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A Patriotic Schoolgirl

CHAPTER I.

Off to Boarding-school

“Dona, are you awake? Donakins! I say, old sport, do stir yourself and blink an eye! What a dormouse you are! D’you want shaking? Rouse up, you old bluebottle, can’t you?”

“I’ve been awake since five o’clock, and it’s no use thumping me in the back,” grunted an injured voice from the next bed. “It’s too early yet to get up, and I wish you’d leave me alone.”

The huskiness and general chokiness of the tone were unmistakable. Marjorie leaned over and took a keen survey of that portion of her sister’s face which was not buried in the pillow.

“Oh! the atmosphere’s damp, is it?” she remarked. “Dona, you’re ostriching! For goodness’ sake brace up, child, and turn off the water-works! I thought you’d more pluck. If you’re going to arrive at Brackenfield with a red nose and your eyes all bunged up, I’ll disown you, or lose you on the way. Crystal clear, I will! I’ll not let you start in a new school nicknamed ‘Niobe’, so there! Have a caramel?”

Dona sat up in bed, and arrested her tears sufficiently to accept the creature comfort offered her. As its consistency was decidedly of a stick-jaw nature, the mingled sucking and sobbing which followed produced a queer combination.

“You sound like a seal at the Zoo,” Marjorie assured her airily. “Cheer oh! I call it a stunt to be going to Brackenfield. I mean to have a top-hole time there, and no mistake!”

“It’s all very well for you!” sighed Dona dolefully. “You’ve been at a boarding-school before, and I haven’t; and you are not shy, and you always get on with people. You know I’m a mum mouse, and I hate strangers. I shall just endure till the holidays come. It’s no use telling me to brace up, for there’s nothing to brace about.”

In the bedroom where the two girls lay talking every preparation had been made for a journey. Two new trunks, painted respectively with the initials “M. D. A.” and “D. E. A.”, stood side by side with the lids open, filled to the brim, except for sponge-bags and a few other items, which must be put in at the last. Weeks of concentrated thought and practical work on the part of Mother, two aunts, and a dressmaker had preceded the packing of those boxes, for the requirements of Brackenfield seemed numerous, and the list of essential garments resembled a trousseau. There were school skirts and blouses, gymnasium costumes, Sunday dresses, evening wear and party frocks, to say nothing of underclothes, and such details as gloves, shoes, ties, ribbons, and handkerchiefs, writing-cases, work-baskets, books, photos, and knick-knacks. Two hand-bags, each containing necessaries for the first night, stood by the trunks, and two umbrellas, with two hockey-sticks, were already strapped up with mackintoshes and winter coats.

For both the girls this morning would make a new and very important chapter in the story of their lives. Marjorie had, indeed, already been at boarding-school, but it was a comparatively small establishment, not to be named in the same breath with a place so important as Brackenfield, and giving only a foretaste of those experiences which she expected to encounter in a wider circle. She had been tolerably popular at Hilton House, but she had made several mistakes which she was determined not to repeat, and meant to be careful as to the first impressions which she produced upon her new schoolfellows. Marjorie, at fifteen and a half, was a somewhat problematical character. In her childhood she had been aptly described as “a little madam”, and it was owing to the very turbulent effect of her presence in the family that she had been packed off early to school, “to find her level among other girls, and leave a little peace at home”, as Aunt Vera expressed it. “Finding one’s level” is generally rather a stormy process; so, after four years of give-and-take at Hilton House, Marjorie was, on the whole, not at all sorry to leave, and transfer her energies to another sphere. She meant well, but she was always cock-sure that she was right, and though this line of action may serve with weaker characters, it is liable to cause friction when practised upon equals or elders whose views are also self-opinionated. As regards looks, Marjorie could score. Her clear-cut features, fresh complexion, and frank, grey eyes were decidedly prepossessing, and her pigtail had been the longest and thickest and glossiest in the whole crocodile of Hilton House. She was clever, if she chose to work, though apt to argue with her teachers; and keen at games, if she could win, but showed an unsporting tendency to lose her temper if the odds were against her. Such was Marjorie—crude, impetuous, and full of overflowing spirits, with many good qualities and certain disagreeable traits, eager to loose anchor and sail away from the harbour of home and the narrow waters of Hilton House into the big, untried sea of Brackenfield College.

Two sisters surely never presented a greater contrast than the Anderson girls. Dona, at thirteen, was a shy, retiring, amiable little person, with an unashamed weakness for golliwogs and Teddy bears, specimens of which, in various sizes, decorated the mantelpiece of her bedroom. She was accustomed to give way, under plaintive protest, to Marjorie’s masterful disposition, and, as a rule, played second fiddle with a good grace. She was not at all clever or imaginative, but very affectionate, and had been the pet of the family at home. She was a neat, pretty little thing, with big blue eyes and arched eyebrows and silky curls, exactly like a Sir Joshua Reynolds portrait, and she had a pathetic way of saying, “Oh, Marjorie!” when snubbed by her elder sister. According to Aunt Vera, if Marjorie needed to “find her level”, Dona required to be “well shaken up”. She was dreamy and unobservant, slow in her ways, and not much interested in any special subject. Marjorie’s cherished ambitions were unknown to Dona, who liked to plod along in an easy fashion, without taking very much trouble. Her daily governess had found it difficult to rouse any enthusiasm in her for her work. She frankly hated lessons.

It was a subject of congratulation to Mrs. Anderson that the two girls would not be in the same house at Brackenfield. She considered that Dona’s character had no chance for development under the shadow of Marjorie’s overbearing ways, and that among companions of her own age she might perhaps find a few congenial friends who would help her to realize that she had entered her teens, and would interest her in girlish matters. Poor Dona by no means shared her mother’s satisfaction at the arrangements for her future. She would have preferred to be with Marjorie, and was appalled at the idea of being obliged to face a houseful of strangers. She met with little sympathy from her own family in this respect.

“Do you all the good in the world, old sport!” preached Peter, an authority of eleven, with three years of preparatory-school experience behind him. “I felt a bit queer myself, you know, when I first went to The Grange, but one soon gets over that. You’ll shake down.”

“I don’t want to shake down,” bleated Dona. “It’s a shame I should have to go at all! You can’t any of you understand how I feel. You’re all beasts!”

“They’ll allow you a bucket to weep into for the first day or two, poor old Bunting!” said Larry consolingly. “It won’t be so much kindness on their part as a desire to save the carpets—salt water takes the colour out of things so. But I fancy they’ll limit you to a week’s wailing, and if you don’t turn off the tap after that, they’ll send for a doctor, who’ll prescribe Turkey rhubarb and senna mixed with quinine. It’s a stock school prescription for shirking; harmless, you know, but particularly nasty; you’d have the taste in your mouth for days. Oh, cheer up, for goodness’ sake! Look here: if I’m really sent to the camp at Denley, I’ll come and look you up, and take you out to tea somewhere. How would that suit your ladyship?”

“Would you really? Will you promise?”

“Honest Injun, I will!”

“Then I don’t mind quite so much as I did, though I still hate the thought of school,” conceded Dona.

The Andersons generally described themselves as “a large and rambling family, guaranteed sound, and quiet in harness, but capable of taking fences if required”. Nora, the eldest, had been married a year ago, Bevis was in the Navy, Leonard was serving “somewhere in France”; Larry, who had just left school, had been called up, and was going into training, and after Marjorie and Dona followed Peter, Cyril, and Joan. Marjorie and Dona always declared that if they could have been consulted in the matter of precedence, they would not have chosen to arrive in the exact centre of a big family. Nora, as eldest, and Joan, as youngest, occupied definite and recognized positions, but middle girls rarely receive as much attention. Dona, indeed, had claimed a certain share of petting, but Marjorie considered herself badly treated by the Fates.

“I wish I were the only one!” she assured the others. “Think how I’d be appreciated then!”

“We’ll swop you with pleasure, madam, if you wish,” returned Larry ironically. “I should suggest an advertisement such as this: ‘Wanted situation as only daughter in eligible family, eight brothers and sisters given in exchange. A month’s approval.’ No! Better not put that in, or they’d send you packing back at the end of the first week.”

“Brothers are beasts!” pouted Marjorie, throwing a cushion at Larry to express her indignation. “What I’d like would be for Mother to take me away for a year, or let me study Art, or Music, or something, just with her. Mamie Page’s mother went with her to Paris, and they’d a gorgeous time. That’s my ambition.”

“And mine’s just to be allowed to stop at home,” added Dona plaintively.

Neither Marjorie’s nor Dona’s wishes, however, were considered at head-quarters. The powers that be had decided that they were to be educated at Brackenfield College, their boxes were ready packed, and their train was to leave at nine o’clock by railway time. Mother saw them off at the station.

“I wish I could have taken you,” she said rather anxiously. “But I think you’ll manage the journey all right. You’re both together, and Marjorie’s a big girl now, and used to travelling. You’ve only to cross the platform at Rosebury to get the London train, and a teacher is to meet you at Euston. You’ll know her by the Brackenfield badge, and be sure you don’t speak to anyone else. Call out of the window for a porter when you reach Rosebury. You’ve plenty of time to change. Well, good-bye, chicks! Be good girls. Don’t forget to send me that telegram from Euston. Write as soon as you can. Don’t lean against the door of the carriage. You’re just off now! Good-bye! Good-bye!”

As the train steamed out of the station, Dona sank into her place with the air of a martyr starting for the stake, and mopped her eyes with her already damp pocket-handkerchief. Marjorie, case-hardened after many similar partings, settled herself in the next seat, and, pulling out an illustrated paper from her bag, began to read. The train was very full, and the girls had with difficulty found room. Soldiers on leave were returning to the front, and filled the corridor. Dona and Marjorie were crammed in between a stout woman, who nursed a basket containing a mewing kitten, and a wizened little man with an irritating cough. Opposite sat three Tommies, and an elderly lady with a long thin nose and prominent teeth, who entered into conversation with the soldiers, and proffered them much good advice, with an epitome of her ideas on the conduct of the war. The distance from Silverwood to Rosebury was only thirty miles, and the train was due to arrive at the junction with twenty-five minutes to spare for the London express. On all ordinary occasions it jogged along in a commonplace fashion, and turned up up to time. To-day, however, it behaved with unusual eccentricity, and, instead of passing the signals at Meriton, it slowed up and whistled, and finally stood still upon the bridge.

“Must be something blocking the line,” observed one of the Tommies, looking out of the window.

“I do hope it’s not an accident. The Company is so terribly understaffed at present, and the signal-men work far too long hours, and are ready to drop with fatigue at their posts,” began the thin lady nervously. “I’ve always had a horror of railway accidents. I wish I’d taken an insurance ticket before I started. Can you see anything on the line, my good man? Is there any danger?”

The Tommy drew in his head and smiled. It was a particularly good-looking head, with twinkling brown eyes, and a very humorous smile.

“Not so long as the train is standing still,” he replied. “I think they’ll get us back to the front this time. We’ll probably have to wait till something passes us. It’s just a matter of patience.”

His words were justified, for in about ten minutes an express roared by, after which event their train once more started, and jogged along to Rosebury.

“We’re horribly late!” whispered Marjorie to Dona, consulting her watch. “I hope to goodness there’ll be no more stops. It’s running the thing very fine, I can tell you. I’m glad we’ve only to cross the platform. I’ll get a porter as fast as I can.”

But, when they reached Rosebury, the stout woman and the basket with the kitten got in the way, and the elderly lady jammed up the door with her hold-all, so that, by the time Dona and Marjorie managed to get themselves and their belongings out of the carriage, the very few porters available had already been commandeered by other people. The girls ran to the van at the back of the train, where the guard was turning out the luggage. Their boxes were on the platform amid a pile of suit-cases, bags, and portmanteaux; their extreme newness made them easily recognizable, even without the conspicuous initials.

“What are we to do?” cried Marjorie. “We’ll miss the London train! I know we shall! Here, Dona, let’s take them ourselves!”

She seized one of the boxes by the handle, and tried to drag it along the platform, but its weight was prohibitive. After a couple of yards she stopped exhausted.

“Better leave your luggage and let it follow you,” said a voice at her elbow. “If you want the Euston express, you’ll have to make a run for it.”

Marjorie turned round quickly. The speaker was the young Tommy who had leaned out of the carriage window when the line was blocked. His dark eyes were still twinkling.

“The train’s over there, and they’re shutting the doors,” he urged. “Here, I’ll take this for you, if you like. Best hurry up!”

He had his heavy kit-bag to carry, but he shouldered the girls’ pile of wraps, umbrellas, and hockey-sticks, in addition to his own burden, and set off post-haste along the platform, while Marjorie and Dona, much encumbered with their bags and a few odd parcels, followed in his wake. It was a difficult progress, for everybody seemed to get into their way, and just as they neared the express the guard waved his green flag.

“Stand back! Stand back!” shouted an official, as the girls made a last wild spurt, the whistle sounded, the guard jumped into the van, and, with a loud clanging of coupling-chains, the train started. They had missed it by exactly five seconds.

“Hard luck!” said the Tommy, depositing the wraps upon the platform. “You’ll have to wait two hours for the next. You’ll get your luggage, at any rate. Oh, it’s all right!” as Marjorie murmured thanks, “I’m only sorry you’ve missed it,” and he hailed a companion and was gone.

“It was awfully kind of him,” commented Dona, still panting from her run.

“Kind! He’s a gentleman—there was no mistaking that!” replied Marjorie.

The two girls had now to face the very unpleasant fact that they had missed the connection, and that the teacher who was to meet them at Euston would look for them in vain. They wondered whether she would wait for the next train, and, if she did not, how they were going to get across London to the Great Western railway station. Marjorie felt very doubtful as to whether her experience of travelling would be equal to the emergency. She hid her fears, however, from Dona, whose countenance was quite sufficiently woebegone already.

“We’ll get chocolates out of the automatic machine, and buy something to read at the bookstall,” she suggested. “Two hours won’t last for ever!”

Dona cheered up a little at the sight of magazines, and picked out a periodical with a soldier upon the cover. Marjorie, whose taste in literature inclined to the sensational, reviewed the books, and chose one with a startling picture depicting a phantom in the act of disturbing a dinner-party. She was too agitated to read more than a few pages of it, but she thought it seemed interesting. The two hours were over at last, and the girls and their luggage were safely installed in the London train by a porter. It was a long journey to Euston. After their early start and the excitement at Rosebury both felt tired, and even Marjorie looked decidedly sober when they reached their destination. Each was wearing the brown-white-and-blue Brackenfield badge, which had been forwarded to them from the school, and by which the mistress was to identify them. As they left the carriage, they glanced anxiously at the coat of each lady who passed them on the platform, to descry a similar rosette. All in vain. Everybody was in a hurry, and nobody sported the Brackenfield colours.

“We shall have to get a taxi and manage as best we can,” sighed Marjorie. “I wish the porters weren’t so stupid! I can’t make them listen to me. The taxis will all be taken up if we’re not quick! Oh, I say, there’s that Tommy again! I wonder if he’d hail us one. I declare I’ll ask him.”

“Hail you a taxi? With pleasure!” replied the young soldier, as Marjorie impulsively stopped him and urged her request. “Have you got your luggage this time?”

“Yes, yes, it’s all here, and we’ve found a porter, only he’s so slow, and——”

“Are you Marjorie and Dona Anderson?” interrupted a sharp voice. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere. Who is this you’re speaking to? You don’t know? Then come along with me immediately. No, certainly not! I’ll get a taxi myself. Where is your luggage?”

The speaker was tall and fair, with light-grey eyes and pince-nez. She wore the unmistakable Brackenfield badge, so her words carried authority. She bustled the girls off in a tremendous hurry, and their good Samaritan of a soldier melted away amongst the crowd.

“I’ve been waiting hours for you. How did you miss your train?” asked the mistress. “Why didn’t you go and stand under the clock, as you were told in the Head Mistress’s letter? And don’t you know that you must never address strangers?”

“She’s angry with you for speaking to the Tommy,” whispered Dona to Marjorie, as the pair followed their new guardian.

“I can’t help it. He would have got us a taxi, and now they’re all gone, and we must put up with a four-wheeler. I couldn’t see any clock, and no wonder we missed her in such a crowd. I think she’s hateful, and I’m not going to like her a scrap.”

“No more am I,” returned Dona.