Читать книгу The Twins at St. Clare's - Enid blyton - Страница 4

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The time soon came when the twins had to leave for the winter term at St. Clare’s. Their mother had had a list of things they were to take with them, and the twins examined it carefully.

“It’s not nearly such a long list as we had for Redroofs,” said Pat. “And golly—how few dresses we are allowed! Mary and Frances said that they were allowed to take as many frocks as they liked to Ringmere—and they had both got long evening dresses like their mother! Won’t they show off to us when they see us again!”

“And look—lacrosse-sticks instead of hockey-sticks!” said Isabel in disgust. “They might at least play hockey as well as lacrosse! I didn’t even bother to look at the lacrosse sticks Mummy bought for us, did you? And look—we are even told what to bring in our tuck boxes! We could take what we liked to Redroofs.”

“Just wait till we get to St. Clare’s. We’ll show that we can do as we like,” said Pat. “What time is the train tomorrow?”

“Ten o’clock from Paddington,” said Isabel. “Well—we shall get our first glimpse of the St. Clare girls there. I bet they’ll be a queer-looking crowd!”

Mrs. O’Sullivan took the twins to London. They taxied to Paddington Station, and looked for the St. Clare train. There it was, drawn up at the platform, labelled St. Clare. On the platform were scores of girls, talking excitedly to one another, saying good-bye to their parents, hailing mistresses, and buying bars of chocolate from the tea-wagons.

A simply-dressed mistress came up to the twins. She knew that they were St. Clare girls because they had on the grey coats that were the uniform of the school. She smiled at Mrs. O’Sullivan, and looked at the list in her hand.

“These are new girls,” she said, “and I am sure they must be Patricia and Isabel O’Sullivan, because they are so exactly alike. I’m your form-mistress, Miss Roberts, and I’m very pleased to see you.”

This was a nice welcome and the twins liked the look of Miss Roberts. She was young and good-looking, tall and smiling—but she had a firm mouth and both Pat and Isabel felt sure that she wouldn’t stand much nonsense from her form!

“Your carriage is over here, with the rest of your form,” said Miss Roberts. “Say good-bye now, and get in. The train will be going in two minutes.”

She went off to talk to some one else and the twins hugged their mother. “Good-bye,” said Mrs. O’Sullivan. “Do your best this term, and I do hope you’ll be happy at your new school. Write to me soon.”

The twins got into a carriage where three or four other girls were already sitting and chattering. They said nothing, but looked with interest at the scores of girls passing by their compartment to their places farther up the train.

At their last school the twins had been the oldest and biggest there—but now they were among the youngest! At Redroofs all the girls had looked at Pat and Isabel with awe and admiration—the two wonderful head-girls—but now the twins were looking at others in the same way! Tall, dignified girls from the top form walked by, talking. Merry-voiced girls from other forms ran to get their places, calling out to one another. Younger ones scrambled into the carriages as the guard went along to warn one that the train was about to go.

The journey was quite fun. Every one had packets of sandwiches to eat at half-past twelve, and the train steward brought bottles of ginger-beer and lemonade, and cups of tea. At half-past two the train drew in at a little platform. A big notice said “Alight here for St. Clare’s School”.

There were big school-coaches waiting outside and the girls piled themselves in them, chattering and laughing. One of them turned to Pat and Isabel.

“There’s the school, look! Up on that hill there!”

The twins looked. They saw a pleasant white building, built of large white stones, with two towers, one at each end. It looked down into the valley, over big playing-fields and gardens.

“Not nearly so nice as Redroofs,” said Pat to Isabel. “Do you remember how sweet our old school used to look in the evening sun? Its red roof was glowing, and it looked warm and welcoming—not cold and white like St. Clare’s.”

For a few minutes both girls were homesick for their old school and their old friends. They knew nobody at St. Clare’s at all. They couldn’t call out “Hallo, there!” to every one as they had done each term before. They didn’t like the look of any of the girls, who seemed much more noisy and boisterous than the ones at Redroofs. It was all horrid.

“Anyway, we are lucky to have got each other,” said Isabel to Pat. “I would have hated to come here all alone. Nobody seems to talk to us at all.”

It was the twins’ own fault, if they had but known it. They both looked “stuck-up” as one girl whispered to another. Nobody felt much inclined to talk to them or make friends.

There was the same rush of unpacking and settling in as there is at all boarding-schools. The big dormitories were full of girls putting away their things, hanging up their dresses and putting photographs out on their little dressing-tables.

There were a good many dormitories at St. Clare’s. Pat and Isabel were in number 7, where there were eight white beds, all exactly alike. Each was in its own cubicle surrounded by curtains that could be drawn open or closed, just as the girls pleased. Pat’s bed was next to Isabel’s, much to their joy.

When the girls had unpacked a tall girl came into the dormitory calling out, “Any new girls here?”

Pat and Isabel nodded their heads. “We are new,” said Pat.

“Hallo, twins!” said the tall girl, smiling, as she looked at the two sisters so exactly alike, “Are you Patricia and Isabel O’Sullivan? Matron wants to see you.”

Pat and Isabel went with the girl to where the school matron sat in her comfortable room, surrounded by cupboards, chests and shelves. She was a fat, jolly-looking person, but her eyes were very sharp indeed.

“You can’t deceive Matron over anything,” whispered their guide. “Keep in her good books if you can.”

Matron checked over sheets, towels and clothes with them. “You will be responsible for mending all your own belongings,” she said.

“Good gracious!” said Pat. “There were sewing maids at our other school to do that.”

“Shocking!” said Matron, briskly. “Well, there are no sewing-maids here. So be careful of your things, and remember that they cost your parents money.”

“Our parents don’t need to worry about torn clothes,” began Pat. “Why, once at Redroofs I got caught in some barbed wire, and everything I had on was torn to bits. They were so torn that the sewing-maid said she couldn’t mend a thing, and ...”

“Well, I would have made you mend every hole, every rent, every tear,” said Matron, her eyes beginning to sparkle. “There’s one thing I can’t bear, and that’s carelessness and waste. Now mind you ... What is it, Millicent?”

Another girl had come into the room with a pile of towels, and the twins were very glad that Matron’s attention was no longer given to them. They slipped out of the room quietly.

“I don’t like Matron,” said Pat. “And I’ve a jolly good mind to tear something so badly that it can’t be mended, and that would give her something to think about!”

“Let’s go and see what the school is like,” said Isabel, slipping her arm into Pat’s. “It seems much barer and colder somehow than dear old Redroofs.”

The twins began to explore. The classrooms seemed much the same as any classrooms, and the view from the windows was magnificent. The twins peeped into the studies. At their old school they had shared a fine study between them, but here there were no studies except for the top form girls and the fifth form. The younger girls shared a big common room, where there was a wireless, a gramophone and a big library of books. Shelves ran round the common room and each girl shared part of a shelf, putting her belongings there, and keeping them tidy.

There were small music rooms for practising, a fine art room, an enormous gym, which was also used for assembly and concerts, and a good laboratory. The mistresses had two common rooms and their own bedrooms, and the Head lived in a small wing by herself, having her own bedroom in one of the towers, and a beautiful drawing-room below.

“It’s not so bad,” said Pat, after they had explored everywhere. “And the playing-fields are fine. There are many more tennis courts here than Redroofs—but of course it’s a much bigger school.”

“I don’t like big schools,” said Isabel. “I like smaller schools, where you are somebody, not just a little nobody tucked away among heaps of others!”

They went into the common room. The wireless was on and a dance-band was playing cheerful music, which was almost drowned by the chatter of the girls. Some of them looked up as Pat and Isabel came in.

“Hallo, twins!” said a cheeky-looking girl with curly golden hair. “Which is which?”

“I’m Patricia O’Sullivan and my twin sister is Isabel,” said Pat.

“Well, welcome to St. Clare’s,” said the girl. “I’m Hilary Wentworth, and you’re in the same dormitory as I am. Have you been to boarding-school before?”

“Of course,” said Pat. “We went to Redroofs.”

“The school for snobs!” said a dark-haired girl, looking up. “My cousin went there—and didn’t she fancy herself when she came home! Expected to be waited on hand and foot, and couldn’t even bear to sew a button on a shoe!”

“Shut up,” said Hilary, seeing that Pat went red. “You always talk too much, Janet. Well, Patricia and Isabel, this isn’t the same kind of school as Redroofs—we work hard and play hard here, and we’re jolly well taught to be independent and responsible!”

“We didn’t want to come here,” said Pat. “We wanted to go to Ringmere School, where our friends were going. Nobody thought much of St. Clare’s at Redroofs.”

“Dear, dear, dear, is that so?” said Janet, raising her eyebrows till they were almost lost in the dark hair on her forehead. “Well, the point is, my dear twins—not what you think of St. Clare’s—but what St. Clare’s thinks of you! Quite a different thing. Personally, I think it’s a pity that you didn’t go somewhere else. I’ve a feeling you won’t fit in here.”

“Janet, do be quiet,” said Hilary. “It’s not fair to say things like that to new girls. Let them settle in. Come on, Patricia—come on, Isabel—I’ll show you the way to the Head’s room. You’ll have to go and say how-do-you-do to her before supper.”

Pat and Isabel were almost boiling over with rage at what dark-haired Janet had said. Hilary pushed the twins out of the room. “Don’t take too much notice of Janet,” she said. “She always says exactly what she thinks, which is very nice when she thinks complimentary things about people, but not so good when she doesn’t. You’ll get used to her.”

“I hope we shan’t,” said Pat stiffly. “I like good manners, something that was taught at our school anyway, even if it’s not known here!”

“Oh, don’t be stuffy,” said Hilary. “Look, that’s the Head’s room. Knock on the door first—and try some of your good manners on Miss Theobald!”

The twins knocked on the door. A pleasant, rather deep voice called “Come in!” Pat opened the door and the twins went in.

The Head Mistress was sitting at her desk, writing. She looked up and smiled at the girls.

“I needn’t ask who you are,” she said. “You are so alike that you must be the O’Sullivan twins!”

“Yes,” said the girls, looking at their new Head Mistress. She was grey-haired, with a dignified, serious face that broke into a lovely smile at times. She shook hands with each twin.

“I am very glad to welcome you to St. Clare’s,” she said. “I hope that one day we shall be proud of you. Do your best for us and St. Clare’s will be able to do its best for you!”

“We’ll try,” said Isabel, and then was quite surprised at herself to find that she had said that. She didn’t mean to try at all! She looked at Pat. Pat said nothing but stared straight in front of her.

“I know your mother quite well,” said Miss Theobald. “I was glad when she decided to send you here. You must tell her that when you write to her, and give her my kind regards.”

“Yes, Miss Theobald,” said Pat. The Head Mistress nodded at them with a smile, and turned to her desk again.

“What funny children!” she thought to herself. “Anyone might think they hated to be here! Perhaps they are just shy or homesick.”

But they were neither shy nor homesick. They were just two obstinate girls determined to make the worst of things because they hadn’t been sent to the school of their choice!