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

wish to discuss with us?’
    ‘It is Gertrud’s idea,’ replied the head Girl. ‘She thinks that things are going rather-’
    ‘Wonky,’ supplemented Bette, as Gisela paused to search for the right word. It was a mystery to them all how Bette contrived to pick up so much slang and to use it so correctly. All the foreign girls were far quicker at English than either Grizel, Juliet, or the two little Stevens had shown themselves at French or German.
    Joey having merely to renew her acquaintance with these two languages, already spoke fluently and even colloquially! Bette’s accent, too, was, save for a slight trill to her ‘r’s’ and a trick of giving each word it’s full value, almost perfect. The other girls spoke with a fair fluency, but even Gisela was sometimes at a loss for a word; Bette, never.
    The Head Girl mow made a little bow to her Sub, and continued:

    ‘Apparently Gertrud fears that Grizel Cochrane and Juliet Carrick are about to cause trouble. Myself, I have noticed nothing.’
    “But I have, said Bette composedly. ‘I quite agree with Gertrud, and I think Juliet Carrick is at the bottom of it.’
    “Why should you think that?’ demanded Gisela.
    ‘Because, until she came, Grizel Cochrane never rebelled against our authority. But now she is tiresome,’
    replied Bette. ‘She is even rude.’
    ‘How so? She had not been rude to me as yet. How has she been rude to you?’
    ‘I told her to go and put her shoes away,’ said Bette, ‘and she said it was sickening having fussy foreigners always at you.’
    ‘That was very rude,’ said Gisela slowly. ‘What did you do?’
    ‘I said I was sorry she looked at it in that way,’ returned Bette, ‘but as I was a Sub-Prefect and one of my duties was to see that the cloakroom was kept tidy, I was going to see that it was kept tidy.’
    ‘What did she say then?’ queried Bernhilda with interest.
    ‘Said I thought myself everybody,’ replied Bette. ‘I told her not to be impertinent, and saw that she put the shoes away, and that was all.’
    ‘I think it was sufficient,’ said Gisela quietly. ‘And you, Gertrud?’
    ‘Talking after the silence-bell had been rung,’ said Gertrud. ‘I told her to be quiet, and she looked at Juliet and laughed.’
    ‘What did Juliet do? Laugh too?’
    ‘Yes, and shrugged her shoulders. It is not good for the Juniors to see that in a girl as old as Grizel or Juliet.’
    ‘I don’t think you need worry about the Juniors,’ said Bette. ‘Amy and Margia would never behave like that, and Maria is too fond of you, Gisela, to worry you that way. Nor would Suzanne and Yvette. Giovanna will be good, because she doesn’t want a fuss with me, and I couldn’t imagine either Frieda or Simone doing anything but keeping the rules. Joey, of course, will do as she’s told too. It really is only Grizel, and she wouldn’t if Juliet didn’t encourage her!’
    ‘Well, I must make a punishment,’ said Gisela. ‘I am sorry, but Grizel must not be rude to the Prefects.’
    She thought deeply for a minute. ‘I shall send for her and make her apologise to you, Bette, and you, Gertrud. Then I shall say she is to learn some German poetry in her play-hours. Yes, that is what I shall do!
    Will you fetch her, Bette?’
    Bette got up and left the room, to return ten minutes later by herself.
    ‘She refuses to come,’ she said briefly.
    ‘Refuses to come?’ There was consternation in Gisela’s voice. ‘But did you tell her that the Prefects wanted her?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Bette. ‘She just laughed, and said if we wanted her we could go to her; she wasn’t coming to us!’
    There was a silence. No one had foreseen that Grizel would go to quite such lengths as this, and they were uncertain how to deal with it. It was, had they but known it, the testing-point of the Prefect system in the Châlet School. Had they given way, or taken no notice of the English girl’s defiance, it would have been
    ‘good-bye’ to all hope