Last Term at Malory Towers Page 4

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  spoil as Trenigan had, this great lump ol an Amanda dared to look down her nose at it!

  Sally saw Darrell's laee, and nudged her. It's no good saying anything,' she said, as Amanda walked oil. 'She's so thick-skinned, and so sure ol hersell and her luture, that nothing we tan say will make any impression. She must have been very upset when Trenigan went up in smoke - and she probably hates Malory Towers because it's new to her, and doesn't go in lor ihe sport she adores as much as she'd like it to!'

  'She's jolly lucky to conic here,' snorted Darrell, still looking furious. Sally laughed, it was a long lime since she had seen Darrell near to losing her lamous temper. Once upon a time Darrell had lost her temper practically every term and had shocked the school by her rages - but now it very seldom showed, lor Darrell had it well undei control.

  'Don't let her get under your skin,' said Sally. 'Believe me, she's much more likely to get under mine! She's infuriating over tennis - doesn't seem to think it's worth while even to have a game with us! She's got under Moira's skin all right - there'll be high words there soon.'

  The second-formers came running down to the pool for their swim. The bigger girls heard the soft thud-tluid of the rubber-shoed feet coming along, and turned. There was a yell trom Felicity.

  'Hallo, Darrell! Had a swim? What's the water like? Doesn't it look heavenly?'

  'Wizard,' said Susan, her friend, and tried il with her toe as soon as she had taken oil her shoes. 'Gosh, it's warming up already. Buck up, Felicity. The sooner we're in, the longer we'll have!'

  Darrell had a lew minutes to spare, and she stayed with Sally and Moira to watch the younger ones. Now that Darrell was so soon leaving, she leit an intense desire to make sure that there were others who would

  carry on worthily the gro.it traditions ol Malory Towers - and in particular she wanted to he sure that Felicity, hei Nister, would

  She watched Felicity with pride. She and Susan dived n >]uickl, and with strong, graceiul strokes swam across :he great pool and hack.

  'That sistei ol yours is coming on,' said Moira to Darrell. 'She was good last year -- she's going to he even [letter this. 1 think il she improves her hack stroke, we night trv her in one of the teams.'

  'I hope so,' said Darrell, longing tor Felicity to shine. Susan's good too - hut not nearly so last. Hallo - who's 'his porpoise5'

  A fat and ungainly girl stood shivering on the brink ol die pool. She was yelled at by some ol the second- i ii mers already in the water.

  'Get in, ,!o! Come on. Fatty! I! you don't husk up, vou'll have exactly two minutes in the water, and that's all!'

  Even two minutes was too much for the fat and owardly Jo. Bumptious and brazen in everything else, be was a coward over cold water. She had begged her lather to get her excused irom swimming, and he had ung up Miss Grayling and informed her that he didn't wish his daughter Jo to go in lor swimming il she didn't ant to.

  Why not?' asked Miss Grayling, coldly. 'Has the doc lor lorbidden it for her ?'

  'No. But / have,' said the loud-voiced Mr Jones, bellowing down the telephone. 'That's good enough,

  · n't it?'

  I'm afraid not,' said Miss Grayling, in her firm, iceisivc voice. 'Girls sent to Malory Towers follow the oidinary routine ol the school, unless il is against ■loc tor's orders. There is nothing wrong about swimming '01 fo - she is merely alraid of cold water, so the games rcss tells me. I think you will agree with me ihat

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  Josephine should conquer the cold water rather than that the cold water should defeat Josephine?'

  Mr Jones had been about to say that he had always detested cold water, and he didn't see why Jo shouldn't do what he had done, and not go near it; but he suddenly thought better of it. There was something in Miss Grayling's cool voice that warned him. He put down the telephone abruptly. Miss Grayling might find there was no room for Jo at Malory Towers, if he persisted!

  And so Jo, to her annoyance and surprise, had been told by her father that she'd got to put up with the swimming and get on with it. Every day she had to come down to the pool and shiver in dread on the brink, till she was inevitably pushed in or dragged in by a scornful second-former. Even the first-formers had been known to push Jo in!

  Today it was Felicity who crept up behind, gave Jo an enormous shove, and landed her in the pool with a colossal splash! Jo came up, gasping and spluttering, furiously angry. When she had got the water out of her mouth, she turned on the laughing Felicity.

  'You beast! That's the second time you've done that. Just you wait, I'll pay you out. You're as bad as your father!'

  'What's my father done?' asked Felicity, amused.

  'He was rude to mine,' said Jo. 'About pushing your car into the hedge. 1 heard him!'

  'Oh well - he pushed our car into the hedge - and now I've pushed you into the water!' cried Felicity. 'Tit for tat! We're quits! Look out - I'm coming to duck you!'

  She dived under the water to get Jo's legs. Jo screamed and kicked. Her legs slid away from her and she disappeared under the water again. She came up, furious. She struggled to the side and called to Sally.

  'Sally! Can't you stop Felicity playing the fool in the water? She's always going ior my legs.'

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  'Learn to swim then,' said Sally. 'Get some coaching! You always slip out of any coaching. Look out - here comes somebody else alter your legs!'

  Poor Jo! However much she swaggered and boasted and blew her own trumpet out of the water, she was of less account than the youngest first-former when she was in the pool!

  D^rrefi Given

  Darrell hoped that her last term would go very very slowly. So did Sally.

  'I want to hold on to every moment, this last term,' said Darrell. 'I know quite well we'll have a wonderful time at St Andrews, when we leave here - but I do so love Malory Towers, and I want the time to go as slowly as possible, f want to go away remembering every detail of it. I never want to lorget.'

  'Well, we shall remember all the things we want to remember,' said Sally. 'We shall remember all the tricks we've ever played on Mam'zelle, for instance - every single one! We shall remember how the pool looks on a sunny day - and how the sea looks from the classroom windows - and what it sounds like when the girls pour out of school at the end of the morning.'

  'And you'll remember dear Gwen and her ways,' said Alicia, who was nearby. 'You'll never forget those!'

  'Oh, GwcnV said Darrell, exasperated at the thought of her. 'I wouldn't mind forgetting every single thing about her. She's spoiling our last term with her silly behaviour!'

  Gwen really was being very trying. She had never liked Malory Towers, because she had never fitted in with its ideas and ideals. She was spoiled, selfish and silly, and yet thought herself a most attractive and desirable person. The only other girl in the form at all like her. Maureen, she detested. She could see that Maureen was like her in many many ways, and she didn't like seeing herself so olten in a girl site disliked.

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  Gwen never slopped talking aboul her next and last >diool. 'It's in Switzerland, you know,' she said a hundred nines. 'The best school there. It's called a linishing school, and is very very select.'

  'Well, I hope it will finish you oil properly,' said Alicia. 'It's time something put an end to you!'

  'That's not lunny, Alicia,' said Gwen, looking dignified. "Very first-iormish.'

  'You always make me leel first-lormish,' said Alicia. 1 think of silly things like putting out my tongue and saying "Yah!" when you start talking about your idiotic school. Why you couldn't have gone this term, and left us io enjoy our last term in peace, I simply can't imagine.'

  'I had an awful fight to go,' said Gwen, and the others groaned. They had already heard far too often about Gwen's 'fight'. Each time she told them, she related worse and worse things that she had said to her lather

  I bet she didn't say half those things,' said Alicia to Darrell. 'No father would stand it - and Mr Lacey has put Gw
en in her place plenty of times before!'

  However, it was true that Gwen had said some very cruel things to her lather during the last holidays, backed up by her mother. Mrs Lacey had been so set on sending Gwen to a linishing school where she could 'make nice inends', that she had used every single means in her power to hack Gwen up.

  Tears and more tears. Reproaches. Sulks. Cruel words. Mrs Lacey had brought them all out, and Gwen added to ;hem. The old governess, Miss Winter, who adored Gwen and thought the world of Mrs Lacey, had been shocked.

  Gwen related it all to her unwilling listeners. 'Miss Winter was an idiot. All site could say was. "Your lather is tired, Gwendoline. He's not been well lor some time. Don't you think it would be better not to worry him so much?" She's silly and weak - always has been.'

  'Shut up,' said Sally. 'I'd hate to treat rnv father

  like that.'

  'I said to my father, "Aren't I your only daughter? Do you grudge me one more year's happiness?'" went on Gwen, throwing herself into the part with all her heart. '1 said, "You don't love me. You never did! If you did, you would let me have this one small thing I want - that Mother wants too.'"

  '1 said, shut up,' said Sally, again. 'We don't want to hear this. It doesn't reflect any credit on you, Gwen. It's beastly.'

  'Oh, you're rather a prig, Sally, aren't you?' said Gwen, with her little affected laugh. 'Anyway, you wouldn't have the courage to stand up to your father, fin sure.'

  'You don't have to "stand up" to your parents if you pull together,' said Sally, shortly.

  'Do go on, Gwen,' said Maureen, from tier corner of the room. 'It's so interesting You sound so grown-up!'

  Gwen was surprised at this tribute from Maureen, but very pleased. She didn't see that Maureen was encouraging her to go on simply so that she might make herself a nuisance and a bore to everyone. Maureen could see how disgusted the others were. She was rather disgusted herself. Although she was very like Gwen, she did at least love her parents.

  Let Gwen go on and on! she thought. Horrid creature! She's showing herself up properly!

  And so Gwen went on, talking to Maureen, repeating the unkind things she had said to her father, exulting in the victory she had won over him.

  'I went on till I got my way,' she said. 'I stayed in bed one whole day and Mother told him I'd be really ill if f went on like that. So Daddy came upstairs and said, "Very well. You can have your way. You're right and I'm wrong. You can go to Switzerland to school.'"

  Nobody believed that her father had said this. Nobody said anything at all except Maureen.

  'What a victory, Gwendoline,' she said. 'I het you were all over your father after that.'

  'I would have heen if he'd have let me,' said Gwen, looking a little puzzled. 'But he went all grieved and sad, and hardly spoke to any of us. Except sometimes to Miss Winter. He was putting it on, of course, to make me feel awful. But I didn't. Two can play at that game, 1 thought, so I went cool too. I hardly even said good-bye to him when he drove the car away at the beginning of term. You've got to stand up to your parents when you get to our age!'

  Darrell stood up suddenly. She felt really sick. She thought of her own father, Mr Rivers - kindly, hard¬working surgeon, devoted to his wife and two daughters. How would he feel if she, Darrell, suddenly 'stood up' to him, and spoke cruel words, as Gwen had to her father?

  He'd he heart-broken! thought Darrell. And I'm sute Mr Lacey felt the same. I expect he loves Gwen, even if she is beastly and selfish. How could she behave like that?

  She spoke to Gwen, and the tone of her voice made everyone look up.

  'Gwen, I'd like a few words with you,' said Darrell. 'Come on up to my study, will you?'

  Gwen was surprised. What did Darrell want with her? She felt like refusing, and then got up. She was rather afraid of the forthright Darrell.

  Darrell led the way to her study. She had remembered Miss Grayling's words. Could she possibly say something now, this very minute, to influence Gwen, and show her where she had gone wrong? Darrell felt that she might. She felt so strongly about the matter that she was certain she could make Gwen see her point.

  'Sit down in that arm-chair, Gwen,' said Darrell.

  I want to say something to you.'

  'I hope you're not going to preach at me.' said Gwen.

  You've got on that kind of face.'

  'Well, I'm not going to preach,' said Darrell, hoping that she wasn't. 'Look here, Gwen - I can't help feeling terribly sorry for your lather about all this.'

  Gwen was amazed. 'Sorry for my father] Why? What's it to do with you, anyway?'

  'Well, you've told us so often about this family row ol yours, that I, for one, can't help feeling that it is something to do with me now,' said Darrell. '1 mean. - you've made me share in all that bickering and rows and upsets, and 1 leel almost as if I've been a spectator.'

  Gwen was silent for once. Darrell went on.

  'I'm not going to say a word about who's right or who's wrong, Gwen,' said Darrell, earnestly. 'I'm not going to criticize anyone. I just say this. From what you've told me you've made that nice lather of yours miserable. You've got what you want at the expense of someone else's peace ol mind.'

  'I've got to stand on my own feet, haven't I?' muttered Gwen.

  'Not if you stamp on someone else's toes to do it,' said Darrell, warming up. 'Don't you love your father, Gwen? I couldn't possibly treat mine as you've treated yours. It you did say all those cruel things to yours, then you ought to say you're sorry.'

  'I'm not sorry I said them,' said Gwen, in a hard voice. 'My father's often said unkind things to me.'

  'Well, von deserved them,' said Darrell, beginning to lose patience. 'He doesn't. I've met him plenty of times and I think he's a dear. You don't deserve a father like that!'

  'You said you weren't going to preach,' said Gwen, scornfully. 'How long are you going on like this?'

  Darrell looked at Gwen's silly, weak face and marvelled that such a weak person could be so hard and unyielding. She tried once again, though she now felt sure that it was no use. Nobody in this world could make am impression on Gwen!

  'Gwen,' she began. 'Yon said that your lather said he couldn't afford to send you to Switzerland. If so, he'll have to go short ol something himself, to let you go.'

  'He was wrong when he said he couldn't afford it,' said Gwen. 'Mother said he could. He was just saying dial as an excuse not to let me go. He was horrid about the whole tiling. He said - he said - that 1 was s-s-silly enough without being made s-s-s-sillier, and that a good ]-j-job would shake me out ol a lot of n-n-nonsense!'

  Stuttering with self-pity, Gwen now dissolved into tears. Darrell looked at her in despair.

  'Couldn't you possibly go to your father and say · oti're sorry, you'll call the whole thing off, and do what he wants you to do, and get a job?' she asked, in her lorthright way. It all seemed so simple to Darrell.

  Gwen began to sob. 'You don't understand. 1 couldn't Missibly do a thing like that. I'm not going to humble myself. Daddy would crow over me like anything. I'm l/W I've made him miserable - it'll teach him a lesson!' mushed Gwen, so maliciously that Darrell started to her teet.

  You're horrible, Gwen! You don't love your lather or anyone else. You only love yourself. You're horrible!'

  She went out ol the room, and made her way straight i(i Miss Grayling's room. Site had (ailed utterly and absolutely with Gwen. If Miss Grayling wanted to iiil'uence her she must try herself. It was beyond Darrell!

  She told Miss Grayling everything. The Head Mistress listened gravely. 'Thank you, Darrell,' she said. 'You did vour best, and il was well done. One day Gwen will meet lier punishment, and it will, alas, be a terrible one.'

  What do you mean?' said Darrell, hall scared by the ■leboding tone in Miss Grayling's voice.

  I only mean that when someone does a grievous rong and glories in it instead of being sorry, then that '·< 'son must expect a terrible lesson,' said Miss Giavling

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  'Somewhere in her life, punishment is awaiting Gwen. I don't know what it is, but inevitably it will come. Thank you, Darrell. You did your best.'

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  "M:

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  The mafid trick

  Darrell would not let Gwen and her obstinacy spoil more ihan a day of her precious last term! She brooded over ihe interview in her study for a few hours, wishing she could have done better with Gwen - and then [Hit it right out of her mind.

  i know I can't do anything more, so what's the good ol worrying about it? she thought, sensibly. She turned her thoughts to more interesting things - tennis matches swimming matches - half-term, when hei parents came down - and she also thought about a secret that f elicity had giggled out to her the day before.

  'Oh, Darrell. Do listen! Susan's heard of a lovely trick from June. It's so simple, and so safe.'

  Darrell grinned. It was good being high tip in school, and an important member of the sixth form - but it did mean that tricks and jokes were no longer possible or permissible. It just wasn't done in the sixth, to play a trick on any mistress. The mere thought of playing one on the dignified, scholarly Miss Oakes was impossible.

  But there was no reason why the younger ones shouldn't have their bit of fun, as they had in Darrell's own time. So Darrell grinned and listened, as Felicity poured out her bit of news in a secluded corner of ihe garden.

  ' June's getting a magnet,' she said. 'It's a very special one, treated in a special way to make it frightfully powertui. It's very small too, June says - small enough to he hidden in the palm of vour hand.'

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  'Well? What do you intend to do with it?' asked Darrell. There didn't seem to be great possibilities in such an ordinary thing as a magnet.

  Felicity began to giggle again. 'Well, yon just listen, Darrell.' she said. 'You know how the two Mam'zelles wear their hair, don't you - in little buns?'

  Darrell nodded, puzzled. She couldn't for the life of her see what buns of hair and a magnet had to do with each other.