A harum-scarum schoolgirl Read online

  CHAPTER II

  Stars and Stripes

  If Diana was possessed with a passion for antiquities, she mightcertainly congratulate herself that a kindly fate had popped her intosuch an appropriate spot as Pendlemere Abbey. It offered everyattraction to those in search of the romantic and picturesque. TheCistercian monks who had founded it in the thirteenth century hadexhibited their proverbial good taste in the choice of a situation. Itwas built on rising ground above the lake, and commanded a glorious viewacross the fells. The garden, with its hill-side of rhododendrons, itsclumps of sweet-smelling pines, and its borders of such hardy flowers asdid not mind the nip of the northern air, ran steeply from a flatterrace towards the lake, where it ended in a landing-stage and a lockedboat-house. Its orchard linked branches with the apple-trees of aneighbouring farm. The house itself, though preserving the name and thetraditions of the Abbey, had been converted during Tudor times fromreligious to lay uses. Very little of the old monks' building remainedintact, though evidences of it cropped up in unexpected quarters. Therewere the remains of a piscina in the pantry; a groined arch roofed theback kitchen; two carved stone pillars supported the fire-place in thedining-room; a Gothic doorway led into the courtyard, and the remnantsof some ancient choir stalls were fitted as a window-seat on the stairs.The Tudor and Elizabethan periods had left more permanent traces, and,though later architects had played havoc with the simplicity of thestyle, they had not altogether destroyed its sixteenth-centuryappearance. The greater part was built of northern stone, with mullionedwindows, twisted chimneys, peaked gables surmounted with stone balls,and a roof of flat slabs of the same yellow-brown stone that formed thewalls. A section of black and white timbered Elizabethan work, a QueenAnne wing, and some early Victorian alterations made a strangeconglomeration of styles of architecture; but the roses and ivy hadclimbed up and clothed ancient and modern alike, and Time had softenedthe jarring nineteenth-century additions, so that the whole now blendedinto a mellow, brownish mass, with large, bright windows enclosed in aframe of well-clipped greenery.

  There was accommodation in the roomy old house for twenty boarders, andthough no day pupils were supposed to be received a special exceptionhad been made in the case of Meg and Elsie Fleming, the Vicar'sdaughters, who arrived every morning by nine o'clock, and Nell Gledhill,whose governess brought her each Friday afternoon for dancing-lessons.So far the school had jogged along very happily under Mrs. Gifford'smild regime. Fathers and mothers had sometimes shrugged their shouldersand hinted that her methods were old-fashioned, but they always addedthat the tone of the place was so excellent, and the health of thepupils so well looked after, that there was really no just cause forcomplaint. Miss Todd, sitting in her study, and writing twenty neat,well-thought-out letters to explain the sudden transfer of the school,assured parents that, while preserving all the traditions of herpredecessor, she hoped to introduce a modern element of progress inkeeping with the needs of the day. "I realize that we must march withthe times," she wrote; and she meant it. She began her innovations onthat very first day. Several disconsolate seniors congregated on theupper landing viewed change number one with dismay.

  "But Mrs. Gifford promised that Geraldine and Ida and I might have theEast room," urged Nesta Erskine. "It was all arranged last term, and weclubbed together to buy a bookcase. What are we to do with it if we'reseparated? It belongs to us all three."

  "I can't help it; those are Miss Todd's orders," answered Miss Beverleybriskly. "Your names are on cards pinned on to the doors of your newrooms. Pass along at once, and find your quarters and begin to unpack.Don't stand here blocking up the passage! Yes, Betty? Miss Hampson wantsto speak to me? Tell her I'm coming now."

  As Miss Beverley bustled away the seniors moved slowly and forlornlyalong the landing in quest of billets. It reminded them of finding theirplaces in an examination-room. Their names were unquestionably on thedoors in black-and-white, but their distribution called forth a storm ofindignant comment.

  "I'm actually put with Tattie Clegg and Jess Paget!"

  "And I'm boxed up with Dorothy, and Nora Haddon, and Glynne Hamilton!"

  "Why, we're all mixed up with the kids!"

  "Look here, you know, we can't stand this kind of thing!"

  "Somebody had better go to Miss Todd!"

  "It's no use; I've just been," said Loveday Seton, joining the group ofmalcontents. "We had it all out in the study, and she listened quitekindly and politely, but she was firm as nails. She says it's anexperiment for the sake of good tone, and she hopes it will work well.We seniors are sandwiched up with intermediates and juniors so that ourinfluence may permeate through the school."

  The five listeners groaned.

  "Couldn't we permeate enough during the daytime?" sniffed Ida. "I don'tsee what influence I can have while I'm asleep. I call it a jollynuisance to be saddled with three kids in one's room."

  "Of course you have your curtains."

  "What's the use of curtains? A cubicle's only semi-private after all.What it means is that we seniors are always on duty policing thosejuniors. What a life!"

  "Where are you put, Loveday?" asked Geraldine.

  "In the little ivy room upstairs. There are two beds, and I'm to actmentor to this new American girl who's just arrived."

  "Poor you! What's she like?"

  "I don't know. I haven't seen her yet, but I wish she were at Jericho."

  In a decidedly ruffled frame of mind, Loveday passed along the landing,and climbed the stairs that led to the ivy room. She found her room-matealready in possession, and with her belongings half-unpacked. Photosadorned her dressing-table, a large American flag draped the mirror, andher bed was spread with odds and ends. She smiled broadly as Lovedayentered.

  "So here you are!" she greeted her. "Goody! What a relief! I've beenworrying about what you'd be like, and just praying you wouldn't havespectacles and talk with a lisp. Miss Todd gave me to understand youwere a peach, and I might think myself in luck to room with you, but younever can trust head mistresses till you see for yourself. She's told methe truth, though, after all. Yes, I like you right straight away, and Ialways make up my mind about people, slap bang off at once."

  Loveday stared in surprise at the impetuous little figure kneelingbeside the big trunk. Diana's dark-grey eyes shone like stars, her ovalface, if not exactly pretty, was piquant and interesting, herlight-brown hair curled at the tips. It was, of course, an unheard-ofliberty for a new girl, and an intermediate to boot, thus to address asenior, but the greeting was spontaneous and decidedly flattering. Thegrey eyes, in fact, expressed open admiration. On the whole, Lovedaydecided to waive ceremony and tradition for the nonce.

  "We've been put together for the term, so we must make the best of eachother," she conceded, more graciously than she had intended to addressthe interloper. "I'm glad to see you've kept to your own side of theroom, and haven't overflowed into mine."

  "No fear!" chuckled Diana. "I've been at school before, and learnt notto spread myself out. We're on rather a short allowance of space, aren'twe? Are these drawers all I've got? I shall have just to wedge my thingsin. There's my cabin trunk to come yet."

  "You may have three pegs in the landing cupboard, and a locker in thecloak-room, but anything else will have to be stored in the box-room. Ishould think you had enough clothes there to last you a year, instead ofwanting another trunk full."

  Diana shook her head.

  "They're all mixed up. We packed in half an hour. I just flung in thefirst things that came to hand. Cousin Cora promised to send on therest of my luggage after me. If she doesn't, I'd best 'phone."

  "You'd have a little difficulty to do that," said Loveday dryly.

  "D'you mean to say there's no 'phone here, or"--looking round theroom--"no electric light either?"

  "Certainly not. We go to bed with candles."

  "Well! I wanted mediaeval ways, and it looks as if I was going to getthem. It'll be rather a stunt to go to bed by candle-light. Are thereany ghosts
about this place? Or skeletons built into the wall? Ordungeons with rusting chains? Or mysterious footsteps? Oh! I thoughtthere'd have been at least something spooky in a house that claims to besix hundred years old."

  Diana's cabin trunk arrived in the course of a few days. She sorted outa selection of her numerous belongings, arranged them in her limitednumber of drawers, and consigned the surplus back to her boxes to bestored in the attic. This done, and a telegram received to announce thesafe arrival of her father and mother in Paris, she seemed prepared tosettle down. Her fellow intermediates, biased largely by her generosityin the matter of chocolates, gave her, on the whole, a favourablereception. Wendy even went further, and proffered friendship.

  "You're just the jolly kind of girl I like," she explained. "I think wemight have some topping times together, and wake up the school. Thingsare apt to get a little dull sometimes."

  Diana nodded intelligently.

  "I know. It was just the same at my last school. Everyone got into asort of stick-in-the-mud mood, and one felt it was only _kind_ to stirthem up. I guess I did it!"

  "I shouldn't wonder if you did," twinkled Wendy. "I vote we make analliance, and, if one of us thinks of any rather ripping rag, she justtells the other, and we'll play it off together."

  "Right you are! Let's shake on it!" agreed Diana, extending a small,slim hand, with a garnet birthstone-ring on the middle finger.

  The little American did not fit into her niche at Pendlemere withoutencountering a certain amount of what her schoolmates considerednecessary discipline for a novice. She had to go through an ordeal ofchaff and banter. She was known by the sobriquet of "Stars and Stripes",or "The Yank", and good-natured fun was poked at her transatlanticaccent. She took it good-temperedly, but with a readiness of reparteethat laid the jokers flat.

  "One can't get much change out of Diana," commented Magsie, after anunsuccessful onslaught of teasing.

  "I think she's a scream," agreed Vi.

  The baffling part of the new schoolmate was that her powers of actingwere so highly developed that it was impossible to tell whether she wasserious or playing a part. She "took in" her teasers times out ofnumber, and in fairness they deserved all they got. Towards the end ofthe first week she came into the intermediate room one morning fondlinga letter.

  "From Paris," she vouchsafed. "Dad and Mother have got anchored at last.The journey must have been a startler. Paris is so full of Americans,it's like a little New York."

  "Why do you call it 'Parr-is'?" sniggered Sadie.

  "It's more like the French than your way of saying it, at any rate,"retorted Diana smartly. "This letter's been four days in comingthrough."

  "You might give me the stamp."

  "Certainly not. You don't deserve it. I wish I were in Paris, too. Yes,I shall call it 'Parr-is'. I'm beginning to want some of my own folks."

  "I've never met any Americans, except you," volunteered Vi. "What arethey like?"

  "What do you imagine they're like?"

  "Like the pictures of 'Uncle Sam', with a limp shirt front, and a bigtie, and a goatee beard. I want to meet some real out-and-out Yankees."

  "Won't your cousins from Petteridge ever come over to see you, Di?"asked Magsie.

  "Perhaps they may, sometime," replied Diana thoughtfully. "I should sayit's quite within the bounds of possibility, considering they only liveten miles away."

  "Gee-whiz! I guess I'd just admire to make their acquaintance!" mockedVi. "I reckon they'll be _some_ folks!"

  Diana's eyes were fixed upon her with an inscrutable look, but sheanswered quite calmly:

  "I'll take care to introduce you if they come."

  It was in the course of the next few days that a parcel for Dianaarrived from Petteridge Court. What it contained nobody saw exceptherself, for she did her unpacking in private. Judging from certainoutbursts of chuckling, the exact cause of which she steadily refused toreveal, the advent of her package gave her profound satisfaction. Thenext Saturday afternoon was wet: one of those hopelessly wet days thatare apt to happen in a land of lakes and hills. Banks of mist obscuredthe fells; the garden walks were turned to running rivers, the bushesdripped dismally, and cascades poured from the gutters. The school,which had been promised a country tramp, looked out of the windows withwoeful disappointment. The seniors consoled themselves by holding acommittee meeting, from which all but their elect selves were rigidlyexcluded. The juniors took possession of the play-room, and relievedtheir spirits by games which made the maximum of noise. Several of theintermediates peeped in, but, finding the place a mixture of abear-garden and the Tower of Babel, they retired to the sanctuary oftheir own form-room, where they sat making half-hearted efforts to reador paint, and grousing at the weather.

  "Is _every_ Saturday going to be wet?" demanded Magsie in an injuredvoice.

  "Seems like it!" mourned Jess Paget. "Of course it can be beautifullyfine on Friday, when we have to stop in and do dancing; and it justkeeps all the rain for Saturday. I call it spiteful! I wish I knew whatto do with myself. I'm moping."

  "Get a book out of the library."

  "I loathe reading."

  "Do some painting."

  "You know I can't paint."

  "Go and romp with the juniors."

  "I'd as soon spend an hour in a monkey-house."

  "Then I can't do anything for you, I'm afraid. You'll just have tomope."

  "Where's Sadie?" asked Peggy Collins. "She promised to give me back mycrochet-needle, and I can't get on without it."

  "She went off with Diana and Wendy half an hour ago. I saw them runningupstairs together. Don't flatter yourself she'll remember about yourcrochet-needle."

  "I know she won't--the slacker! I shall just have to go and rout her up,and make her find it. Oh, kafoozalum! It's a weary world!"

  Peggy rose languidly, stretched her arms, and strolled in the directionof the door, which at that identical moment opened to admit the missingSadie.

  "Here, you old blighter, where's that crochet-needle?" demanded Peggyimpolitely.

  "Bother your crochet-needle! I've no time to go and hunt for it now. Isay, girls!" continued Sadie excitedly; "anybody know what's become ofDiana? She's wanted. Those American cousins of hers have turned up. Itold them she was in here, and they're waiting outside the door. Oh!"

  Sadie's exclamation was caused by the door, which she had carefullyclosed suddenly opening, and nearly knocking her over. Apparently thevisitors did not approve of being left to wait in the passage, andjudged it expedient to make an entrance.

  "Excuse me if we walk right in," said a nasal-toned voice; "but I wastold we'd find Miss Diana Hewlitt in here."

  The five girls, scattered about the room, stared for a second in blankamazement at the intruders. They were certainly unlike any othervisitors who had ever come to Pendlemere. The speaker was a little,short, wiry man, in a slack-fitting, brown tweed suit, with a ratherobtrusive striped tie. His raggy, grey beard straggled under his chinand up to his ears; his eyes twinkled through a pair of gold-rimmedspectacles; in defiance of European etiquette, he wore his hat over acrop of rough, grey hair. Clinging to his arm was a very stout lady in agreen coat and a velvet turban adorned with feathers. She also wasgrey-haired, and her features were somewhat obscured by a thick, blackveil. The most prominent thing about her was a large and obtrudingtooth, which gave her somewhat the appearance of a good-natured walrus;she held a morocco-leather satchel in her unoccupied hand, and wore alarge feather-boa round her neck.

  Magsie, to her eternal credit, was the first to remember her manners,and offer some sort of a greeting to the extraordinary strangers.

  "Er--good afternoon!" she stammered. "I'm afraid Diana isn't here.Shall--shall I go and fetch her?"

  "Well, now, I'd call that real elegant of you," returned the stout ladyheartily. "We can't stay long, and we don't want to waste time."

  "Cora, I guess we'd best introduce ourselves," observed the gentleman,gently disengaging her from his arm. "We're Mr. and Mrs. El
ihu Burrittof Petteridge Court. I reckon you're Diana's schoolfellows? Pleased tomeet you, I'm sure."

  "Did you have a wet drive?" asked Jess Paget, making a desperate andmost gallant attempt to pump up some item of conversation.

  The stout lady shook her head eloquently.

  "I _do_ say that in the matter of weather a British wet day just abouttakes the cake!" she replied.

  Her voice was slightly tremulous and muffled; perhaps the weatheragitated her. Moreover, her large tooth seemed to cause her someinconvenience--it wobbled visibly as she spoke.

  "If Diana don't turn up, I guess we'll have to be getting on," venturedMr. Elihu Burritt, pulling out a big watch and consulting it. "We'vegot to call at the drug store at Glenbury, and time presses."

  "Magsie's gone to fetch her. Peggy, you go too, and hurry her up. Won'tyou sit down while you're waiting?" asked Jess, pulling forward twochairs.

  The visitors seated themselves, that is to say, they sank heavily down,and planted their hands on their knees. Their eyes took an interestedreview of the embarrassed faces of the girls, then they suddenlycollapsed into gurgles of laughter. An instant wave of comprehensionswept through the room.

  "Diana and Wendy!" exclaimed a chorus of voices.

  Mr. Elihu Burritt was guffawing to such an extent that his hat, and thevenerable locks stitched inside it, tumbled to the ground, revealing acrop of brown hair. Mrs. Cora had lost her tooth altogether, and herturban was tilted to a most disreputable angle. She slapped her partneron the back, and commanded, between sobs of mirth:

  "Elihu--stop laughing! I guess we'd best wangle ourselves off!"

  But the girls had crowded round to examine the details of the costumes.

  "They're topping!" they approved. "Absolutely A1! Can't think how youdid it! Diana, where did you get those togs?"

  "Sent to Petteridge for them," exulted Diana. "They came in that parcel.It's an old suit of Cousin Hugh's. I told Cousin Coralie I wanted it todress up in. The beard's just made out of tow, and so's Wendy's hair.Flatter myself I came up to your expectations of a real backwoods Yank.I wonder if I'd take in Miss Todd. I'd give a hundred dollars to try.But it might be rather a risky experiment. Don't you think my old girlis a peach? I'm nuts on her!"

  "I simply shouldn't have known you, Wendy," said Jess. "How did you makeyourself so fat?"

  "I'm stuffed out with all sorts of things," laughed Wendy. "Vests, andnightdresses, and stockings, and anything we could lay our hands on.I'm specially padded over the shoulders. The toque is one of Diana'shats turned inside out with some feathers pinned on. The tooth? Why,that was a piece of india-rubber tucked inside my lip. It was fearfullydifficult to make it stick, I can tell you. It kept jiggling about whenI tried to talk. Elihu, old man, shall we dance a tickle-toe?"

  "Stop, you mad creatures! If you make such a racket you'll be bringingBunty down upon us," interposed Magsie, as the masquerading coupletwirled each other round and round. "If you want to be ready in time fortea, you'd better go and get out of those weird garments."

  "I'd like to go down to tea in them," declared Diana. "What a lovelysensation they'd make! Magsie, just peep out and see that the coast isclear before we make a dash for it along the passage. It might upsetBunty's nerves if she met us."

  As it happened, during the very next week Diana received a visit fromher cousins, Mr. and Mrs. Burritt of Petteridge Court. They arrived intheir Daimler car, and lunched with the school. They were the veryepitome of cultured and polished America, and the girls raved over them.After half an hour of their company, seven intermediates had determinedto mould themselves absolutely on the lines of "Cousin Coralie", and tomarry exact replicas of Mr. Burritt. It was felt that ambition couldsoar no higher.

  "I'm glad you like them," said Diana, as she stood on the steps withsome of her friends watching the Daimler pass out through the gate. "Ithought you would--when they really turned up. That was why I wanted youto see 'Cousin Elihu' and 'Cousin Cora' first. They were more your ideaof typical Americans, weren't they? Ah!"--shaking her headcommiseratingly--"that's because you benighted Britishers just don'tknow anything about the _real_ America."