The Nicest Girl in the School: A Story of School Life Page 9

  CHAPTER IX

  An Afternoon with Jean

  If Patty had to rub her eyes rather vigorously with her pockethandkerchief on Christmas morning, I think there was every excuse forher. To be in a home which was not her own home seemed in some respectsalmost harder than being at school, for however kind relations mayprove, they can never quite take the place of one's family on such afestival as Christmas Day. There were, of course, no presents for Pattyfrom Kirkstone, nothing but a much-disinfected letter, which Aunt Lucyviewed with great uneasiness, and insisted that her niece should throwinto the fire directly she had read it.

  "I have such a horror of scarlet fever," she declared. "Neither Horacenor Muriel has ever had it, and germs can certainly be conveyed throughnotepaper. It will be wise, I think, to burn some sulphur pastilles inthe room, and you had better wash your hands, Patty, with carbolicsoap, as you have touched the letter. I hope your mother won't write toyou very often. It would be much safer simply to send telegrams to sayhow the children are getting on. I'd really rather you didn't receivepostcards from Milly."

  "But Milly is quite well, and doesn't go near the ones who are ill,"pleaded Patty.

  "She might develop the disease at any time, though," said Mrs. Pearson."It's wiser to run no risks. I shall write to your father to-day, andmention the matter."

  To lose Milly's daily postcards was a sad blow.

  "I'm sure it's not necessary," thought Patty. "Father is so careful; hewouldn't let there be the slightest danger. Still, I suppose Aunt Lucyis nervous, and of course when I'm staying here I can't have letters ifshe's afraid of them. I do hope she'll let me go and have tea with Jean.I shall be dreadfully disappointed if she says 'No'."

  Jean's invitation was the event to which Patty looked forward mostduring the holidays, but it was a little doubtful whether she would beallowed to accept it, as, though they did not live far away, theBannermans were not personal friends of Mr. and Mrs. Pearson. A letterarrived one morning from Jean, addressed to Muriel, asking both thegirls to tea on the following Thursday, and, to Patty's dismay, hercousin at once declared that she did not intend to go.

  "Jean Bannerman's all very well at school, but I really don't want toknow her during the holidays," said Muriel. "I see quite as much of herat The Priory as I want. Do you think we need accept, Mother?"

  "Well, darling, I must think about it," said Mrs. Pearson. "I have neverbeen introduced to Mrs. Bannerman, and I don't usually let you go tohouses where I don't visit myself. Still, on the other hand, I shouldn'tlike you to disappoint your schoolfellow or hurt her feelings."

  "She won't be disappointed; she doesn't care about me in the least,"said Muriel.

  "Then why does she ask you?"

  "I'm sure I don't know," replied Muriel, who never paused to considerthat the invitation was also for Patty, and to consult her wishes on thesubject of accepting it.

  "I hardly know what excuse we can give," said Mrs. Pearson doubtfully.

  "We must give some," persisted Muriel, "because the Holdens said theywere going to ask me for Thursday, and I particularly want to go there.I expect I shall hear from Trissie this evening. Can't we wait tillto-morrow to answer Jean's letter?"

  Muriel's expected invitation arrived the following morning, andfurnished her with the excuse she needed for refusing the one from Jean.

  "I shall write to her and say we can't either of us accept," she saiddecisively.

  "Because you are both engaged for that afternoon," added Mrs. Pearson.

  "Well, the Holdens haven't invited Patty," said Muriel, "but of courseit doesn't matter."

  "If I ask Mrs. Holden to include her in the invitation, I am sure shewill do so," said Mrs. Pearson.

  "If it won't make too many," began Muriel, frowning at the suggestion.

  "Oh, Aunt Lucy!" cried Patty, waxing bold, "if the Holdens haven'treally sent me an invitation, may I have tea with Jean instead? I shouldso like to go."

  "It would certainly be a good way out of the difficulty," said Mrs.Pearson. "I think that will be quite the best plan. You had betterwrite, Muriel, and say that you have an engagement yourself, but yourcousin will be pleased to accept."

  Patty had never expected such luck as to be able to spend a wholeafternoon with Jean without Muriel accompanying her, and she found itquite difficult to repress her delight. The time fixed was threeo'clock, and punctual to the moment she started off, under the escort ofone of the servants, to walk to the Bannermans' house, which was only ashort distance from Thorncroft. Jean was watching for her at the window,and flew to the front door to welcome her.

  "Here you are at last!" she exclaimed, when her friend was safely insidethe hall. "I'm simply rejoiced to have you all to myself! I was obligedto ask Muriel too, but I'm so glad she couldn't come. Now we'll have aglorious time. Come into the drawing-room to see Mother, and then we'llgo upstairs to my bedroom. I have ever so many things I want to showyou."

  Jean was the fortunate possessor of a particularly pretty littlebedroom. It was furnished partly as a sitting-room, and a fire had beenlighted there that afternoon, so that the two girls might indulge in aprivate chat. Patty sank into a cosy basket chair, but she did not staythere long, as she kept jumping up to look at the many treasures whichdecorated the walls, and about most of which Jean seemed to have somestory to tell. Over the mantelpiece hung a fine pair of ram's horns thathad been polished and mounted on an oak slab.

  "They came from Scotland," said Jean, "and they're a souvenir of anadventure that Colin and I had when we were staying at our Uncle's."

  "What happened?"

  "We went out one day for a walk by ourselves on the hills. We hadwandered a long way, and climbed over a stone wall into a field, whensuddenly we heard a curious noise, and saw an old ram stamping its feetat us. 'We'd better run,' said Colin. 'It'll be after us in a moment;'and just as he spoke, the ram set off as fast as it could in ourdirection. You can imagine how we rushed down the hill. The ram lookedso fierce, we were dreadfully frightened, and I thought perhaps it wouldgore us like a bull. At the bottom of the field there was a stream.Colin called to me to get across by the stones, and I tried, but I wasin such a hurry that my foot slipped, and I fell into quite a deep poolup to my waist. The ram seemed at first as if it meant to follow me, forit came a little way into the water; but it changed its mind, and turnedround and went up the hill again. Colin fished me out of the water, butI was dreadfully wet, and so out of breath with running, I felt as if Icouldn't walk home; so he took me to a farm close by, and the peopledried my clothes. They were very kind, especially when they heard aboutthe ram. They said it was really a savage one, and it might have hurtus if it had caught us. They were obliged to kill it that autumn, andthey sent the horns to Uncle as a present; and he had them mounted, andgave them to me. When I see them hanging there, I often remember howfast Colin and I ran that day."

  "I should think you have splendid times in Scotland."

  "So we do. We go there nearly every summer, and stay either withGrandfather or one of our uncles. When we're at Grandfather's we have togo to church on Sunday in the boat across the loch. It's so nice,especially if we go to the evening service, and row back just at sunset.Then on weekdays we go fishing. I caught a salmon all by myself lastyear. I was so proud. Grandfather didn't touch my line, he only told mewhat to do. We took a photo. of the salmon, and I had it framed. It'sthere, hanging on the wall. You must look at it, and at some of my otherpictures."

  "I like that picture best," said Patty, smiling, and pointing to acorner where there was a little stained-glass window opening on to thelanding. Against the outside of this two noses were flattened, and twopairs of eyes were plainly visible gazing into the room with deepinterest, while a peculiar noise, something between giggling andsnorting, seemed to indicate that the owners of the eyes and noses weremaking an effort to subdue their mirth.

  "Nell and Jamie!" cried Jean, springing up in a hurry. "They are themost outrageous children!"

  There was a loud scuff
le, the sound of a falling chair and of flyingfootsteps, and by the time Jean reached the door no one was to be seen,though a doll, dropped in the hurried flight, afforded some evidence ofthe intruders.

  "I suppose they wanted to peep at you," said Jean. "Mother told themthey must be good this afternoon, and not bother if I wanted to have youto myself. As a rule they cling to me like burs from morning tillnight."

  "Oh, do let us go to see them!" said Patty.

  "Very well, but you don't know what you're undertaking," said Jean,leading the way to the nursery. "You won't get rid of them all the restof the time you're here."

  Nell and Jamie proved to be roguish-looking little people of seven andfive, with round, pink, dimpled cheeks, and crops of beautiful thickauburn curls. They were the babies of the household, and Patty could seethat Jean, though she affected to find them troublesome, was secretlyimmensely proud of them, and pleased to have an opportunity of showingthem to her friend. They were not at all shy; both climbed readily uponthe visitor's knees, and began to talk in a most friendly fashion.

  "We're going to be very good," announced Jamie, whose small fingers werebusy examining Patty's brooch and locket. "We're not going to doanything we oughtn't."

  "So you say," said Jean, "but you haven't asked Patty if she likes herlocket opened. Be careful, Jamie! You'll break the hinge if you bend itback. Don't let him, Patty! Put him down if he's a nuisance."

  "I like to nurse him," said Patty. "He reminds me of my little brotherRowley. I think I'll take off the locket and put it in my pocket, andthen it can't come to any harm. What a heavy boy you are, Jamie, foryour age! I'm sure you weigh as much as Nell."

  "'Cause I eat more," said Jamie. "I can always win when we have breadand butter races at tea. How do you like my new blouse? Nurse onlyfinished it half an hour ago. She made it on purpose because you werecoming. She said I had nothing else to put on."

  "Oh, Jamie, I'm sure she didn't!" exclaimed Jean. "You have a wholedrawer full of clean blouses."

  "They're all dirty now, every one," confided Nell. "He had on fiveyesterday, and two this morning. He spilt his porridge down one atbreakfast, and he nursed Floss in the other. She had just come in fromthe garden, and her paws were so muddy."

  "I'm afraid he's a handful!" said Patty, kissing the pretty littlefellow who clung round her neck in such a coaxing manner.

  "He certainly is," said Jean. "What do you think he did last Sunday? Hehad promised to be extra good in church, and he was so quiet, we thoughthe was behaving beautifully, and then I looked, and found he was rubbinghis face along the hot-water pipes, and had made black smears all acrosshis cheeks, and on his white sailor collar. He's an extremely naughtyboy sometimes, I can assure you. Nell, I wish you'd go and find Colin.He wants to see you, Patty, very much; but he's so dreadfully shy withgirls, I don't know whether we shall be able to persuade him to comeinto the room after all."

  Nell returned in a few minutes, hauling the bashful and unwilling Colinby the hand. He was a boy of thirteen, like Jean in appearance, andrather gruff and abrupt in his manners, until he found that Patty wasnot so formidable as he had imagined, and that she had a brother thesame age as himself, who had also won a prize for the long jump at hisschool sports.

  "Colin's still at a preparatory," explained Jean, "but he's to go to apublic school next year, either Marlborough or Rugby--Father can't quitedecide which."

  "Which would you rather?" enquired Patty.

  "Rugby, because a fellow I know is there," replied Colin, decisively.

  "I shall go to Rugby too, when Colin does," announced Jamie confidently.

  "No, thanks! I wouldn't take you with those curls. You may go to ThePriory with Jean," said Colin teasingly.

  "Would you take me without my curls?"

  "They'd certainly have to shear you first."

  "Then I'll cut them off now, my own self!" cried Jamie, jumping fromPatty's knee and rummaging in his nurse's workbasket for her scissors,which his sister promptly took away from him.

  "Look here, Curlylocks!" she said. "If you cut your hair you won't getany more chocolates. No, not a single one ever again. I should give themall to Nell to eat instead. It's quite true. I mean it. I do indeed."

  "I don't want to go to school yet," declared Nell. "Jean says you haveto sit so still in class, and not even whisper. Miss Thornton tells meto run six times round the room when I begin to get tired."

  "I'm afraid Miss Harper wouldn't let us do that, however much we mightfidget," laughed Patty. "I should like to see her face if we suggestedit. Is Miss Thornton your governess?"

  "Yes; she comes every morning, but we're having holidays now. I likeholidays best."

  "So do most people," said Jean; "but it's not much of a holiday foranybody to sit nursing two big children. Come along, Patty! I want Colinto show you his birds' eggs. He's got quite a nice collection."

  "Us too!" cried the little ones, holding out beseeching hands. "We won'ttouch a thing."

  Colin, however, was firm in his refusal.

  "No, thank you," he said. "I'd as soon let Floss loose among my birds'eggs as trust you two."

  "But we'd promise."

  "I don't believe your promises. You'd break them in three seconds, andthe eggs as well. You smashed all those I gave you last term. Here, youmay have this blue chalk pencil and draw pictures. Don't quarrel over itmore than you can help."

  The collection of birds' eggs was kept downstairs, so, leaving Nell andJamie in the nursery, the girls went with Colin to the breakfast-room,where there were Jean's foreign stamps to look at afterwards, and alarge album full of picture postcards. Mr. Bannerman came in for tea,and was so pleasant and jovial and full of fun, that he entertained themall for more than half an hour with his jokes and stories. He hadtravelled much in his youth, and had many tales to tell of wildadventures in far-off countries, or amusing experiences nearer home. Hejoined afterwards in playing games, in which the little ones were alsoincluded; and the time passed away so quickly, that Patty could scarcelybelieve it was eight o'clock when Aunt Lucy's maid arrived to fetch herhome.

  "I expect you had a stupid afternoon," said Muriel, on her return, "oneof those tiresome duty visits that have to be paid now and then, worseluck!"

  "On the contrary, I enjoyed it immensely," said Patty.

  "Why, what did you do? I can't imagine there'd be anything exciting atthe Bannermans'."

  "Oh! we played games, and looked at birds' eggs, and postcards, andthings."

  "That doesn't sound interesting in the least. You should have been atthe Holdens'. They have a pianola and a gramophone, and we were tryingover all the new pantomime songs."

  "I liked being with Jean."

  "I don't know what you see in Jean. I think she's a most stupid,commonplace girl. I'm not at all anxious to be friends with her inWaverton, and I'm very glad I couldn't go to-day. You were welcome to myshare of the visit if you enjoyed it, but please don't suggest to Motherto invite her back, because we haven't an afternoon free, and I'd rathernot ask her if we had!"