01 The School at the Chalet (11 page)

‘How did you get here?’ he asked the other two in their own language.

Sophie pointed to the light rowing-boat moored to the landing-stage. ‘We rowed across from Scholastika,’

she explained.

‘I see,’ he said. ‘Well now, you will row back with me.’ Then he turned his attention to the English girl.

‘You will come with us,’ he said. ‘Get into the boat.’

Grizel gave him one look-and obeyed. Sophie and Anita had already started. In a grim silence they pulled up the lake to Scholastika. Bernhilda and Frieda were too much afraid of their father’s anger to speak, and Joey was busily engaged in trying not to say what she thought-yet.

At Scholastika, Herr Mensch grimly marched them before him, first to the Rincinis’ villa, and then to the hotel where the Hamels were staying. While there, he rang up the Châlet, and told Madge that, as they had met Grizel, he was taking her with the others to Maria Kirche to see the famous church there, and they would all return in the afternoon. Then he went back to the girls, and sending Bernhilda and Joey on in front, took each a hand of Frieda and Grizel.

It was not a pleasant expedition. And when they returned in the afternoon, Herr Mensch had a long conversation with Miss Bettany, which ended in a more serious scolding for Grizel than she had ever known since she had left England. What hurt her more than anything was the knowledge that she was not to be trusted by herself-at any rate for the present. As for Juliet, Captain Carrick had made arrangements only that morning for her to be a boarder for the remainder of the term, as he and his wife were going to Munich to visit some friends, and did not want to take her with them. Miss Bettany resolved to keep a watchful eye on the new boarder.

Chapter 11.

The Head’s Birthday-Party.

‘Joey! Are you busy, or may I come and talk to you?’

Joey Bettany raised her head with a start at the sound of the voice. Looking down from her perch on the fence which shut off the Alm of Briesau from the Geisalm path, she saw Gisela Marani standing beside her, book in hand, a very serious expression on her charming face.

‘Hullo, Gisela! What’s the trouble?’ she said cheerfully, as she closed
John Halifax, Gentleman
, which she was reading for the third time in succession.

‘It is this book,’ explained Gisela, tapping it. ‘Will you come with me to the seat by the boat-landing? I wish to discuss it with you.’

‘Rather!’ Joey slid down from her seat with great goodwill, and, slipping her arm through Gisela’s, strolled along by her side.

‘Look!’ she said suddenly. ‘There’s some new people from the Kron Prinz Karl. They came last night.

Father and mother, and two girls and two boys, and a grown-up girl. Don’t they look jolly?’

Gisela glanced idly in the direction in which Joey, in complete defiance to good manners, was pointing.

Then her face suddenly changed, and her lips curved up in a smile of surprise and pleasure.

‘Wanda!’ she cried.

The elder girl, a slim, fair person of about fifteen, turned round at the sound of her voice. Then she uttered a little cry and ran towards them.

‘Gisela!’ she exclaimed.

The younger girl and a small boy of about seven looked up too, and in a minute they also were racing up to the little group.

Gisela embraced them all, while Joey stood on one side, feeling rather in the way. But the Austrian had no idea of leaving her out.

‘Wanda – Marie – Wolfram – this is my English friend, Joey Bettany. I am now at her sister’s school in the large Châlet over there. Joey, these are Wanda and Marie von Eschenau, and their brother Wrolfram. I was at school in Vienna with Wanda and Marie when we lived there.’

Joey had never been a shy person; she had travelled about too much for that. So now she came forward and shook hands easily.

‘Hullo!’ she said. ‘ Are these your holidays?’

The elder girl, whom Gisela had saluted as Wanda, smiled.

‘But no; not holidays,’ she said, and her careful speech reminded Joey of the first few weeks of the Châlet School. ‘We have left our
lycée
in Wien’-which is what the Austrians call Vienna- ‘and we are resting here until Mamma finds us one where we can be always-ah! you call it “boarding-school,” I remember.’

‘Oh, Wanda! ‘ cried Gisela. ‘You must come to the Châlet School!’

‘That would be very pleasant,’ said Wanda politely. ‘Listen! I hear Mamma calling. Come, Marie!

Wolfram! We shall hope to see you again, Gisela; I must tell Mamma you are here.
Auf wiedersehen
! Goodbye, Fräulein Joey.’

And she hurried off, followed by the other two, who had looked at the two Châlet girls in deathly silence all the time.

‘What
pretties
, Gisela!’ said Joey enthusiastically, as she and Gisela made their way to the little white-painted stand near the landing-stage, where people liked to sit and watch the passengers getting on and off the boats. ‘What did you say their name was?’

‘Von Eschenau,’ replied Gisela. ‘Their papa is Herr Rittmeister von Eschenau of the Imperial Guards. It would be very jolly if Wanda and Marie came to the Châlet School, for they are nice girls; and if Miss Bettany could say she had the daughters of a Herr Rittmeister at her school, then she would get many more pupils.’

‘Would she?’ Joey had the vaguest ideas about the Austrian class-feelings. Also, she was not sure just what a Herr Rittmeister might be. Gisela did not enlighten her, either. She was, at the moment, much more engrossed in the book which she had been reading than in the arrival of her old friends, and as soon as they were comfortably established on one of the white seats, she began her discussion at once.

‘Papa brought me this book two days ago,’ she said, exhibiting to Joey’s interested eyes a girl’s school-story with a gay paper jacket.

‘
Denise of the Fourth
,’ read the English girl. ‘Who’s it by? Muriel Bernardine Browne? Never heard of her! What’s it like?’

‘I find it interesting-in parts,’ replied Gisela, ‘though some of it seems to me impossible. But there are descriptions of two things which interest me very much, and I was wondering if we also could not have them.’

‘Don’t say “we also” like that!’ corrected Joey, who occasionally found the English of her continental friends rather boring. ‘ It isn’t a bit English! And what are the two things?’

‘Thank you, Joey, I will try to remember,’ said Gisela, referring to Joey’s correction of her English. ‘And the two things are a magazine, first. In the school of this story, the girls had a most interesting magazine. It gives examples from it. See!’ And she rapidly found the place, and gave it to Joey, who skimmed through the chapter with a widening grin on her face.

‘It is amusing?’ queried the Head Girl. ‘You find it funny?’

‘It’s a shriek,’ pronounced the critic. ‘Fancy anyone writing sentimental tosh like that sunset! How old is Denise, anyhow?’

‘She is fourteen,’ replied Gisela. ‘You call it sentimental?’

‘And tosh! Why, just listen to this!’ And Joey read aloud: ‘ ” The glory of the sun lingered long o’er tree and flower; his molten rays kissed the silvery river as it slid silently past, crooning a tender lullaby to the fragile flowers which bent to kiss their reflections on its surface. In the pale lilac skies, one silvery star-the perfect star of eve-shimmered and glowed–” Is there a lot of kissing in the book?’

‘They do kiss each other very often,’ returned Gisela.

‘I thought so! And that isn’t even good English! She’s used ” silvery ” and ” kiss ” twice in about five lines! But it’s rather an idea. We ought to have a magazine. The only trial is, it will be so frightfully difficult to decide what language it will be in.’

‘But of course it will be in English,’ said Gisela. ‘We are an English school.’

‘It would be rather fun,’ mused Joey. ‘Who’d be editor? You, I suppose?’

Gisela shook her head. ‘Oh, no,’ she said earnestly. ‘I do not know enough about it. Perhaps Miss Maynard would do it.’

‘She might; but it ought really to be a girl. Well, go on! What’s the other scheme you liked so awfully?’

‘The Head’s birthday,’ replied Gisela, turning over more pages. ‘See, Joey! In this they had a dance, and they gave the Head beautiful presents, and had a splendid time! Here is the picture.’

Joey looked thoughtfully at the coloured illustration which depicted a white-haired headmistress receiving a magnificent chain and pendant from a Head Girl of fabulous beauty; while a small child nearby looked almost swamped by a huge bouquet of lilies and roses.

‘We haven’t anyone as gorgeous as that,’ observed the English girl thoughtfully. ‘Even that friend of yours, Wanda What’s-her-name, isn’t as lovely as that, and she’s the very prettiest girl I’ve ever seen!

Besides, it’s idiotic, of course! Head Girls don’t go round with their hair all over the place like that; they wouldn’t be allowed to-not in a decent school anyway! And I’ve never heard of a school where the girls gave the Head a slender gold chain on which was swung an exquisite pendant studded with diamonds! The most we ever rose to at the High was a really decent reading-lamp. But the holiday stunt is all right, and so is the dance. Madge’s birthday does come this term, as it happens. I vote we ask her for the holiday, anyhow.’

‘But she must also have a gift,’ protested Gisela. ‘And flowers as well. What day is it, Joey? Soon?’

‘It’s July the fourth,’ replied Joey- ‘next Thursday. It would be a ripping scheme to go for an expedition somewhere, wouldn’t it? Tell you what! We might go up the Mondscheinspitze and have a picnic there, and then come down and have the dance in the evening! Oh, gorgeous!’

‘And the gift?’ persisted the Head Girl. ‘We all admire and love Miss Bettany so much, we would wish to give her something.’

‘Oh, well, that’s for you to decide!’ returned Joey, wriggling uncomfortably.

‘But of course we will! You will want to give your own souvenir; we won’t ask you to join unless you wish it. But I know the others will. What would Miss Bettany like?’

‘Oh, any old thing! She’d like whatever you give her!’

‘The flowers will be easy,’ pursued Gisela thoughtfully. ‘ We have a garden, Bette has a garden, Anita and Giovanna have a garden, and so has Gertrud. We shall have roses, lilies, and marguerites.’

‘It’s a tophole scheme. Let’s go and ask the others,’ proposed Joey. ‘ It’s nearly time for prep, anyhow.

You’ll have to ask my sister for the holiday, you know, and you’ll have to give whatever you do give her.’

Gisela coloured faintly. She was rather inclined to be shy.

‘In
Denise of the Fourth
, Mervyn, that’s the Head Girl, asks them to cheer the headmistress,’ she said. ‘ I should have to do that too?’

‘Of course! What do you think? Here’s Gertrud and Grizel coming. Let’s tell them now, shall we?’

‘Don’t you think it would be better it we waited till everyone was together?’ suggested Gisela diffidently.

‘And should I not ask the Prefects first?’

‘Ye-yes, I suppose you should,’ conceded Joey reluctantly. ‘ All right! You go and call a Prefects’ meeting, and I’ll go and see what Simone is up to. I haven’t seen her since
Mittagessen
.’

Joey skipped off, leaving Gisela to follow at a more stately rate, as befitted a Head Girl who is weighed down with responsibilities.

Simone greeted her friend with mournful eyes.

‘I looked for you everywhere, Joey,’ she said reproachfully.

‘Well, I was reading on the fence,’ responded Joey briskly. ‘Then Gisela came to talk to me about a new book she was reading. Oh, Simone, do you remember those people who came to the Kron Prinz Karl last night by the last boat? We’ve just met them; they’re friends of Gisela’s-come from Vienna, and they’re here for a while. You remember the two pretty girls like fairy princesses? Their names are Wanda and Marie, and they went to a
lycée
in Wien!-It always seems a mad idea to me to chop the end of Vienna and spell it with a

“W”!-Gisela wants them to come to the Châlet School. She says it would be topping for my sister if they did, because their father’s a Herr Rittmeister, and– What’s the matter?’ staring in undisguised amazement at Simone, who looked as if she were about to burst into tears. ‘Aren’t you well?’

‘Oh, Joey,’ said Simone pathetically, dropping into her own language in her agitation- ‘oh, Joey, don’t have any more friends! Please, Joey, don’t! You’ve got Grizel, and Gisela and Bette love you, and I’ve only got you! And now you want those two new girls that you don’t know at all! Oh, Joey, don’t be so selfish!’

Joey stood stockstill in her amazement. ‘Selfish! ‘ she repeated. ‘Selfish! It’s you who are selfish! I’ve told you over and over again that I’m going to have all the friends I want, and it doesn’t make one scrap of difference to my being pally with you! I don’t mind your having other friends-I don’t see why you don’t!

Margia would chum with you if you gave her half a chance, and she’s a jolly nice kid! It’s no use looking like that, Simone! It doesn’t make one scrap of difference! If I like Wanda and Marie, I’m going to like them. If they do come to the Châlet and we want to be pally, I shall be!’ Then she relented somewhat at the look of misery in Simone’s great dark eyes, and slipped an arm round her shoulders, giving her a gentle little shake. ‘Do buck up, Simone, and be-be a man! You’d be twice as jolly if you only would! Look here!

There’s five minutes before the bell goes-I forgot my watch is fast-and there’s just time to tell you what Gisela was talking to me about. Come along and let’s go and sit by the boat-slip and I’ll tell you about it. It’s awfully thrilling!’

But although Simone allowed herself to be drawn towards the little wooden landing-stage beside the Châlet, the dumb wretchedness of her expression did not relax, and all the time that Joey was enlarging on Gisela’s ‘topping’ idea, she sat without making the slightest effort at cheering up. Finally, even happy-go-lucky Jo Bettany gave it up in despair. What could you do with a girl who refused to be interested in birthday-parties and sat looking like a chunk of solid misery?

Joey was thankful when the bell went, and she was able to go off to her own form-room, where there were plenty of people interested in all she had to say about the newcomers at the Kron Prinz Karl.