The Madcap of the School.

by Angela Brazil.

CHAPTER I

THE MOATED GRANGE

"Here they are!"

"Not really!"

"It is, I tell you!"

"Jubilate! You're right, old sport! Scooterons-nous this very sec!

Quick! Hurry! Stir your old bones, can't you?"

The two girls, who had been standing in the ruined watch-tower that spanned the gateway, tore down the broken corkscrew staircase at a speed calculated to imperil their necks seriously, and reached the bottom at the identical moment that a motor char-a-banc rounded the corner and drew up in front of the entrance. Sixteen jolly faces were grinning under sixteen school hats, and at least a dozen excited voices were pouring forth a perfect babel of exclamations.

"How ripping!"

"Oh, I say!"

"This is top-hole!"

"What a chubby place!"

"I'd no idea it would be like this!"

"Oh, hold me up! This child's knocked me over entirely!"

The opening day of a fresh term is always more or less of an event, but this particular reunion was a thrillingly important occasion, for during the Easter holidays the school had removed, and the girls were now having their first peep at their new quarters.

The vision that greeted them through the old gateway was certainly calculated to justify their ecstatic remarks. A gra.s.sy courtyard, interspersed with box-edged flower beds and flagged footpaths, led to a large, gray old Tudor house, whose mullioned diamond-paned windows, twisted chimney stacks, irregular moss-grown roof, ivied bell-tower, stone b.a.l.l.s and carved porch offered the very utmost of the romantic and picturesque. The change from the humdrum, ordinary surroundings of their former school was supreme. Miss Beasley had promised them a pleasant surprise, and she had undoubtedly kept her word. The sixteen new arrivals grasped their handbags and small possessions, and set off up the flagged pathway with delight written large on their countenances. Raymonde Armitage and Aveline Kerby, in virtue of half an hour's longer acquaintance with the premises, trotted alongside and did the honours.

"Yes, it's topping! Regular old country mansion sort of a place. Might have come straight, slap-bang out of a novel! You should see the b.u.mble Bee! I can tell you she's pleased with life! Buzzing about no end! Even the Wasp's got a smile on! Fact! You needn't look so incredulous. I'm not ragging."

"It's true," confirmed Raymonde. "The Wasp's quite jinky to-day.

Actually said 'my dear' to me when I arrived. Of course, Mother was there, but even then it gave me spasms. Gibbie, of all people in this wide world, to call me 'my dear'! I nearly collapsed! 'Goodness! what next?' I thought. 'Wonders will never cease!'"

"Gibbie's certainly not given to trotting out pet names, even before parents," chirruped Morvyth Holmes. "Perhaps she's striking out a new line, and we shall all be 'Darling' and 'Sweetest' now!"

"Don't you alarm yourself! She couldn't twist her tongue round them.

I'd think she was pining away to an early death if she did! You'll hear plenty of plain, straight, wholesome talking-to before you're half an hour older, my child, or else I'm entirely mistaken."

"_You_ will, old sport, unless you've mended your ways," chuckled Morvyth. "Are you a reformed character this term, may I ask? Come back with a certificate for good behaviour--no vice, gentle in harness, a child can drive her, etcetera?"

"Help! The school would die of dullness if I did! You'd be positively bored to tears. No, we all have our talents, and I consider my mission in life is to keep things humming and cheer you all up. I may do it at some personal sacrifice, but----"

"Personal thingumjig!" interrupted Valentine Gorton.

"But it is!" persisted Raymonde, her dark eyes dancing. "You don't know how disinterested I am. Gibbie can't row us all at once, and when I draw fire on myself I save you. See? I'm a kind of scapegoat for the school. Everybody's sins are stuck on to me. Gibbie lets forth the vials of her wrath, the storm's over, she feels better, and n.o.body else is much the worse."

"Not even you--you heroic victim?"

"Bless you, child, I'm as used to scolding as eels to skinning.

Neither the b.u.mble Bee nor the Wasp worry me. I let them both buzz. It seems to please them! Indeed, I think they expect it. When one's got a reputation, one's bound to live up to it."

Raymonde Armitage would certainly not have won a medal for exemplary behaviour, had any such prize been offered at the school. There was no harm in her, but her irrepressible spirits were continually at effervescing point, and in fizzing over were liable to burst into outbreaks of a nature highly scandalizing to the authorities. As regarded Miss Beasley, the Princ.i.p.al, though she upheld discipline firmly, it was an open secret that she had a sneaking weakness for Raymonde. "The b.u.mble Bee rows Ray, but she likes her," was the general verdict. With Miss Gibbs, however, it was a different matter.

The humour of a situation never appealed to her. She frankly considered her troublesome pupil as a thorn in the flesh, and perhaps gave her credit for more than she really deserved in the way of blame.

It was whispered in the school that several enterprising spirits had managed to shift on to Raymonde's shoulders the consequences of their own crimes, with results more satisfactory to themselves than to their lively cla.s.smate. In spite of the fact that she had pa.s.sed her fifteenth birthday, Raymonde was the most irresponsible creature in the world. She looked it. Her face was as round and smooth as an infant's, with an absurd little dab of a nose, a mouth with baby dimples at the corners, and small white teeth that seemed more like first than second ones, and dark eyes which, when they did not happen to be twinkling, were capable of putting on a bewitching innocence of expression calculated to deceive almost any teacher, however experienced, save the case-hardened Miss Gibbs.

At the beginning of this term there were twenty-six girls in the little community a.s.sembled at Marlowe Grange. The old house provided ample accommodation, and had been easily adapted to meet the wants of a school. Built originally in Elizabethan days, it had been added to at various times, and its medley of architecture, while hopelessly confusing styles, had resulted in a very picturesque and charming whole. Perhaps the most ancient part was the fortified gateway, ruinous and covered with ivy, but still preserving its winding stair leading to an upper story that spanned the entrance. With its tiny loophole windows and its great solid oak gate with the little door cut through, it had the aspect of a mediaeval fortress, and was a fitting introduction to what was to follow. High walls on both sides enclosed the courtyard, and farther on, to the right of the house, was another quaint garden, where shaved yew trees and clipped hollies presented distorted imitations of peac.o.c.ks, umbrellas, paG.o.das, or other ambitious examples of topiary art. Here, in the late April weather, spring bulbs were blooming, wallflowers made a sheet of gold, and the pear trees were opening pure white blossoms. Little clumps of pansies, pink daisies, and forget-me-nots were struggling up, rather mixed amongst the box edging, and a bank of white alyssum on the rockery near the hives provided a feast of nectar for the bees, whose drowsy hum seemed to hold all the promise of the coming summer.

Behind this garden, and sheltered by the outbuildings from the north and east winds, lay the orchard, neglected and unpruned, but very beautiful with its moss-grown apple trees, its straggling plums, and budding walnuts, and cherries just bursting into an ethereal fairy network of delicate palest pink bloom. Primroses grew here amongst the gra.s.s, and clumps of dog violets and little tufts of bluebells were pushing their way up to take the place of the fading daffodils, while a blackthorn bush was a ma.s.s of pure white stars. At the far end, instead of a hedge, lay the moat, a shallow stagnant pool, bordered with drooping willows, tall reeds, and rushes that reared their spear-like stems from the dark oozy water. Originally this moat had encircled the mansion as a means of defence, but now, like the ruined gateway, its mission was long past, and it survived, a sleepy witness to the warfare of our forefathers, and a picturesque adjunct to the general beauty of the place that could scarcely be surpa.s.sed. From the farther side of the moat peaceful meadows led to the river, where between high wooded banks a stately silver stream glided slowly and tranquilly on in its path towards the ocean, rippling over weirs, and bearing on its calm bosom an occasional pleasure boat, punt, or fussy little motor yacht.

The interior of the old Grange was quaint as its exterior. The large rooms lent themselves admirably to school uses. The big hall, with its oak-panelled walls, stained-gla.s.s windows, and huge fireplace, made an excellent lecture-room, or, when the forms were moved to one end, provided plenty of s.p.a.ce for drilling or dancing. It seemed strange certainly to turn an Elizabethan bedroom into a twentieth-century cla.s.s-room, and standard desks looked decidedly at variance with the carved chimney-pieces or the stags' antlers that still ornamented the walls; but the modern element only seemed to enhance the old, and the girls agreed that nothing could be more suitable than to learn history in such a setting.

"It'll give us a loophole for lots of our lessons," remarked Raymonde hopefully, as she personally conducted a party of new arrivals over the establishment. "For instance, if I get muddled over circulating decimals, I'll explain that my brains fall naturally into a mediaeval groove in these surroundings, and decimals weren't invented then, so that of course it's impossible for me to grasp them; and the same with geography--the map of Africa then had about three names on it, so it's quite superfluous to try to remember any more. I'm going to cultivate the mental atmosphere of the place and focus my mind accordingly. I'll concentrate on the Elizabethan period of history, and the rest I'll just ignore."

"Don't know how you'll convince Gibbie!" chuckled Muriel Fuller.

"You leave Gibbie to me! My mind's seething with ideas. It's absolutely chock full. I see possibilities that I never even dreamt of at the old school. I believe this term's going to be the time of my life. Bless the dear old b.u.mble Bee! She's buzzed to some purpose in bringing us here!"

Perhaps what struck the girls most of all was the large dormitory. In the days of the French Revolution Marlowe Grange had been the refuge of an order of nuns, who had escaped from Limoges and founded a temporary convent in the old house. It was owing to the excellence of their arrangements, and the structural improvements which they had left behind them, that the Grange had been so eminently suitable for a school. Seven little bedrooms placed side by side served exactly to accommodate the members of the Sixth Form, while the great chamber, running from end to end of the house, with its nineteen snow-white beds, provided quarters for the rank and file. Just for a moment the girls had stared rather aghast at their vast dormitory, contrasting it with the numerous small rooms of their former school; but the possibilities of fun presented by this congregation of beds outweighed the disadvantages, and they had decided that the arrangement was "topping." It had, however, one serious drawback. At the far end was a small extra chamber, intended originally for the use of the Mother Superior of the convent, and here, to the girls' infinite dismay, Miss Gibbs had taken up her abode. There was no mistake about it. Her box blocked the doorway; her bag, labelled "M. Gibbs. Pa.s.senger to Great Marlowe via Littleton Junction," reposed upon a chair, her hat and coat lay on the bed, and a neat time-table of cla.s.ses was already pinned upon the wall.

"We didn't bargain to have the Wasp at such close quarters!" whispered Ardiune Coleman-Smith ruefully. "She'll sleep with both ears open, and if we stir a finger or breathe a word she'll hear!"

"Cheero! There are ways of making people deaf," remarked Raymonde sanguinely. "How? Ah, my child, that's a surprise for the future!

D'you suppose" (with a cryptic shake of the head) "I'm going to give away my professional secrets? I've told you already it's my mission to enliven this school, and if you don't have a jinky term I'll consider myself a failure. Haven't I started well? I arrived half an hour before everyone else, and booked up all the beds on the far side for our set. Here you are! A label's pinned to each pillow!"

The six kindred spirits who revolved as satellites in Raymonde's...o...b..t turned to her with a gush of admiration. It was a brilliant thought to have labelled the beds, and so secured the most eligible portion of the dormitory for themselves.

"You're the limit, Ray!" gurgled Aveline.

Aveline was generally regarded as Raymonde's under-study. She was not so clever, so daring, or so altogether reckless, but she came in a very good second-best in most of the harum-scarum escapades. She could always be relied upon for support, could keep a secret, and had a peculiarly convenient knack of baffling awkward questions by putting on an att.i.tude of utter stolidity. When her eyes were half-closed under their heavy lids, and her mouth wore what the girls called its "John Bull" expression, not even Miss Beasley herself could drag information out of Aveline. The Sphinx, as she was sometimes nicknamed, prided herself on her accomplishment, and took particular care to maintain her character. Raymonde had apportioned the bed on her right to Aveline, and that on her left to Fauvette Robinson, who occupied about an equal place in her affections.

Fauvette was a little, blue-eyed, fluffy-haired, clinging, cuddly, ultra-feminine specimen who hung on to Raymonde like a limpet.

Raymonde twisted her flaxen locks for her in curl rags, helped to thread baby ribbon through her under-bodices, hauled her out of bed in the mornings, drummed her lessons into her, formed her opinions, and generally dominated her school career. Fauvette was one of those girls who all their lives lean upon somebody, and at present she had twined herself, an ornamental piece of honeysuckle, round the stout oak prop of Raymonde's stronger personality. She was a dear, amiable, sweet-tempered little soul, highly romantic and sentimental, with a pretty soprano voice, and just a sufficient talent for acting to make her absolutely invaluable in scenes from d.i.c.kens or Jane Austen, where a heroine of the innocent, pleading, pathetic, babyish, Early Victorian type was required.

A more spicy character was Morvyth Holmes, otherwise "The Kipper." Her pale face and shining hazel eyes showed cleverness. When she cared to work she could astonish her Form and her teacher, but her energy came in such odd bursts, and with such long lapses between, that it did not in the aggregate amount to much. It was rumoured in the school that Miss Beasley had her eye on Morvyth as a possible candidate for public examinations, and, in fear lest such an honour might be thrust upon her, Morvyth was careful to avoid the display of too deep erudition.

"It wouldn't do," she a.s.sured her chums. "Catch me swatting for the Senior Oxford like poor old Meta and Daphne. I tell you those girls will hardly enjoy a decent game of tennis this term. The b.u.mble Bee's got their wretched noses on the grindstone, and they'll have a blighting time till the affair's over. No, I'm a wary bird, and I'm not going to be decoyed into an intellectual trap and dished up for examination. Not even the Essay Prize shall tempt me! You may win it yourself, Ray, if you like!"

"Poor old Kipper!" murmured Raymonde. "It's a little rough on you that you daren't exhibit your talents. Can't you show a doctor's certificate prohibiting you from entering for public exams. and limiting your prep.? The kind of thing one brings back to school after scarlet fever, you know."

Morvyth shook her head dolefully.