A Fourth Form Friendship (18 page)

The time dragged on slowly. No morning had ever seemed so long, in the opinion of the girls. The weary rounds of literature and physical geography were succeeded by English grammar, with a discomfiting interval of French verbs. Aldred, surreptitiously consulting her watch, found it was just after half-past ten. Nearly half an hour, therefore, must elapse before lunch, and Miss Webb was already opening the Roman history primer. A look of horror passed along the Form. If their other subjects had been weak, this was decidedly weaker. Not one could remember a quarter of what she had learned. They had hoped that, as this subject was the last on the list, it would have been left so late that only a few pages could be covered; they certainly had not calculated on spending twenty-five minutes at it.

"I shall miss every turn!" thought Aldred. "It's dreadful! I've done so fearfully badly already. I believe I've only got about thirty per cent., and this will put me lower still. Miss Drummond never passes anyone on less than half marks. What can we do?"

She caught her breath, for an idea had suddenly flashed into her mind--an idea so daring, although so feasible, that its boldness almost frightened her. The small clock on the chimney-piece was not going, and Miss Webb generally kept time by the striking of the great clock that stood on the landing outside. If this clock could be put forward, the Form might be dismissed almost at once, instead of enduring the purgatory of any more horrible questions. Of course, there would be the danger of discovery, and consequently of getting into a serious scrape, but Aldred decided that something must be risked. A cold from which she was suffering gave her the necessary excuse.

"Please, Miss Webb, may I go for a clean pocket-handkerchief?" she asked.

Miss Bardsley would not have allowed any girl to leave the room during an examination, but her substitute was more lenient.

"You must be very quick, then, Aldred," she replied. "If you lose your turn I shall count it as a miss."

Aldred was up and out of the door in a minute. Once on the landing she glanced cautiously round, to make certain that nobody was in sight; then, boldly opening the glass front of the clock, she moved the hands till they pointed to three minutes to eleven. She returned to her place, ostentatiously displaying the clean handkerchief, just as the Form were wrestling with the Punic Wars, and by a lucky chance got the date of the battle of Cannæ, which was the only one she knew.

"What was the policy of Rome after this defeat?" asked Miss Webb.

Lorna could not remember, and the question passed on to Phoebe, who made a bad shot and answered wrong. Dora, Agnes and Myfanwy missed entirely, and Miss Webb was in the act of turning to Aldred, when the clock outside began to chime.

The teacher looked surprised, and glanced at her watch.

"I must surely be late!" she remarked. "I make it only twenty minutes to eleven."

"The landing clock is always right," volunteered Ursula, who, being doubtful herself as to the policy of Rome in that particular emergency, was as relieved as Aldred.

Miss Webb did not dispute the matter, but closed her book. Perhaps she also was not sorry to find it was lunch-time sooner than she had expected. The girls did not need telling to go; they rose in a body, and fled downstairs in hot haste.

"It isn't really eleven yet!" panted Aldred, when they had reached the comparative safety of the hall. "Oh, don't make such a noise! Miss Drummond will hear us, and come out and send us back. Let us rush outside, into the carving-shed!"

"We knew it wasn't!" exclaimed Dora. "We all had our watches. How clever of you to put on the clock! I guessed in a second what you'd done."

"I wonder how soon Miss Webb will find out the mistake?" said Myfanwy. "The bell hasn't rung yet; she didn't think of that!"

"Well, I never was so glad to finish any exam in my life," avowed Phoebe. "Wasn't it detestable?"

"As bad as the Inquisition. It was a regular torture chamber. My unfortunate brains have been on the rack for two hours."

"Not quite two hours!" chuckled Aldred.

"No, thanks to you! but for an hour and forty minutes, at any rate."

"We must all have failed hopelessly; not a single one of us can possibly have scraped through."

"Yes; but it would have been worse still if we had gone on missing for other twenty minutes."

"Rather! Miss Drummond will be quite cross enough as it is, when she looks at the register."

The girls judged it discreet not to go indoors too soon for lunch, waiting until the pantry was likely to be full, lest their early appearance might excite comment.

Singing was from ten minutes past eleven to twelve, and after that came science, with Miss Drummond, until one, both classes being held in the lecture-hall, so that there was no further lesson with Miss Webb that morning. A hockey match was played in the afternoon, which caused such excitement that the affair of the clock was forgotten for the time being; but it returned only too forcibly to the girls' minds, as they walked in to evening preparation. Would Miss Webb have found out the trick played upon her? And what steps would she take? They could not suppose that she would submit tamely, and ignore the whole circumstance. The most poor-spirited governess expects to keep her pupils in their classroom during school hours, even though she may not be able to exercise control over them while they are there. Would she show herself to be angry? or, worse still, would she report the matter to Miss Drummond? If so, trouble was in store for them.

Miss Webb, to their surprise, did neither. Her line of conduct was totally unexpected. She announced, quite calmly and briefly:

"I find that a mistake was made this morning in the time, and that you lost twenty minutes of your examination. By noting your marks during the ten minutes we spent on Roman history, I have been able to calculate the general average that you would have received during the entire half-hour, and, as a result, I have added one right answer and eight misses to each of your names on the register, and ten extra misses to Aldred Laurence, in lieu of forfeits."

The girls groaned inwardly, but they knew they were checkmated. If they dared to remonstrate, Miss Webb would probably expose the entire episode to Miss Drummond, so they wisely said nothing.

They certainly well deserved all they had received, particularly Aldred, who for once had been a little too clever. Her additional bad marks placed her at the bottom of the list, a position she had never occupied since she entered the school. She was very irate in consequence.

"I detest Miss Webb!" she declared. "It was a disgustingly mean way of her to take revenge on us. How could she tell I had altered the clock?"

"Any idiot could have guessed that!" returned Dora. "It was perfectly simple to put two and two together; we all knew."

"Well, I think it was nasty of her, all the same, and I mean to pay her out."

"If you can."

"Oh, I'll manage it somehow!"

"Better not boast too soon."

"All right! Just wait and see!"

It was perfectly unreasonable of Aldred to feel aggrieved because Miss Webb had asserted her authority; but she chose to consider that she had been unfairly treated, and that she was justified in nursing her wrath. She cast about for some means of turning the tables and annoying the mistress, but it was rather difficult to hit upon anything safe; she had no wish to get herself into serious trouble, and knew that any open defiance would be reported at head-quarters.

"It must be something she can't fix specially upon me," reflected Aldred; "something that any of us might have done. The whole class dislikes her, so I shall really be acting champion for the rest; only, I think I won't tell them anything about it beforehand; it shall come as a surprise."

After serious cogitation, she decided to chalk Miss Webb's chair, so that her black dress should show a white impression of the cane seat and back.

"She won't know," thought the girl, "and of course we shall none of us tell her, and she'll be going about the school looking such a guy! She'll wonder why everybody is smiling."

By nine o'clock next morning Aldred had her unpleasant surprise already prepared. She had managed to slip into the classroom before breakfast, and to chalk the chair thoroughly; and she now sat in her place, laughing in anticipation. Miss Webb was punctual. She entered in her usual rather flurried, undignified manner, and was about to close the door after her, when she suddenly opened it wide again to admit--Miss Drummond and Mabel! This was a totally unlooked-for event. Aldred had not known that Mabel was returning to class that day, as it had been reported that she was to remain in hospital for the rest of the week; and she certainly did not expect the head mistress. Mabel walked quietly to her own desk, and Miss Drummond (alas for Aldred!) sank straight down on the chair that Miss Webb at once politely offered her.

"I have come this morning, girls, to say a few words to you," began the Principal. "I have examined your marks for the last three weeks, and also the list of the viva voce examination that you had yesterday. I wish to tell you that I am extremely dissatisfied. I have never seen such a low average from the Fourth Form, and I am sure that you are none of you doing your best. I cannot possibly allow such a state of affairs to continue; it is a disgrace to the school! I am greatly disappointed, as I had hoped for better things from you. It has been a very hard task for Miss Webb, who kindly came to help us in an emergency, to take up another teacher's work at so short a notice, and I believed that you would have realized her difficulties, and have made an effort to help her in every way in your power. Instead of this, you appear to have taken advantage of Miss Bardsley's absence to neglect your work. As I cannot trust you to do your preparation adequately and thoroughly in your own classroom, I am going to make a new arrangement, and you will bring your books each evening into the lecture-hall, and sit with the Sixth Form, when I can myself see that you are not wasting your time. I have also asked Miss Webb to bring me the register at the end of each morning. I shall check your marks, and any girl who, as I consider, has fallen below her usual standard, will stay indoors during the afternoon, to learn the lessons in which she has failed."

If Miss Drummond looked grave, the Form looked utterly crestfallen and ashamed. The girls sat perfectly still, gazing at their desks, for nobody dared to meet the Principal's eyes. As for Aldred, she was filled with blank dismay. It was bad enough to be scolded for ill-prepared work, but what was going to happen when Miss Drummond got up from her chair? That she hardly dared to guess, and she would have given everything she possessed if she could have recalled her silly act. She was kept for some time in suspense, as the head mistress called for their exercise-books, and insisted upon examining them all minutely, and asking various searching and awkward questions as to the reason for so many mistakes and misspelt words, and such bad writing. The Fourth Form had never endured such an unpleasant quarter of an hour, and Aldred, between her present discomfiture and her apprehension of what was to come, felt as if she were passing out of the frying-pan into the fire.

The dreadful moment arrived at last. Miss Drummond handed the exercise-books back to the monitress, and rose up. Aldred's trick had answered only too well: the pattern of the cane seat was imprinted most plainly upon the head mistress's handsome dress. As she turned for an instant to consult the time-table, everybody noticed it, and a universal gasp of horror passed round the room. Miss Webb blushed hotly, and hesitated as if in doubt what to do; then, apparently plucking up her courage, she nervously informed the unconscious Principal of the state of affairs. Miss Drummond looked keenly first at the chair and then at the girls.

"Who is responsible for this?" she asked, in a constrained voice.

There was no reply.

"I will give whoever has done it one more chance to confess."

Still Aldred held her peace.

"Very well! I am exceedingly sorry for the girl who is wilfully concealing this; her own conscience will tell her how mean and despicable is her conduct. I consider this an act of such silly childishness and utter folly that in itself it is hardly worthy of my notice; the worst fault by far is the moral cowardice of the girl who has not the courage to own up, and offer an apology. It adds, I am sorry to say, to the bad opinion of the class that I have already been obliged to form. No, thank you, Miss Webb, there is no need to fetch a clothes-brush; I will ask one of the servants to attend to my dress, and to bring a wet cloth to wipe the chair before you use it yourself."

Aldred managed to avoid the other girls both at lunch-time and at afternoon recreation, making Mabel's return an excuse for devoting herself exclusively to her friend. She was most anxious not to be questioned on the subject of the chair. She was afraid she might be suspected of having played the trick, and did not see how she was to shield herself without a point-blank denial. Greatly to her relief, a bad cold from which she was suffering was pronounced influenza by Miss Drummond, who promptly packed her off to the hospital. She was not very ill, so it was a luxury to be an invalid for a few days, to miss classes, preparation, and practising, and to sit by the fire with an interesting book, and be fed up with beef-tea and jelly.

Mabel, who had completely recovered, was the only visitor allowed, a matter for which Aldred was devoutly thankful.

"It's perfectly horrid in school just at present," said Mabel, who ran up every afternoon to bring her news. "We have to do prep, with the Sixth Form, and Miss Drummond sits there herself, as well as Miss Forster, and keeps looking at us, to make sure that we're working. We hardly dare to lift our eyes from our books even for a second, and the room is so still that if anyone drops a pencil it makes quite a sensation. Before we go, each girl has to tell what marks she has gained or lost during the day. It's a regular confession! I can tell you, we have to be fearfully careful, and not make any more mistakes than we can help. It won't last long, though, because I hear Miss Bardsley is quite able to walk now with a stick, and she's to come back to class in a week from to-day."