Читать книгу Schooldays at the Abbey - Elsie Jeanette Dunkerley - Страница 4

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“Are you making friends, Jen?” asked the headmistress, looking down at the little new boarder with a smile. “Is somebody looking after you?”

Jen Robins pushed back her long yellow plaits, and met Miss Macey’s keen eyes bravely. She was only thirteen and she had just had her first night away from home.

“I’m going to make lots of friends very soon, I’m sure. Thank you very much; I’ve been looked after in the most topping way.”

Miss Macey laughed. “What does that mean?”

“Oh, somebody’s been most awfully kind! I don’t know her, but she’s quite old—quite big, anyway. I don’t know why she fagged to look after a kid like me. She saw I was new, and she took charge of me and showed me everything, and told me people’s names, and introduced me to Nesta and Molly, in my form. It was simply ripping of her to take so much trouble!”

“Don’t you know her name?”

“Somebody called her Joan. She had long red hair, tied back but not in a plait.”

“And she wore a silver medal pinned on her tunic,” said Miss Macey.

Jen eyed her eagerly. “Yes, I saw it. Is she some kind of a captain? I was going to ask Nesta.”

“She was Joan Shirley, our new May Queen. You’ll see her crowned to-night. One of her duties is to look after new girls.”

“She does it jolly well,” Jen said fervently. “She’ll be a ripping queen. I’m looking forward most frightfully to the show to-night.”

“Perhaps when you have been with us for a little while we shall be able to persuade you not to use quite so many rippings and toppings,” Miss Macey said, laughing. “No, I’m not scolding; it’s just a suggestion. I know you are the only girl in a family of brothers, and we must expect a certain amount of slang. But there are other words besides ‘most frightfully.’ Now run along to Molly and Nesta! ... Yes, Gertrude?” to a maid, who was looking for her.

“A young lady, wishing to speak to you, ma’am. She says it’s very urgent.”

Miss Macey knit her brows. Her time was fully mapped out, and this was a busy day, with one of the biggest functions of the school year coming in the evening. “Did she say what she wanted?”

“To speak to you about the crowning to-night, she said. She’s quite a young lady,” Gertrude ventured.

“I’ll see her for one moment. Take her to my study. Does ‘quite a young lady’ mean just a girl, I wonder?” Miss Macey followed Jen Robins, who had gone off along the corridor, but turned into her own room, conscious of curiosity about her very young visitor. Her curiosity deepened at sight of the eagerness in the dark eyes of the girl who was presently shown into the study.

“Oh, Miss Macey! Please forgive me for bothering you; I’m sure you’re rushed off your feet!” the words fairly tumbled out in her haste. “But I had to come. I’m staying at a hotel in the town, and I heard this morning about the May Queen business, and I’ve never seen anything of the sort. We only came from Sydney three days ago, and we’ve been seeing London; I’ve lived all my life in Australia. I’ve longed and longed to see England and English girls, and the country in the spring—I’ve heard so much about it. It’s all even more marvellous than I expected! And a May day crowning, with a queen, and old dances—it’s a chance I never dreamed of. Oh, Miss Macey! You’ll let me in to watch, won’t you?”

“That’s an appeal it would be hard to resist,” the headmistress said, laughing. “Tell me a little more. How many are there in your party? We expect a big crowd, but we can always squeeze in a few more.”

“We’re only two people,” Janice pleaded. “My aunt, Miss Fraser, is resting this morning; she found London rather tiring. I’m afraid I tried to see it all in three days! I’m Janice Macdonald, but the girls at school used to call me Jandy Mac.”

Miss Macey laughed again. “Janice Macdonald is much nicer! We will make room for you, Janice, and I know you will enjoy the May-day festival. I’ll write out a ticket for you.”

She sat down at her desk, and drew a pile of tickets towards her. “So it’s your first visit to England?”

“Oh, yes! My mother died when I was two, and my father before I was born. I’ve lived with my aunts, and we’ve always planned to come home as soon as I’d done with school.”

Miss Macey shot a smiling glance at her. “And have you? How old are you? I should hardly have thought——?”

“I’m seventeen,” Janice confessed. “Perhaps I don’t look it, but I really am. Something happened two years ago, to make the trip home much easier than we’d expected. Somebody died, and he left his money to me; he wasn’t a real relation, but he’d adopted me and he thought of me as his own. He—well, he was going to marry my mother, when I was two years old, but she took influenza and in two days it was pneumonia and she died, a week before they were to have been married. So he was never really related to me, but he hadn’t anybody else, and though he left me with my aunts he always said I belonged to him, and he left everything to me.”

“That’s a sad story,” Miss Macey said gravely. “And you wanted to see England?”

“His old home was down this way; he’d told me about it, and I was just crazy to see it. I did two years more at school, but then I couldn’t wait any longer, so I persuaded Aunty to come home with me. We’ve seen a little bit of London, and now we’re having a look at the country, and then we’re going up to Scotland to see the old folks, my grandparents, in a tiny village by a loch somewhere.”

“So you are really a Scot, and not English at all!”

“I guess Macdonald and Fraser aren’t very English. But he—I called him Uncle Tony—he was English, and he’d told me about may and daffodils and buttercup fields and apple-blossom, and I wanted to see them just about as much as I wanted to visit London.”

“How does England satisfy you so far?”

“Oh, I love it! I shouldn’t want to live here always; I miss our sunshine. Australia’s home, and I want to go back. I’d like to live in the South Seas, on a coral reef, where it’s blazing hot all the time! But I’m very happy to be seeing England,” Janice exclaimed. “It’s all just as beautiful as he said.”

“You’ll enjoy the country-dancing to-night,” Miss Macey commented.

“It’s a chance I never dreamed of! I want to see the girls, too.” There was a wistful note in Janice’s voice. “I’ve never spoken to any English girls; I like the look of them. There was a jolly kiddy in the passage as I came along; she looked such a nice friendly sort, and she had two long yellow plaits and very blue eyes. I’d have liked to speak to her. Shall I see her to-night?”

“That would be Janet Robins, our new little boarder. She’s still rather lonely; she only came to us yesterday, so she has hardly settled down yet. But she’ll soon find her place; she’s a friendly little soul. No, I don’t suppose you’ll see her, unless we send for her. She’ll be in the gallery with the rest of her form.”

“I hoped she’d be in the dancing. My mother was called Janet, but she changed her name a little when she gave it to me. Aunty says my father had planned it should be Janice for me; but he never saw me. I’d like to see your little Janet again.”

“She wants us to call her Jen,” Miss Macey said, smiling. “She’s the only girl in a family of brothers, and they call her Jen at home. She won’t be dancing; you need to learn the dances, and Jen is so very new. But I shouldn’t wonder if she becomes a dancer quite soon; she’s made for it, and she’s light on her feet. Perhaps cricket will claim her, however; it’s too soon to say. We don’t encourage girls to do both in earnest; they usually have to choose. I could arrange for you to have a word with Jen after the crowning, if you would like it.”

“That would be very good of you!” Janice’s face lit up. “We’re namesakes; I’d like to speak to an English Janet!”

“I hope you’ll enjoy this evening. I’m sure you will.” Miss Macey handed her the ticket. “I’m glad you came to see me. Was it a very great ordeal?”

Janice coloured and laughed. “I was frightened, but I needn’t have been. You’ve been most frightfully kind.”

Miss Macey’s eyes twinkled as she remembered her rebuke to Jen Robins. “I’m glad you had the courage to come. I’ll see that you have good seats this evening.”

“I’m jolly glad I didn’t funk,” said Janice.

As she hurried away to tell the good news to her aunt she remembered the headmistress’s laughing look. “I ought to have been more careful; I quite forgot she was a school person. She didn’t like ‘funk’ and ‘frightfully’; I wonder what else I said? It doesn’t sound very grown-up! Perhaps she was thinking I’d left school too soon. I shall be frightfully particular what I say, if I see her to-night!” And, dreaming about the evening’s festival, and May Queens and country dances, Janice went to tell her aunt.

Miss Macey had little time that day to think, but when her morning visitor recurred to her mind it was not on Janice’s conversation that she dwelt. It was easy to reconstruct the little family history: the Scottish girl, Janet Fraser, in Australia with her sisters; her marriage to a fellow-Scot named Macdonald; their plans for the first baby; his death before his little girl was born. Then, after something more than two years, the coming of a new friendship, and the young widow’s plans for a second marriage; her swift passing, a week before the wedding was to take place; “Uncle Tony’s” adoption of the orphan Janice, and, later, his death, leaving her to be his heiress.

“He didn’t ask her to take his name, evidently! It was a tragedy for him, poor fellow! But he was very good to Jandy Mac!”