The entertainment was to be held on Sat.u.r.day, when, as there was no preparation, the whole evening could be devoted to amus.e.m.e.nt. It was announced to begin at 6 p.m., with box office open at 5.45. The school turned up with prompt punctuality, and would have scrambled for the door, if Barbara, seated at the receipt of custom, had not insisted upon their forming an orderly and orthodox queue. She took their shillings in a business-like manner.

"Programmes--hand painted--sixpence each. Please buy one for the good of the cause!" she added.

The programmes, produced in Linda's and Hermie's best style, were attractive. Each had a different picture upon its cover, and all were tied up with white satin ribbon. The girls opened them eagerly, and read:

MARLOWE GRANGE

Dramatic Performance in Aid of the Blinded Soldiers' Fund.

Scenes from _The Rivals_, by Sheridan.

Cast:

Sir Anthony Absolute Veronica Terry.

Captain Absolute Hermione Graveson.

Faulkland Daphne Johnstone.

Bob Acres Barbara Rowlands.

Mrs. Malaprop Linda Mottram.

Lydia Languish Meta Wright.

Lucy Lois Barlow.

"So the b.u.mble and Gibbie aren't in it, after all!" whispered Aveline.

"I never thought they would be, nor the Professor, nor Mr. Browne either, and certainly not Mr. Beasley! It promises to be decent."

"Hope they'll begin promptly!" murmured Morvyth. "I say, Barbara, isn't it time you began to dress?"

"I don't come on till the second scene," explained Barbara, "so I can change while they're acting the first. That's why they put me as doorkeeper. Go back to your seats. Visitors are arriving."

The two front rows had been reserved for outsiders, and presently began to be filled by those who had bought tickets. Miss Beasley and Miss Gibbs took their places, Mademoiselle played an introductory fantasia upon the piano, and the curtains were drawn aside.

There was no doubt about the play being amusing; from first to last the audience was convulsed. The actresses threw themselves admirably into their parts, and rendered their characters with the utmost spirit. Veronica, well padded with pillows, made a stout and presentable Sir Anthony Absolute, and played the autocratic parent to the life. Hermie, with blue cloak, sword, and military stride, endeavoured to live up to her conception of an eighteenth-century buck, and made love with a fervour that was all the more enhanced by the sight of Miss Gibbs in the front row, sitting with pursed-up lips and straightened back. Meta, as Lydia Languish, sighed, wept, made eyes, and indulged in a perfect orgy of sentiment, while Lois acted the cheeky maidservant with enthusiasm. The best of all, however, was Mrs. Malaprop; Linda had seen the play on the real stage, and reproduced a famous actress to the utmost of her ability. Her absurd manners and amusing mistakes sent the room into a roar, and she occasionally had to wait for quiet until she could continue her speeches.

Everybody voted the evening a huge success. The visitors heartily congratulated Miss Beasley upon the cleverness of her elder pupils, and hoped they would sometimes give another open performance. The girls clapped till their hands were sore. Even Miss Gibbs, though she considered that the love-making had exceeded the limit allowable in school theatricals, expressed guarded approval.

"We've cleared two pounds three and sixpence!" announced Barbara gleefully to the Fifth.

"Good!" exclaimed Valentine. "And we made one pound ten, and the kids one pound seven. What does it tot up to?"

"Five pounds and sixpence," calculated Barbara after a moment's scribbling on the back of a programme.

"Well, I call it a very decent result for a school of only twenty-six girls!"

CHAPTER XXII

An Accusation

On the following Monday afternoon the Reverend T. W. Beasley arrived in readiness to begin, on Tuesday morning, his task of examining the school. There was great fluttering in the dove-cot, and much anxiety on the part of the girls to catch the first glimpse of him. They had decided that, as the brother of their good-looking Princ.i.p.al, he would be tall, fair, and clean-shaven, with cla.s.sical features, gentle blue eyes, and a soft, persuasive manner--the ideal clergyman, in fact, of the storybook, who lives in a picturesque country rectory and cultivates roses. To their disappointment he was nothing of the sort, but turned out to be a short, broad-set little man, with a grey beard and moustache, and keen dark eyes under bushy eyebrows, and a prominent nose that was the very reverse of romantic. He cleared his throat frequently in a nervous fashion, and when he spoke he snapped out his remarks abruptly, in a very deep voice that seemed to rise almost out of his boots.

"He isn't half as nice as Professor Marshall!" decided the Fifth unanimously.

"Looks as if he had a temper!" ventured Fauvette.

"Oh! it's cruelty to give us viva voces! I'll never dare to answer a question!" wailed Aveline.

"I'm afraid he'll be strict," admitted Katherine.

"Perhaps he's nervous too, and scared of us!" suggested Morvyth.

"Don't you believe it!" laughed Raymonde scornfully. "I flatter myself I'm pretty good at reading faces, and I can see at a glance he's a martinet. That frown gives him away, and the kind of glare he has in his eyes. I'm a believer in first impressions, and I knew in a second I wasn't going to like him."

Aveline sighed dramatically.

"It's rough on a poor young girl in her early teens to be put through an ordeal by a stern and elderly individual who'll have absolutely no consideration for her feelings."

"Feelings! You'll have your head snapped off!" prophesied Raymonde.

"Why couldn't the b.u.mble have examined us herself, or at any rate let the Professor do it?"

"Ask me a harder, child!"

"Well, I think it's very unnecessary to have this Mr. Beasley. b.u.mble Bee, indeed! He's a regular hornet!"

Whatever the private opinion of the Fifth might be on the subject of their examiner, they were obliged to hide their injured feelings under a cloak of absolute propriety. The reverend visitor was a solid fact, and all the grumbling in the world could not remove the incubus of his presence. At nine o'clock on Tuesday morning he would begin his inquisition, and the girls judged that there would be scant mercy for any sinner who failed to reach the required standard. A terrible atmosphere of gloomy convention pervaded the school. Miss Beasley was anxious for her pupils to appear at their very best before her scholarly brother, whose ideal of maidenly propriety was almost mediaeval, and she kept a keen eye on their behaviour. n.o.body dared to speak at meal-times, except a whispered request for such necessary articles as salt and b.u.t.ter; laughter was out of the question, and even a smile was felt to be inappropriate. The girls sat subdued and demure, outwardly the pink of propriety, but inwardly smouldering, and listened obediently while the visitor, mindful of his educational position in the establishment, held forth upon subjects calculated to improve their minds.

"I don't believe Gibbie likes him either!" opined Katherine, after Monday night's supper.

"Of course not! He beats her on her own ground. As for the b.u.mble, she's quite distraught. She keeps glancing at us as if she expected somebody all the time to spill her tea, or break a plate, or pull a face, or do something dreadful. We're not usually an ill-behaved set!"

"He's getting on my nerves!" complained Aveline.

"The place is more like a reformatory than a school!" growled Morvyth.

When the post-bag arrived on Tuesday morning, it contained, among other letters and parcels, a small narrow packet directed to Miss R.

Armitage. Miss Gibbs, whose business it was to overlook her pupils'

correspondence, was in a particular hurry, as it happened, and inclined for once to scamp her duties.

"What's this, Raymonde?" she asked perfunctorily. "A fountain pen, did you say? For the exams. I suppose your mother has sent it. There are two letters for Aveline and one for Morvyth. You may take them to them, and tell Daphne I want to speak to her."

Raymonde did not stop for further interrogation. She beat as speedy a retreat as possible, delivered the message and the letters, and finished unpacking her parcel. Her Form mates, more inquisitive than Miss Gibbs, gathered round her and began to catechize.