Free 01 The School at the Chalet by Elinor Brent-Dyer

centre, and then Herr Mensch rested on his oars, and nodded towards the mountain he had named for them -Alpenglückjoch.
    ‘Look! ‘ he said. ‘Alpenglück to-night!’
    They turned and looked. As they did so, they saw the grey limestone crags flush into rosy life with the reflected light from the setting sun. All along the westward side of the Tiern See the peaks caught the glory.
    It reflected on the silver thread of a mountain cataract high up in the Sonnenscheinspitze, and even cast a faint glow over the lake. For five minutes the wonder lasted, then it began to fade, and Herr Mensch took up his oars again and rowed them in leisurely fashion to the Châlet landing-stage.
    ‘It is beautiful!’ said Joey in low tones. Her imaginative temperament had been fired by the loveliness of what she had just seen. ‘I have seen it once or twice from the windows, but never from the water before.’
    ‘Yes, it is a glory,’ replied Herr Mensch; ‘but it always brings bad weather with it. We shall have rain tomorrow.’
    He brought the boat up to the landing-stage as he spoke, and helped them out. Madge had seen them coming, and came running down the path to meet them. When the Mensches had gone and were beyond calling range, she turned to the three.
    ‘Girls,’ she said, ‘I have news for you! We have another day-girl. She is an English girl, whose people are Anglo-Indians. They have just come to Tiern See. When they heard of us, they came at once, and she starts on Monday. She is fifteen and a half, and has only been to school in the Hills. Her people are army people, and her name is–’
    ‘Juliet Carrick!’ burst out Grizel impatiently. ‘Oh, Miss Bettany, is it-is it? Do say it is!’
    Madge looked at her in amazement. ‘Yes, it is,’ she answered; ‘but how do you know?’
    They explained to her about the meeting near Buchau, and Grizel enlarged on the way Mrs Carrick had spoken to the girl.
    ‘I believe she’s her stepmother!’ she concluded.
    ‘No,’ said Madge, ‘she isn’t. Don’t get wild ideas into your head, Grizel. If they only came to Tiern See to-day, I expect they are tired, and that is why Mrs Carrick scolded.’
    Grizel said nothing further, and Madge thought no more of it. But when Herr Mensch heard, he looked thoughtful.
    ‘I hope things will go well with Fräulein Bettany,’ he said to his wife. ‘I did not like that man-I do not trust him.’
    And he resolved to advise Madge to write to her brother at the earliest opportunity, and see if any information could be gathered about these people who had come so suddenly.
    However, when he spoke about it some days later, he found that she had done that very thing already.
    ‘I know it seems mad to take anyone so abruptly,’ she said, ‘but they were so anxious, and-well-somehow he persuaded me. And they have paid a term’s fees, of course, and if I find from my brother that she is not a desirable pupil, I can get rid of her quite easily by saying that we are full up. Anyhow, it is probably for this term only, as they expect to go to England in September; but they had heard of Tiern See, and thought they would like to see it, so they broke their journey home.’
    And after that the good-natured Austrian felt he had nothing left to say for the present.

    Chapter 8.
    A First Prefects’ Meeting.
    ‘Gisela!’
    ‘Yes? Do you want me, Gertrud?’
    ‘I should be glad if you would summon a Prefects’ meeting.’
    Gisela put down her pen, which all this time she had been holding, and lifted a surprised and inquiring face to her friend.
    ‘A meeting, Gertrud? Oh, but why? Nothing has gone wrong?’
    ‘No,’ agreed Gertrud, ‘but I am afraid something will go wrong very soon.’

    In her earnestness, she forgot the school rule which said that, during school-hours, and save in French and German lessons, nothing but English was to be used, and dropped into her native tongue.
    ‘Oh, Gertrud! You have forgotten,’ said Gisela