CHAPTER IX
Concerns Day Girls
The Silverside boarders had what might perhaps be termed rather"genteel" hockey practices on Saturday afternoons. They playedhalf-heartedly. They were not extremely keen, and they gleefully put offplay in favour of a walk or of the cinema. Isobel even broached thesuggestion that hockey was a rough game, but that was when she wassuffering from the effects of an ugly whack across the shins, and heropinion was naturally biased. Consie's tastes were all for quiet, andshe would have spent her holidays over a book if she had not beenforcibly dragged out. Joyce would have preferred a dancing class onSaturday afternoons.
In the meanwhile the day-girls' hockey club prospered exceedingly. Theyhad secured their old field, and had made fixtures with several otherclubs. Their elation over their successes did not tend to promote theunity of Silverside. The school seemed more divided than ever.
In November came the Sale of Work. It was an annual affair held in aidof a Children's Home, and the Silverside girls worked the whole yearbeforehand for it. They considered it a great event. People inHarlingden were kind in coming to buy, and generally quite a nice littlesum was cleared. As the time drew near, Adah began to make preparations.
"Will anyone who has contributions kindly bring them to me by the end ofthe week?" she announced one day at "break".
"Why should we bring them to _you_?" asked Annie Broadside, with a glintof battle in her blue eyes.
Adah's manner at once stiffened into the peculiar mixture of firmnessand patronage which she deemed it desirable to adopt towards day girls.
"Why? What a question to ask! So that they can be put on the stall, ofcourse."
"Thanks! But we'd rather arrange them for ourselves."
"You can't do that. The boarders always arrange the bazaar."
"But why, when _we_ make the things, should _you_ take them all andarrange them? They're not _your_ work!"
Annie certainly had a most aggravating habit of asking questions. Adahcoloured with annoyance.
"I'm a prefect, you see!" she shuffled.
"There were no prefects last year, and you quote what you've always doneas your authority."
"Well, really, the few things the day girls have brought have nevermattered much before. I'll keep a space for you, if you're soparticular, and you can arrange them as you like, as long as you don'tspoil the general look of the stall," conceded Adah, with a show ofmagnanimity.
"Thanks _so_ much, your Majesty! It's really most kind of you to keep alittle room for our poor contribution!" curtsied Annie, with mockgratitude.
When the prefect's back was turned, she fizzed over to a sympathetic andoutraged circle. Adah's disdainful condescension was more than could bebrooked.
"The boarders have always had _the_ stall, and the day girls have humblyhelped!" said Gladys witheringly.
"How delightful for us!"
"They're to be the patricians, and we the plebeians!"
"They expect us to dust their very boots!"
"Look here," said Annie, "things are really getting beyond the limit. Ivote we get up a deputation, and go to Miss Thompson about this."
"What a brain wave!"
Miss Thompson listened, attentive and rather astonished, while thedeputation, very shy and red-faced, blurted out their request. Shetapped her desk thoughtfully with her fountain-pen, as if some new anddisturbing idea had suddenly risen on her horizon.
"Certainly there will be ample room for two stalls, and if the day girlswant to have one to themselves, I can see no objection. Arrange it justas you like, and bring your own decorations. Yes, you may have a varietyentertainment in one of the schoolrooms, and charge admission, if youwish. It will make extra money."
"You'll excuse our coming and asking?" apologized Gladys.
"I'm always ready to hear you, and to make any concessions that are forthe good of the school," replied Miss Thompson, gazing at the delegatesas if they provided her with considerable food for thought.
The deputation departed, feeling that they had scored their first realtriumph.
"Look here!" preached Annie to the Hawthorners, "we've just got to braceup. The boarders may put what they like on their stall, but our stall isgoing to be bigger and handsomer, and have far prettier things, and takeever so much more money than theirs. Every single girl of you has got todo her bit. There must be no slackers over this business."
The motive--if not strictly in accordance with the bestmorality--appealed to the day girls. They responded gallantly, and setall their home-folks working for the bazaar, as well as doing what theycould in their own spare time. They kept their activities strictlysecret from the ears of the boarders, but in private they compared notesand rejoiced.
"The new Lady Mayoress is to open the sale," announced Gladys one day.
"Mrs. Parker? Why, surely she's aunt to little Violet Parker, isn'tshe?"
"Of course she is."
"I'm going to get hold of Violet and be decent to her," nodded Anniesagely. "She's a sweet kid. I see possibilities through Violet. By theby, can you find me a copy of the Harlingden city arms?"
"It's a lion holding a broken chain. I saw it on a letter of Father'sthe other day. I can easily get it for you."
"Thanks! I've got a blossomy idea."
The day of the bazaar was to be a whole holiday. The large schoolroomwas reserved for the sale, and the stalls were put up first thing in themorning. The day girls had elected a committee of management, and six oftheir number came to arrange their part of the fancy fair. They broughtflags, draperies, flowers, and pots of plants, and set to work todecorate their stall. In the course of about half an hour it began tolook a most artistic production. The boarders, busy setting out theirwares at the other end of the room, cast surreptitious glances at it. Itwas a humiliating fact for them, but they were forced to acknowledgethat it far surpassed their own efforts. They had never thought of acanopy of white and gold, with a border of autumn leaves, or ofborrowing maidenhair ferns and forced Roman hyacinths.
But the decorations were only the beginning of the day girls' triumph.Their committee soon began to unpack boxes and spread out goods, mostbeautiful work of every description, which left their rivals gasping.The day girls, living at home, had really had a much better opportunityof asking their friends to help, and had made a very special effort.
Gertrude Howells's cousin had contributed various dainty articles inpoker work; Lucy Smith's elder sister, who was learning jewellery workat the School of Art, sent some most artistic little silver brooches andchains made by her own hands. Iris Harden's aunt gave Venetian beads andforeign curiosities; Monica Golding's family had plaited raffia basketsin barbaric, but most effective combinations of colour. Maggie Stuartcaused a sensation by producing little boxes of delicious toffee--yes,real home-made toothsome toffee, in spite of the sugar rationing!
The boarders went on with their own preparations, and pretended not totake much notice, but really the spirit was knocked out of them. Theyhad never expected the day girls to rise to such heights. They dressedrather quietly for the festivities that afternoon.
The sale was to open early, and at half-past two Miss Thompson, in herbest voile dress, and with her most affable company manner, waswelcoming the Lady Mayoress, a smiling, florid, rather flurriedpersonage in velvet and rich furs, who had another function at half-pastthree, and wanted to get away as soon as was politely possible.
"So kind of you to ask me," she fluttered. "I'm really interested inschools--and education, you know. I'm afraid I'm not much of a speaker,but--oh, yes, I'll just say a few words to open the sale. Kind? Not atall. It's a great pleasure to me to come, I assure you."
The poor Lady Mayoress was new to her work, and palpably shy. Perhapsshe thought a crowd of schoolgirls an embarrassing audience. She hummedand hawed and stammered a little in her speech, and glanced severaltimes at a piece of paper concealed behind her muff, but shenevertheless managed to say something appropriate about the object ofthe bazaar, and to w
ish it success.
"I am very pleased to declare the Sale of Work open," she concluded witha sort of gasp, as if thankful that her duty was done, and smilednervously at Miss Thompson, whose convex eyeglasses had been fixed uponher with appreciation during the speech.
"Perhaps you would like to look at the work now," murmured thePrincipal.
"Oh, certainly! I'd _love_ to see it. What pretty things!"
And the Lady Mayoress, though she was standing within two feet of AdahGartley and Consie Arkwright, actually turned her back on the boardersand made for the day girls' stall! Her eyes were fixed upon the centralobject displayed there, a satin cushion with the city arms embroideredupon it. She examined it with admiration.
"So beautifully done! And the colours are so effective! It will justmatch my drawing-room. I shall be delighted to have it. How clever yourgirls are, Miss Thompson! I suppose these are the prefects," smilinggraciously at Annie Broadside and Gladys Wilks. "My little niece tellsme about the school. She's so happy here."
"These are not our prefects," demurred Miss Thompson. "They are at theboarders' stall. Perhaps you would like to look at some of their work,too."
"Oh, with pleasure! Though I can't stay more than a minute. It's sotiresome; I have another engagement, and mustn't be late. But I've timefor just a look, at any rate. Yes, the things are charming; they do thegirls credit, I'm sure! May I have this tray cloth and this tea cosy?I'm so sorry to rush away, but I really must say good-bye."
The Lady Mayoress departed, feeling no doubt that she had successfullyaccomplished a civic and social duty, and quite unaware of the storm shehad left behind. The boarders were staring at their prefects in shockedsympathy. The whole business seemed almost incredible. That they, theold-established original Silversiders, who had always in former yearsrun the sale of work, should be overlooked and passed over in favour ofmere upstart day girls, was little short of an insult to the school.
"She never even said 'How d'you do?' to Adah, and she shook hands withAnnie!" gasped Ethelberga to Janet.
"And she spent three times as much at their stall as at ours!"
"It's a shame!"
The boarders felt that the afternoon had opened badly, and subsequentevents did not tend to soothe their outraged feelings. Nearly all theday girls had invited relations or friends, who naturally went first totheir stall to buy, with the result that the pretty things soon began tobe cleared, and the money-box to grow heavy. Miss Thompson, anxious topreserve a due balance in affairs, did her best by taking her ownspecial visitors to buy from the disconsolate prefects, and themistresses also nobly purchased many totally undesirable articles, forwhich they would find no possible use. If it had not been for this help,the boarders' stall would have had a poor innings. As it was, theybarely scored one-third of the whole proceeds of the sale.
The Principal, in a pretty little speech next morning at nine o'clock,spoke of the very gratifying results of the happy spirit of unity in aschool where all worked together for a good object, and the pleasure ofbeing able to send such a large cheque to the Children's Home. Adah,with her eyes fixed on the bows of her shoes, listened grimly. It wasall nice enough, she thought, for head mistresses to make soothingspeeches, but boarders and day girls knew perfectly well that thewelding of rival factions at Silverside would not be accomplished yet awhile.
Quite apart from the warring of opposite parties, there seemed to be anelement of unrest in the school. Formerly the boarders had been quitecontent to spend the leisure of their evenings at sewing, games, or oversome of their numerous guilds. Now, incited by the accounts of the daygirls, they were always asking to be taken in to Harlingden to concertsor picture palaces. Miss Thompson considered that such expeditions upsettheir preparation, and only allowed a very occasional outing. It wasirritating to the boarders to hear the day girls discussing variousentertainments, and to be openly pitied because they could not attendthem. The Cowslip Room in particular grumbled privately.
"We never go to anything!"
"Life's just a round of lessons!"
"There's the most gorgeous thing on at the cinema this week."
"I'd give my ears to see it!"
"It's not our turn this week."
"Strafe the wretched old turns!"
Miss Thompson, in her efforts to avoid too much dissipation, hadestablished a new rule, by which the dormitories in regular sequencewere allowed leave. Every Wednesday afternoon certain little parties ofboarders trotted off to the town under escort of a governess, doingshopping and often visiting a _matinee_. No girl might go withoutshowing an exeat signed by the Principal. The chaperon-mistress wasexpected to examine and file these permits before marshalling her flock.
On this particular Wednesday, Laura, Janet, Irma, and Ethelberga had settheir hearts on seeing "The Temple Bells" at the cinema. The fact thatthey had duly had their turn a fortnight before, and had witnessed awildly exciting performance of "Love and War in the East", only madethem keener for more thrills. When Avelyn, a little tired of thegeneral atmosphere of lamentation, suggested palliating circumstances,their wrath blazed out in her direction.
"It's all very well for _you_ to talk!"
"You can go on Friday evening or Saturday, if you like."
"You're half a day girl, after all!"
"You don't really sympathize with _us_!"
"All right! Don't get baity! As a matter of fact, I never come in toHarlingden on Saturdays, so you've no need to envy me!"
"Envy you! Envy a _weekly_ boarder!" sneered Laura, with a whole worldof condescension in her voice. "My dear child, I think you really don'tunderstand what you're talking about! After all, you've only been atSilverside two months!"
It is not a particularly pleasant matter to find the public opinion ofyour dormitory dead against you. You are apt to get awkward knocks inconsequence. Avelyn put up with some very withering remarks that Tuesdayevening, and consequently felt sore.
"They're absolute blighters to-day," she thought. "I wish I could play arag on them! It would just serve them jolly well right!"