04 The Head Girl of the Chalet School (23 page)

“Mary is, I think,” said Bianca.

“Well, she’s got a handful in Cornelia, or I’rn blind! What possessed Matey to put two Americans in one dorm.?”

No one felt able to reply to this question, so they passed it over, and asked if Jo knew anything about the other new girls.

“Two more middles – but they’re to be day,” was the response. “Sisters, who are at the Post with their people. And I believe the babes are getting one.”

“Then we are more than sixty this term,” remarked Bianca with satisfaction. “That goes well! Of what nationality are the new girls, my Jo?”

“Bavarian,” replied Jo. “They come from Munchen, I think. Oh, and I’ve got some topping news for you all! R’member Marie Pfeiffen? Well, she’s to be married next week, and we’re all to go to the wedding!

There’s richness for you!”

A hurricane of exclamations of joy greeted this announcement. Many of the girls knew Marie very well, for she had been maid at the school for three years, only leaving it when her young mistress went to the Sonnalpe. Also, the prospect of attending the wedding was one which appealed to them all.

“Are we going to the dancing as well?” demanded Margia, when they had calmed down a little.

“
Rather
! What do
you
think? That’s the best part of it. We’re to go for three hours, and I’ve promised to have a dance with Andreas!”

“Rot! How can you? You don’t know the
Schuhplattler
!” retorted Margia.

“I do! He and Marie taught us one during the hols. Grizel and I are going to teach you people, so that you can all do it. Besides, they are going to have some waltzes as well.”

“Mean to say we’re going to lift great men off the ground like they do?” asked Margia incredulously.

“Talk sense! This is one of the milder ones. But it’s awfully jolly, and folk, of course! Even the babes are to go for a while! There’ll he some excitement, won’t there?”

Bianca laughed. “There won’t be any work done next week,” she said. “When does the wedding take place?”

“On Thursday -a week today. Marie was awfully bucked with her present, by the way. She’s hung it in her kitchen, and she’s going to stick a table underneath, and keep flowers on it as long as she can. Isn’t it topping of her?”

“Very nice indeed,” said Bianca.

The Chalet School’s gift to the maid had been a large group of the whole school, which they had had framed, and had sent up at the end of the previous term. Marie had been overjoyed at it – partly because one exactly the same hung in Madame’s salon – and she meant to show her gratitude in this pretty way. The girls felt that their present was duly appreciated, and were thrilled to know how highly Marie esteemed them.

The group broke up after that, Jo going back to the study to see if Miss Maynard had finished with Cornelia, and the others scattering to various parts of the school ground, some to see if they could see any fresh arrivals, some to examine the form-rooms, some to look at the tennis-courts and cricket-pitches, and discuss the games.

At the study door Jo encountered Grizel, who was coming in search of her, to tell her that Cornelia was waiting for her, and grinned at the head-girl cheerfully. “Hello, old thing! Haven’t seen you since
Mittagessen
! What have you been doing?”

“A million things, I should think,” said Grizel, running her fingers through her neatly-cropped hair – this departure had created quite a sensation already! – and heaving a sigh. “Miss Maynard has finished with Cornelia, Jo, and sent me to find you.”

“Righto! I was just going to fetch her. Wonder where Maynie’s put her.”

“You’ll know pretty soon, I expect.
Not
with Evadne, I hope, or prep. wiil be gorgeous if she’s anything like
her
!” declared Grizel, who had suffered many things from Evadne during prep.

“Oh, Evvy’s an ass,” said Jo cheerfully. “Well, I’d better be pushing off, I s’pose.”

“Yes; and while you’re about it, I should advise a little less slang! Where you pick it all up, I can’t think!”

“It must be in the atmosphere,” returned Jo, as she tapped at the door.

Grizel went on, and left her to take charge of the new girl once more, which she did with the utmost cheerfulness.

“I have put Cornelia in the Lower Fourth for the present, Jo,” said Miss Maynard. “Will you show her her form- room, and introduce her to some of the other girls. You must make haste and learn some German and French, Cornelia, or you may not be able to talk at all meal-times.”

“Ya-as,” drawled Cornelia again. Then they went out, Jo dropping the little regulation curtsey, while the new girl stared at her, and walked soberly down the narrow passage to the big form-room where two or three of the Lower Fourth were busily putting their desks in order for the morrow.

“D’you always do that?” asked Comelia, as they went in.

“Do what?”

“Duck like that.”

“Rather! It’s manners all the time here, and so you’ll jolly well find out.”

Cornelia looked at her with limpid eyes that said nothing, and then followed her up to a little group where Evadne Lannis was holding forth about the hotel fire.

“Hi, Evvy! This is Cornelia Flower,” said Jo, interrupting ruthlessly. “She’s to be in your form, so you can look after her. These other people are Cyrilla Maurus, Giovanna Donati, Selma Khrakhovska, and Signa Johansen, Cornelia. They’re all about your age, I think. Thirteen, aren’t you?”

“‘Most fourteen,” said Cornelia.

“Oh, then, that’s all right. Which desk can she have, Giovanna?” She turned to Giovanna, the form-prefect the term before.

“That one by the window, Joey,” said Giovanna in her soft, un-English voice. “We will all look after Cornelia.”

“Thanks!” Joey turned on her heel, and left the room. She had a rooted objection to “doing sheep-dog,” and her theory was that new girls got on best if left to find their own feet. Perhaps if Cornelia had shown any signs of being nervous, she would have stayed, but that was the last thing the new girl was. So Jo went off on some quest of her own, and thereafter forgot Cornelia Flower except on the occasions when she met her.

Then she generally stopped to inquire if she was all right, and Cornelia always assured her that she was getting on well.

Meanwhile, the Lower Fourth found to their joy that they had welcomed a genius into their midst. Cornelia was original when it came to sin, and she soon showed that she had no intention of being the form’s conscience, or anything like that. On the contrary, she brightened them all up by her exploits, and they soon followed in her lead. Even Evadne, the self-sufficient, had to admit that the new girl could outdo them all in wickedness.

It was an inspiration of hers that livened up the maths. lesson when Miss Maynard discovered to her horror that the room seemed to be full of ants. How they got there it never dawned on her to inquire, but she was determined that they should not stay there. So, while the girls removed themselves and their possessions to the garden, she gave Luise instructions to scrub the whole place with a strong solution of disinfectant and boiling water. By the time that she had mixed the disinfectant, and seen the little maid set to work with a long-handled broom, the bell had rung, and she had barely time to set them some revision prep., since what she had planned could not be given, as it was set on the lesson they should have had. It was Cornelia who introduced one of the harmless little green snakes they sometimes found outside into prep., sending half the girls screaming on to the tops of their desks while Grizel, who was in charge, gingerly lifted the creature with a shovel borrowed from the kitchen for the purpose, and carried it off to the fence, over which she dropped it with a little suppressed scream.

She also suggested vaselining the blackboards, but Margia squelched that idea by the crushing remark,

“We did that
ages
ago! You
are
behind the times in your ideas!”

But it was she who mixed salt with the tooth-powder used by some of the seniors, and it was this prank that brought about her own undoing. Grizel, on being informed by Dorota Heilinge and Eva von Heiling of what had occurred, held an inquiry, and found out the author of the misdeed, with the result that Cornelia went before a prefects’ meeting, and startled them all into notice of her small self by her calm impudence.

As it was a first offence – so far as they knew – they let her off with a reprimand, and she went, not noticeably quenched at all.

“We must keep an eye on that kid,” said Grizel when she had gone. “There’s more in her than meets the eye!”

She fell foul of Jo Bettany on the third day of term, when she had a battle royal with Simone, and reduced that young lady to such a fury of weeping as drew even unsentimental Jo’s attention. After sundry inquiries as to the cause of the squabble, Miss Jo told Comelia what she thought of her; and as Jo’s tongue could, on occasion, outdo anything even Grizel could produce, she got borne more than once, and left the new girl mentally writhing. Not that Simone received much consolation from her friend. She was ordered “to stop being a sponge”‘ and taken off to play a slashing set of tennis which left her no time to brood over her wrongs. All the same, Jo was not going to have one of her special friends tormented by a “cheeky brat of a new girl.” Comelia, on her side, resolved to get even with Jo. But just then – luckily for them all – Marie’s wedding intervened, and hostilities were postponed.

Marie’s Wedding

THE THURSDAY MORNING of Marie Pfeiffen’s wedding-day dawned bright and clear. Usually, the Tyrolean peasant prefers to hold his wedding during the Carnival time – that is, in the winter. But Marie had been impressed by her young mistress’s happy wedding-day in the previous July, and had refused to be married at the usual time. Her bridegroom, Dr. Jem’s servant, had lived in towns a good deal, and he had backed her up in her request to hold their festival when the days were sunny, so they had braved local custom, and chosen May for their wedding-day. It was easier for them to do so, because the Tiern valley is a tourist centre during the summer months, and, save for the very old folk, who sadly complained that all the old good customs were dying away, there were very few protests. In any case, Marie meant to have all the other details of her great day in accordance with the best traditions of the valley, and the girls knew, for they had been told, that there would be all the usual dancing, shooting matches, sports, and feasts that had from time immemorial been the leading features of a Tiernthal wedding. Their invitations had duly come to them in envelopes tied with red and green ribbons, which they had all put away to keep as mementoes of the occasion. There would he no school, for the marriage service would take place at half-past nine, and they were specially bidden to it. So at ten past nine they all walked down to the little white-washed chapel, clad in their white frocks, big white hats, and white shoes and stockings. They were solemnly escorted to seats near the front, and at half-past nine punctually the wedding party appeared.

Marie was attired in the dress of the valley-a short, full, red skirt, a black velvet bodice with full sleeves of white linen, and a lace kerchief knotted over the bodice. On her head was the wreath of rosemary which is worn in many of the Tyrol valleys by brides, and called by them “Mary’s Flowers,” in honour of the Virgin.

Her bridegroom also wore his national costume, and they made a striking pair as they stood before the old white-haired priest who served the church along with all the other churches round the Tiern See.

The service was not a long one, and presently they moved out to the fresh sunshine. At the door of the church stood two of the bride’s brothers with huge bunches of artificial gold and silver flowers with which they presented those guests who were expected to come to the feast. The girls were all presented with one of these posies, and followed the bridal procession across the grass to the Kron Prinz Karl, where the feasting was to be. Herr Braun acted as host, for, in this valley, as in many others, the parents have as little to do with the actual arrangements as possible. A table had been set aside for the school-girls, and here they sat, and were feasted on strange foods. One dish consisted of pork, boiled in fat; another was of veal, cooked in some strange way, and adorned with slices of potatoes and cabbage; yet another was of bacon, cooked in butter, and served with spoonfuls of the butter poured over it. These were followed by dishes of dried figs, oranges, pears, and grapes, and the whole was – literally, as far as the peasants were concerned – washed down with huge mugs of beer. The girls were given tiny glasses of wine to drink, and then milky coffee.

The staff kept an anxious eye on their charges, for there was no saying how this unusual food would agree with them. Luckily, they were able to serve themselves by Herr Braun’s special arrangement, so no one got more than a taste of any of the queer dishes. Joey, who hated fat in most forms, solaced herself on fruit, and several of the others did the same.

The peasants, meanwhile, ate steadily through enormous servings of the same things, and seemed no worse for it. Merry shoutings and laughter kept the whole room in an uproar, and it went on for two hours!

By this time most of the little ones were drowsy, but when a move was made to go into the other room where the musicians could be already heard playing softly, they roused up and followed with the rest.

The first business to attend to was the giving of the money gifts. Marie’s godmother sat before a table on which stood a large dish, covered by a napkin. Her Uncle Gustav sat at one side, with a big sheet of paper, a pen, and a bottle of ink before him. The guests advanced, one by one, and slipped into the old dame’s hand a small sum of money, which she hid under the napkin, while the uncle wrote down the sum on the paper.

“What on earth is that for?” murmured Mary to Grizel.

“So that when there are any weddings in the guests’ families, Marie and Andreas will know how much to give,” replied Grizel cautiously. “Don’t stare so, Mary! Your eyes look as if they were going to drop out!”