Читать книгу An Exciting Term - Angela Brazil - Страница 10

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Left alone, Molly and Meg devoured the pears with much appreciation. They were full of curiosity concerning their next-door neighbours. When Miss Marsh came presently into the garden they questioned her about them. They were the children, so she said, of the Vicar of St. John's Church. Edward and Hugh went to a boarding school, Bertha to the College. Aileen, who was their cousin, was thirteen, and the daughter of a missionary in China. She had spent some years with a grandmother in Somerset, but had now come to live with the Wrights in order that she might attend the College. They had been away at Eastbourne. They must only just have returned home. That was all the information she could give, but it aroused the girls' interest. They hoped they might see more of the Wright family. They decided that they seemed a jolly crew. They haunted the garden next day in the expectation of finding grinning faces peeping over the wall, but none appeared. Their neighbours were evidently otherwise occupied. They did not even hear the sound of their voices.

On Sunday they were conducted by Miss Marsh to St. John's Church, and caught a glimpse of the backs of the Vicarage party. There was no opportunity, however, even to smile at them on the way home. Further overtures of friendship would have to wait. On Monday morning the ever-useful Miss Marsh escorted them to the College for their entrance examination. They arrived shortly before nine o'clock and were delivered into the care of a teacher, who entered their names and ages and took them into a classroom, where six other girls, also newcomers, were already seated. Among these was Aileen Wright, who gave them a shy glance of recognition, then turned her eyes to her desk. Another mistress was in charge, and as all the candidates had now assembled, she dealt out papers for the first examination. Meg and Molly studied the questions with some trepidation. They had no previous experience of an English school, and they wondered how the standards would compare with those of Canada and Switzerland. There were to be six half-hourly papers during the morning to test their knowledge, with an interval for lunch at eleven o'clock. The first was mathematics, and as they had been well drilled in that subject at Montreux they both managed tolerably well. Geography also was not so difficult, and they were each able to draw a map and fill in names of places. History gave them a depressing half-hour; they had almost forgotten what they had learnt in Canada, and English history had not been taught in Switzerland. They found most of the questions impossible to answer, and sat staring ruefully at them.

At the French paper, however, they cheered up. With their practical knowledge of the language it was extremely easy. They accomplished the translation of French into English and English into French in record time, answered the grammatical questions, and had completed the whole paper before the clock struck eleven, while other candidates seemed still puzzling over it.

Miss Graham, the mistress, now announced that there would be an interval of twenty minutes. Pens were put down thankfully, papers collected, and the eight newcomers were conducted to another room, where milk and biscuits awaited them. As they ate their lunch they looked at one another over the edges of their tumblers, then Meg, who was never troubled with shyness, broke the ice of reserve and began to talk.

"Thank goodness I'm still alive!" she announced dramatically. "What an awful ordeal! Four papers one after the other! Well, how did the rest of you get on?"

A girl of about her own age, with two pigtails, shook her head and gave a dismal sigh.

"They were jolly stiff. I expect I've failed in most. I'm never any good at exams. I remember things afterwards, but I can't just think of them at the time."

"Same here," said an elder girl. "I'm afraid they'll place me low, though I've turned fourteen. I don't want to be put among the kids."

"Did we all have the same questions?" asked another.

"No, it was according to our ages. My sister here is only eleven, and of course they didn't give her the same papers as they gave me."

"What luck had you?" asked Meg, turning to Aileen Wright.

"Oh, moderate. I managed the history, but the French stumped me utterly."

"It was just the other way with us, wasn't it, Molly?"

"Yes, I'm sure I've failed in history, but the French was easy. You see, we've been at school in Switzerland, and all the lessons were in French there."

"Why, then, it must have been as simple as ABCto you."

"How many more exams are there?"

"Only two—Grammar and General Knowledge."

"And we're to remember that writing, correct spelling and general neatness will be taken into account."

"I'd forgotten that! My writing was a scribble, and I never can spell," exclaimed the girl of fourteen.

"Perhaps you'll be in my form, then!" perked her eleven-year-old sister.

"Oh no! They'd never put a girl of your age with her kid sister," said the one with the pigtails. "I know Miss Browne, and she's more sense of decency than to do that. My cousin has been at the Coll for years. She says clever ones from twelve to fourteen go into IVA and second grade into IVB. I expect I'm a second grade."

"Perhaps we most of us are," ventured Molly, finishing her milk.

"Well, it's only natural that a girl who's been here for years and come up from the prep should take a higher place than a new one. She knows the ropes."

"Rather! Though it's hard luck on us."

"Well, there's only one thing about it, if they put us in IVB we shan't have as much homework as if we were in IVA."

"That's one way of looking at it certainly."

"Have you been at a big school before, Aileen?" asked Molly.

"Not a very large one. That's why I've come to live at Rillington, so that I could go to the College."

"Shall you like living here?"

"Oh, I hope so. It's a change from Somerset at any rate."

"Is your home in Somerset?"

"Grannie lives there, but Dad and Mums are in China."

"And my daddy is in New York at present. He's coming home at Christmas though."

At that moment Miss Graham returned to collect the candidates, and marched them back to the examination room. Meg and Molly had been cheered by the French paper, but their faces fell when they were confronted by the one on General Knowledge. They did not know the surname of the Royal family, or the name of the Prime Minister, or the difference between a blue letterbox and a red one.

Fortunately their voyage from Canada had taught them which was starboard and which port on board ship; they knew the pyramids were in Egypt, and that Shakespeare, Wordsworth and Tennyson were poets, and that the Pope lived at The Vatican, but when it came to "what bank holidays are observed in England?" "In what year was it made compulsory for children to be sent to school?" and "How long does Lent last?" they were obliged to leave blanks. The following paper on Grammar they also found difficult, and they were very relieved indeed when at half-past twelve the bell was rung and the examination was finished. Feeling jaded and flustered, they filed from the room to retrieve their coats and hats.

"When shall we know the result?" asked Meg.

"By Thursday, I expect," said the girl with the pigtails, whose name was Pamela. "They'll send us each a notice to tell us our forms."

"And school begins next Tuesday?"

"Yes, at nine. We're to have our uniforms by then."

"Where do we get them?"

"Oh, don't you know? At the Stores—that big shop on the Parade. They supply all the uniforms for the College."

"I suppose Aunt Maggie knows?"

"She'll have had a notice about it. They send one to all the parents of new girls."

"Well, I expect we shall meet next Tuesday?"

"Yes, probably in IVB. I know I shan't be put higher."

"No more shall I, after most of my papers."

Meg and Molly walked home with Aileen Wright. She was pleasant, though not very conversational. Meg as usual did most of the talking, and asked many questions, to which Aileen replied briefly. She had been born in China, she had lived there till she was seven years old, and after that with her grandmother in Somerset. She had two brothers, younger than herself, who were at a prep school in Brighton. Her father and mother would not be coming home for two years. Yes, she thought she would like living with her uncle and aunt. Her cousins were quite jolly. Yes, she was fond of tennis, but there was no court at the Vicarage. Sometimes they played in the public courts at the park.

"I hope we shall see you on the wall again," said Meg, as they parted at their gate.

"I dare say I shall hear you in your garden, then I'll climb up and take a peep over."

"We won't shake down any more of your pears!" laughed Molly.

At lunch the girls related their experiences of the morning. Aunt Maggie was interested and sympathetic. She read the examination questions which they had brought home, and thought them very difficult, especially those on General Knowledge.

"Young people are expected to learn a great deal nowadays," she remarked, "far more than in my schooldays. I'm sure I couldn't answer those papers. Could you, Miss Marsh?"

"No, indeed! I should fail hopelessly, I'm afraid."

"I don't think we shall be put in IVA, Aunt Maggie!" said Molly.

"Never mind, my dears. Miss Browne will place you where she thinks best, and I shall be quite satisfied. I shouldn't like you to be overworked. Besides, there are other subjects at the College you may do well at, drawing and music for instance."

"Yes, we should like those."

"What about our uniforms?" asked Meg.

"I'll take you to the Stores this afternoon. Miss Browne sent me the list of what you'll need."

Mrs. Norton had her usual rest after lunch, and at about three o'clock she and Miss Marsh started with the girls for their shopping expedition. The Stores was a big shop on the Parade containing many departments. All the girls at the College were required to purchase their school outfits there, so that their clothes should be exactly alike. The uniform for the coming autumn and winter consisted of brown skirts, red woollen jerseys, brown coats with the College badge embroidered in red on the breast pockets, and red felt hats. It was a costume that suited Molly well enough, but did not entirely harmonize with Meg's auburn hair. She would much have preferred blue or green. She had no choice in the matter, however, and was obliged to wear the same as the rest of the school. Brown stockings and shoes followed in another department, and also regulation brown waterproofs.

"We shall all be as alike as peas," remarked Meg. "I wish we could wear our own clothes."

"It's a good rule," declared Aunt Maggie. "To begin with, it doesn't encourage any rivalry in dress, which certainly used to exist when I was at school, and some of the girls wore much better clothes than others could afford. It was humiliating for a girl to feel herself badly dressed compared with her companions, and was apt to give her what people now call an 'inferiority complex', but what was bluntly called 'envy' in those days. Then the distinctive uniform stamps those who wear it as College girls. Everyone recognizes the red hats, and if their owners don't behave they would very soon be reported. I believe there's a 'Watch Committee' of prefects for the purpose."

"Oh!" said Meg.

"Don't look so horrified. It's only to insure that girls don't run across the road in front of cars, and don't walk three or four abreast on the pavements. Manners have to be considered at the College as well as lessons, I'm glad to say."

"So they were at Montreux. Madame Séger was most particular."

"Yes, I notice you've been well trained in that respect."

It was the first compliment Aunt Maggie had paid them, so the girls were duly pleased. They had been wondering what she thought of them. When the shopping was concluded she took them to have tea at a large café, where an orchestra was playing, and little tables stood among groups of palms. It was a pleasant finish to the afternoon, and they enjoyed toasted scones and iced cakes. To Molly, however, it recalled vividly her birthday tea at the Casino. Could that possibly be only ten days ago? So much had happened in that short time—the quarrel with Monsieur Henrich, her father's hurried departure to America, and the removal of Meg and herself to Rillington. They had expected to have returned to their school in Montreux by now, and here they were entered at the College. She wondered if her father was settled at New York, and when he would write to her. A sudden longing for him seized her. Meg never mentioned him, and seemed entirely occupied with their new surroundings. Tears suddenly started to Molly's eyes. She hastily turned her head and winked them away. Perhaps Miss Marsh, who was very observant, noticed them, for she began to gather up their parcels and suggest that it was growing late.

"You'll need a rest before your bridge party to-night," she said to Mrs. Norton.

"Yes, so I shall. By the by, did you order me a taxi? It's too far to walk to Mrs. Hall's, besides which I don't like the roads in the dark. Let us go home now by all means. I can have half an hour or so on the sofa when we get in. Really, I'm more tired than I realized. Shopping is an exhausting business."

The College would not reopen till next Tuesday, and meanwhile Molly and Meg felt time hang heavy on their hands. On the following morning after breakfast they were wandering disconsolately in the garden; Aunt Maggie was not yet up, and Miss Marsh was occupied with household affairs.

"I wish we'd something to do," sighed Meg. "It's fearfully dull here, isn't it?"

"Yes, I've no sewing, and there don't seem to be any nice books. Not the sort we care for, anyhow."

"Perhaps Miss Marsh could find us some more magazines if we asked her."

"She's busy just now."

"Well, what can we do?"

"I'm sure I don't know. Just lounge about, I suppose."

"I wish——"

But Meg's wishes received a sudden interruption. Over the garden wall appeared the jolly face of Edward Wright.

"Hello! Hello!" he called. "How are you two getting on?"

"All right, thanks!" replied Meg.

"Doing anything in particular this morning?"

The girls shook their heads.

"Not that we know of," said Molly.

"Well, look here! We're all going out into the country to pick blackberries, and taking our lunch with us. Would you care to join on?"

"Oh! We'd love to! If Aunt Maggie'll let us."

"Go and ask her. We're starting at half-past ten, and catching the bus to Aston Priors—fare one and three return each—and we're taking sandwiches and lemon squash. Shan't be back till teatime. Tear inside and ask! Be quick! I'll wait here on the wall."

Meg and Molly vanished like the wind, and finding Miss Marsh in the kitchen, breathlessly repeated the invitation.

"I'll see Mrs. Norton. It would be a nice excursion for you, and you'd be quite all right with the children from next door."

"Edward's waiting on the wall!" urged Meg.

"I shan't be long," smiled Miss Marsh, and she hurried upstairs.

She returned in a few minutes with the necessary permission, and half a crown for the bus fares.

"I'll cut you some sandwiches, and you can have a bottle of milk," she said.

"Oh, thanks!" cried both girls, rushing back into the garden to tell the good news to Edward.

"Yes! We may come!" they shouted eagerly.

"Right-o! Be on your doorstep at 10.30 prompt, and be sure you bring baskets for blackberries," he called, as he disappeared from the wall.

This indeed put a different complexion on affairs. Molly and Meg were most excited at the prospect. Instead of a long dull day with elderly people, they would have four young companions, and promised themselves plenty of fun.

They were ready before the time, and waiting in the front garden when the Wrights appeared at their gate, and all started off, a hilarious little party, to catch a motor-bus at the corner of the road. It was a beautiful sunny September day, and, as soon as the town was left behind, they were driving along country roads bordered with trees, and through picturesque villages with gardens bright with late summer flowers. It was the girls' first acquaintance with rural England, and they were enchanted with the pretty black and white cottages, covered with clematis and Virginian creeper, the church tower, and the glimpses of a river among willowy banks. It was so different from Canada or Switzerland that they could not help exclaiming enthusiastically.

"Yes, England's not half a bad old place," agreed Edward. "We get off at this next corner. Got all your things, you kids? Bertha, don't leave the butterfly net behind! Hugh, where's that bottle? Here we are! Stop, please!"

The Wrights had been to Aston Priors before, and Edward led the way down a long lane and into a most interesting wood, interspersed with patches of open ground where brambles grew in plenty. Wood pigeons were cooing in the trees, and here and there they caught the flash of a jay's wing, or heard the yaffle of a green woodpecker. There were wild flowers such as Molly and Meg had not seen in Canada, and they began at once to gather bunches. A little stream flowed through the wood, widening out into a shallow pool.

"We always paddle here," said Bertha, sitting down and pulling off her shoes.

The others followed her example, and soon they were all enjoying the cool trickle of the brook, and hunting about for water beetles and other aquatic specimens, which the boys put carefully into the bottle that Hugh had brought.

"For our aquarium," he informed Molly. "We got tadpoles in the spring. Only three of them turned into frogs though. Bertha said she thought they ate each other up like cannibals."

"We had a newt," added Bertha, "and it got out of the aquarium and climbed right up the window curtains."

"Oh! I've trodden on something slippery!" yelled Aileen.

"Was it a fish? I believe there are trout here sometimes!" cried Edward, splashing towards the spot.

"Ted! There's a clouded yellow over there!" bawled Hugh.

"Half a sec while I put on my shoes. Where's the butterfly net? Bertha, you had it."

"It's here on this stone."

It was a most exciting morning. Hugh climbed a tree because he saw a squirrel with a nut in its mouth, but he failed to find its secret hoard, and crashed down again, grazing his shins. Molly made him bathe them in the stream as a precaution. She had taken ambulance lessons at Montreux. Aileen was collecting toadstools, and found some specimens of the "bird's-nest fungus" growing on a piece of dead wood, tiny brown cups each containing four seeds, like miniature eggs in a nest. She put them carefully into a small cardboard box.

"We haven't picked any blackberries yet," suggested Meg.

"We'll eat our prog first, and then the baskets will be empty," said Edward. "Who votes for lunch now?"

"Hungry as a hunter!" proclaimed Hugh.

"Same here," agreed Aileen.

So they made a circle on a patch of grass near the brook and spread out the refreshments. Miss Marsh had put six slices of plum cake into the girls' basket, and Mrs. Wright had provided eight apple turnovers, so they decided to pool the sweet-stuff when the sandwiches were finished, and divided them into six equal portions. The two extra turnovers had to be mathematically severed with Edward's penknife, but he insisted on Molly and Meg having their shares.

Then they sang sea-chanties and rounds, and had fun and jokes, till at last Aileen said:

"Look here, you slackers, what about the blackberries? We shan't make much jam at this rate if we don't get busy."

"Well, we've emptied the baskets now," said Bertha. "Come along, and don't eat half what you pick, you boys!"

Wandering about among the bramble bushes, gathering luscious blackberries, was a pleasant occupation, and if some of them went into their mouths they might well be forgiven, for there were plenty to go into the baskets. They picked and picked till their fingers were stained purple, and they felt like the babes in the wood.

"It's a grand place for berries here. I don't think many people know about it," said Bertha. "We found it by accident last year. It's well off the high road, you see."

"It's a gorgeous place," said Molly. "Do you often have these picnics?"

"Only in the hols. There isn't time when school begins. Last May Miss Rogers—that's our botany mistress—took some of us for a ramble one Saturday. It was quite jolly."

"Will she do it again?"

"Not this term."

"My basket's quite full," said Aileen. "And the boys have picked heaps too. Do you know it's after four o'clock? Listen! Edward's shouting to us. All right, Ted, we're coming!"

Edward was looking at his watch.

"We must be getting a move on now," he announced. "The bus passes the corner at 4.45, and there won't be another for an hour. We've got to go up the lane, remember. Where's that blighter Hugh? If you can't find him he must come home by himself. We can't wait to look for him."

"He's there! I'll fetch him. Hugh! Hugh!" shouted Molly, nearly upsetting her blackberries in her haste as she ran.

Collecting the family, and the baskets and the specimens and the butterfly net and the aquarium jar, needed a little generalship, but Edward rounded up his company and marched them off up the lane, where luckily they were just in time to catch the bus as it passed along the road at the corner. It was rather full, and the boys had to stand, while the girls nursed the specimens, Molly, who was entrusted with the aquarium jar, receiving some of its water on her lap as the bus jolted. She only laughed, however. It had been such a jolly day, and she felt happy. The party separated at their respective gates on terms of friendship. They had got to know one another quite well.

"Bye bye! See you again some day!" said Edward.

"Rather!" answered Meg.

"And thanks ever so for taking us!" added Molly.