nothing.’

‘Is that where you mean to have your school?’

She nodded. ‘Yes. There was a big Châlet there which would be topping. It was not too far from the lake; fairly near the steamer, and yet it was away from the paths. I shouldn’t want a large number, not at first at any rate-about twelve at most, and counting Joey. I should want girls from twelve to fourteen or fifteen. I would teach English subjects; Mademoiselle La Pâttre would come with us, and she would take the French and German-and the sewing too. Music we could get in Innsbrück.’

She stopped and looked at Dick somewhat doubtfully at this juncture. A frown was robbing his face of half its boyishness. He knew very well that Madge had set her heart on this project, and that he had neither the strength of will nor the authority to turn her from her purpose. They were twins, and all their lives long she had been the one to plan for them both. If she had determined to start this school, nothing he could say or do could prevent her. Their only relatives besides Great-Uncle William, before mentioned, were two aunts, both married, and both with large families and small means. Madge was not particularly likely to listen to anything they might say. She read his thoughts in his face.

‘It’s no use appealing to the aunts,’ she said. ‘They’ll have fits, of course; but it can’t be helped. Just consider how we are situated. We are orphans, with a sister twelve years younger than ourselves to be responsible for. Our guardian got his affairs into a frantic muddle, and then conveniently-for him!-died, leaving us to face the music. You’re in the Forests, and your furlough is up in three weeks’ time; Joey is delicate and shouldn’t live in a wet climate; and between us we seem to have some fairly decent furniture, this house, and three thousand pounds in East India Stock at four per cent.-or something over a hundred pounds a year.’

‘Twenty over,’ interjected Dick.

‘We can’t live on that in England,’ she went on, unheeding the interruption. ‘Even if I did get a post in a school, it would mean school-fees for Jo. But we could manage in Austria. It’s healthy-Tiern See, and it’s a new idea. I know of one child I could have for the asking-Grizel Cochrane; and we’d have to advertise for the others. I don’t see why we shouldn’t make it pay in time.’

‘What about apparatus?’ suggested Dick, ‘You’d want desks, and books, and so on, I suppose?’

‘Get them in Innsbrück . My suggestion is that we sell most of the things here, keeping only what we absolutely need, and buy out there. I went over the Châlet while we were there, Dick. A fortnight ago I wrote to Frau Pfeifen. Her answer came this morning. I wanted to know if the Châlet was vacant, and, if it was not, if there was any other place she could recommend. It is vacant, and she thinks the owner-manager of the Kron Prinz Karl-that big hotel not far from the boat-landing-would let me have it all right.’

‘If only I hadn’t to go so soon,’ muttered Dick, as he rapidly scanned the letter she had given him.

‘I know! I wish you hadn’t; but we shall have Mademoiselle.’

‘I wouldn’t have agreed to the idea if you had consulted me,’ he replied. ‘ As it is, I suppose I must say

“yes.” You’ll do as you like, whether I agree or not. I know that! But you’ve got to promise me one thing.’

‘I’ll see,’ returned his sister cautiously. What is it?’

‘That you’ll cable me at once if anything goes wrong, and that you’ll write at least once a week-oftener if you can.’

‘All right. I agree to that. Now will you go and fetch Joey, and we’ll tell her. I know she’s a bit anxious about what’s going to happen, but I couldn’t say anything till I’d discussed it with you first of all. She’s upstairs reading.’

‘Jo reads entirely too much,’ he grumbled as he went to the door. ‘That’s one thing I hope you’ll alter a little.’

‘She’ll have plenty to take her out of doors,’ replied his sister serenely. ‘She really needs other companions. Call her, old thing.’

His yell of ‘Joey!’ resounded through the house a second later, and was answered by a shriek of ‘Coming!’

There was the sound of flying footsteps, a thud in the hall, and then Joey, or, to give her her proper name, Josephine, fell rather than ran into the room.

Anything less like Madge and Dick it would have been hard to imagine. Her cropped black hair was so straight as almost to be described as lank, her big black eyes made the intense whiteness of her face even more startling than it need have been, and her cheeks and temples were hollow with continual ill-health.

Like her brother and sister, she had been born in India; but, unlike them, had come home at the early age of seven months. The frail baby who had never known her mother or father had thriven in the soft Cornish air of their home till she was four years old. Then a neglected cold had brought on an attack of pleuro-pneumonia, from which she had barely struggled back to life. Since then, her health had been a constant worry to those who had charge of her. What made things still more difficult was the fact that Miss Joey possessed at least five times as much spirit as strength, and fretted continually at the restrictions they were obliged to enforce. The exertion of her flight downstairs brought on a bad fit of coughing, and until it was over, and she was lying back on the Chesterfield, whiter than ever with exhaustion, there was no thought of telling her the news. Madge flung an agonised look at Dick, even as she gave the child a glass of water. He strolled across the room to them, his hands in his pockets.

‘I say, old lady,’ he began, ‘you mustn’t sprint about like that!’

Jo lifted her eyes to his. ‘I’m sick of “don’t!”‘ she remarked. ‘Why did you call me, Dick? Anything settled about us yet?’

‘I suppose so,’ he growled. ‘But just listen to me for a minute. I’m sorry you’re sick of “don’t,” but I think you might have a little more consideration for Madge. You know how she worries when you cough.’

‘Sorry, old thing!’ Jo sent up a little smile at her sister. ‘I was so anxious to hear, I forgot about not dashing round. What are we going to do? I can see it’s all fixed.’

‘Yes, it’s fixed,’ replied Madge, as she perched herself on one arm of the couch. ‘It’s my own idea, and I hope you’ll like it,’

‘Well, what is it?’

‘Madge is going to run a school.’

‘Madge run a school!’ Jo sat bolt upright. ‘No! She’s much too young! Why, if her hair wasn’t up she’d look like a kid!’

‘I’m twenty-four-’ began Madge heatedly, when Dick interrupted her.

‘You listen to me, my kid. Remember Tiern See?’

‘Rather!’

‘Well, you’re going there. Madge will open the school in that big Châlet not far from the lake.

Mademoiselle La Pâttre will come with you to look after you both, and help with the school.’

‘What a simply ripping idea! When are we going? Before you do, Dick? Who are the pupils?’

‘Don’t be silly! Of course you can’t go yet! There’s this house and furniture to see about, and Madge will have to buy her paraphernalia in Innsbrück –’

‘Dear little Innsbrück !’ Jo interrupted him. ‘Shall we be there first, Madge? How long? Oh, it will be lovely to see Tiern See again! When do we leave here?’

‘Don’t quite know,’ replied Madge. ‘Dick, I don’t think there’ll be much trouble about selling the house.

You know, the Corah Mine people want a place for their managers to live in, and it’s within quite decent distance of the mine. Don’t you think they might buy it?’

‘Good idea! Yes, I should think they might. It’s the sort of place they want, of course. I’ll take a stroll up to old Everson and get him to see it through. Since we’re all going, the sooner we get the business over and quit the better.’

‘I’ll go and see the Cochranes,’ decided Madge. ‘I know they’ll be thankful to get rid of poor little Grizel.

What fees shall I ask, Dick? D’you think £120 a year would be too much?’

‘Sounds rather a lot,’ said Dick dubiously.

‘It’s only what most decent schools charge. I’ve got some prospectuses to see. Besides, the Cochranes can afford it; and I believe they’d pay even more to get rid of Grizel.’

‘Mrs Cochrane would, anyhow!’ chimed in Jo.

‘What I can’t understand,’ said Dick thoughtfully, ‘is why she ever married him if she didn’t want a stepdaughter.’

‘She knew nothing about it till she got here,’ explained Madge. ‘She nearly expired when she saw the poor kiddy! Oh, they’ll let me have her all right. And it’ll be the making of Grizel. You’ll have to recommend me to your Anglo-Indian friends, Dick!’

‘Aren’t any where I am-not with kids of school-age, anyhow! Well, I’ll get along and see old Everson while you interview the Cochranes. What are you going to do, Joey? It’s too wet for you to go out.’

‘I’m going back to finish Quentin Durward,’ returned Jo firmly. ‘You’ll take all our books, won’t you, Madge?’

‘Most of them, anyway. But you needn’t start to pack them yet. This is only March, and we sha’n't be going till next month at earliest.’

Jo took little notice of this, but got off the Chesterfield, and returned to her little bedroom, where a blazing fire relieved the gloom of the rainy day, and her well-beloved books awaited her.

‘Best thing in the world for her,’ observed Dick when she had gone. ‘Well, I’m off to settle old Everson.

He’ll fuss, I suppose; but, after all, there’s no one who can really interfere now our poor old Guardian’s gone, and as long as we agree, it’ll be all right.’