Free 04 The Head Girl of the Chalet School by Elinor Brent-Dyer Page B

to themselves. “I don’t mind least, Grizel. I’m not doing anything special this term – only going on with my stamps. You know the babes take a lot of time sometimes, and if Deira has anything extra she wants to do it would be rather a trial.”
    “Have you?” asked Grizel of Deira.
    “No, I haven’t,” said Deira sulkily.
    “Then you can’t change, Mary. I’m sorry you don’t like being hobbies pre., Deira, but all the other jobs are settled. Besides, anyhow, I don’t see why you want to argue about it. The rule here is that the head-girl settles the work, and the others simply take on.”
    “‘Tis a rotten rule, it is, then!” responded Deira with spirit. “I’m not agreeing with it at all, at all, Grizel Cochrane! Why should you choose for us, as if we were kids?”
    “Because I happen to be head-girl,” Grizel told her firmly.
    “Don’t be silly, Deira,” said Rosalie. “We’ve always settled things this way, and no one ever made a fuss about it before! You didn’t object last term yourself.”
    “Ah, Bette was head-girl then,” said Deira.
    “So you’re making this fuss just because I’m head-girl now?” said Grizel. “Well, you can go on making a fuss, but you’ll he hobbies pre. till the end of term. And so I tell you!”
    “And I won’t do it. And so I tell you !” retorted Deira. “‘Tis a tyrant you are, Grizel Cochrane! I’m not going to put my neck under your heel!”
    “Nobody asked you! Don’t be so absurd!” said Grizel crossly. “And if you won’t be hobbies pre., then you won’t have any job at all! You can either take it or leave it! You’ll be the only one of us left out, anyway.”
    Fire flashed in Deira’s grey eyes, and her face was flushed with passion. What might have happened next there is no saying, but just then the Robin knocked at the door. “Please, it is Kaffee , and Miss Durrant says will you have it up here, or have you finished your meeting, and will you come downstairs?”
    “We’ll have it up here, Robin,” said Grizel. “Will two of you go and fetch it, please? Now, Deira,” she went on, turning to the girl as Mary and Vanna followed the Robin out of the room, “I’m sorry I didn’t know before you disliked being hobbies pre., but it can’t be helped now. Next term, if you still want it, you can have a shot at music, if you like. For this term the duties are arranged, and will have to stay put. I showed the list to Mademoiselle last night when Madame was down, and they both saw it, and said it was all right.
    Of course, they couldn’t know how you would object. If they had, I dare say they would have asked me to alter it! As it is, they didn’t, and it’s signed. Madame won’t be down for a fortnight now, so it will have to stay. Don’t do your duty if you feel all that bad about it. I dare say we can manage. But it’ll be rotten of you if you don’t!”
    Deira turned white, and her eyes gleamed black with rage. She felt the sarcasm that edged Grizel’s voice throughout this last speech, and she also knew that the head-girl had the whip hand. Mrs. Russell was no longer working Head of the school, but she still took part in it, and all lists were signed by her, and all big arrangements had to be discussed with her. Mademoiselle Lapattre had insisted on that before she had agreed to become the nominal Head. If Madame, as they still loved to call her, were not coming from the Sonnalpe for a fortnight, then the lists must remain as she had passed them. All the same, Deira was very angry. She had protested, not so much because she disliked the work, as because she objected to Grizel’s rather dictatorial manner. Her protest had not worked, but she loved Grizel none the better for that.
    “If I must, I must,” she choked out at length. “All the same, Grizel Cochrane, I’ll be even with you yet!”
    “Rats!” said Grizel briefly, and began to discuss prep. and cloakroom duties with them as if nothing had happened. Deira