'Oh, Mam'zelle!' said Janet, startled. 'You know I can't do that. It would take me ages and ages. Besides, I'm not good at learning French poetry. It's as much as I can do to learn eight lines ' and there must be about a hundred in that poem.'
'Then it will make you think twice before you are rude to me again,' said Mam'zelle. She took up her spectacle case and put her glasses on her big nose. Her face was flushed an angry red, and her head was aching. Ah, these English girls! They were terrible! How was it she had liked them so much before? She could not bear them now.
After the class Janet talked angrily about her punishment. 'It's not fair,' she said. 'It's all Mam'zelle's own fault, the wretch! Can't she see that we won't stand her sarcastic remarks when we don't deserve them? I'm sure we work just as hard as we did last term ' and look at Lucy, how good she is in French, and yet Mam'zelle scolded her like anything yesterday.:
'Wasn't she always as bad-tempered as this then?' asked Lucy, in wonder.
'Gracious, no,' said Janet. 'This is the fourth term I've been in the first form ' and Mam'zelle has always been quite a brick before ' well, she always did have a hot temper ' but she wasn't bad-tempered, like she is now.'
'Janet, I'll copy out that poem once for you,' said Kathleen. 'My writing is a bit like yours. Mam'zelle won't know. You can't possibly do it three times yourself today.'
'Oh, thanks, Kath, you're a brick,' said Janet. 'That will be a help. I wouldn't let anyone take on a part of my punishments if I could help it. But goodness me. Mam'zelle must be mad if she thinks I've enough time to do all she said!'
Kathleen copied out the poem once in Janet's French book. Sheila did it once too, for her writing was not unlike Janet's. Janet scribbled it out the third time and, with much trouble and pains, learnt it by heart. The whole class was sick of the poem by the time Janet had it perfect.
She want to Mam'zelle at seven o'clock to take the written work and to say the poem. She said it in a sulky voice and would not look at the French teacher at all. By this time Mam'zelle had recovered a little and was half-sorry she had given the girl such a long punishment. But Janet would not smile at Mam'zelle, and would not even say good night to her when she went from the room.
'Ah, these impolite English girls!' said Mam'zelle, with a sigh. 'They should go to school in France ' then they would know what good behaviour and hard work are!'
Janet did not forgive Mam'zelle for her hardness. She was a dreadful girl for playing tricks and practical jokes, and had got into great trouble the term before for throwing fireworks into the classroom fire. She had not done anything very bad this term ' but now she was determined to make Mam'zelle 'sit up', as she called it, the last two or three weeks of term.
She told the others. 'If Mam'zelle thinks she can treat me like that without my getting a bit of my own back, she's jolly well mistaken!' said Janet. 'I'm going to pay her out ' so look out for some fun!:
The class was pleasantly excited. They knew Janet's tricks and appreciated them, for Janet was clever and original with her jokes. What would she be up o now?
'You know, it was terribly funny last term when she threw the fireworks into the fire,' said Pat to Margery and Lucy. 'We really meant to play that joke on Miss Kennedy, a timid sort of mistress who took Miss Lewis's place for history last term. Well, Miss Roberts came along just when Janet had thrown about fifty in ' and golly, we had fireworks from Miss Roberts then too, I can tell you!'
'I wonder what Janet will do?' said Doris, hugging herself, for she adored a joke, and was pretty good herself at playing them. 'I've got a funny trick my cousin gave me at Christmas ' it's a funny thing that looks exactly like spilt ink!'
'Oh, why haven't you shown it to us?' cried Janet, in delight. 'I know the thing you mean ' it's awfully good. Have you got it?'
'Well, I brought it to school meaning to give somebody a shock with it,' said Doris, 'but I couldn't find it. It must be somewhere about.'
'Go and lok, Doris. Go and look now,' begged Pat, giggling. ''Look where you haven't looked before. In your tuck-box for instance. You haven't opened that since the beginning of the term, when we ate everything.'
The joke was in the neglected tuck-box! Doris pounced on it with glee. It was a thing which, when put down flat on a book looked exactly like a big, irregular, shiny ink-blot ' almost as if the ink-pot had been spilt.
Janet took it in delight. 'This is fine!' she said. 'Lend it to me, there's a sport!'
'Rather!' said Doris. 'What will you do with it? 'Wait and see, tomorrow,' said Janet. So the class waited impatiently till French lessons came, and Mam'zelle bustled in, out of breath as usual.
It was French dictation that morning. Mam'zelle looked round the class, which was suspiciously good and docile all of a sudden.
'Take down dict'e,' she said. 'Get out your exercise books, and begin.'
Every girl had to take her book to Mam'zelle to be corrected after dict'e. Janet took hers up when her turn came and laid it flat on the desk. Mam'zelle took up her fountain pen ' and then, before her eyes, there appeared on Janet's perfectly clean book, a very large and shiny ink-blot!
'Oh, Mam'zelle!' cried Janet, in a doleful voice. 'Look what you've done to my book! It must have been your fountain pen! Is it leaking? Oh, and I did try so hard with my dict'e this morning!'
Mam'zelle stared in horror at the enormous blot. She couldn't believe her eyes.
'Janet! What can have happened!' she cried. She looked at her fountain pen. It seemed all right. And yet there was the tremendous blot, right across Janet's neat book.
'I'll go and blot it, Mam'zelle,' said Janet, and took her book away carefully, as if she was trying not to let the blot run across the page. The class saw it clearly and buried their heads in their hands or under their desks to stifle their giggles.
Janet slipped the trick-blot into her pocket and then pretended to be busy with blotting-paper. Mam'zelle was shaking her pen with a puzzled air. She simply could not imagine how so much ink had run out of it so suddenly.
Janet took back her book, which was now absolutely clean. Mam'zelle stared at it in the greatest astonishment. 'You cannot have cleaned it so well!'
'Well, I've got some special blotting-paper, Mam'zelle,' said Janet, in a solemn voice. 'It cleans ink like magic.'
'Ah, but it is indeed magic!' said Mam'zelle, pleased. 'You dict'e is now not spoilt at all. Thank you, ma ch're Janet! I was so sorry to have spoilt your work.'
One or two muffled giggles could be heard from Doris and Kathleen. Mam'zelle looked up sharply.
'There is nothing to laugh at,' she said. 'Taisez-vous!'
But of course there was something to laugh at ' and when Janet cleverly managed to slip the ink-blot on to Doris's desk, just as Mam'zelle was leaning over to look at her work, the class nearly had hysterics!
'Oh, Mam'zelle ' that wretched pen of yours!' said Doris, in a reproachful voice, looking at the blot. 'It's messed up my desk now.'
Mam'zelle stared at it in surprise and horror. Blots seemed to be following her round this morning. She looked at her fountain pen again and shook it violently. A shower of ink-drops flew over the floor. Doris cried out loudly.
'It is your pen! Look at all the blots it has made on the floor! Oh, Mam'zelle, please may I borrow Janet's wonderful blotting-paper to wipe up the mess? Miss Roberts will be so angry with me if she sees it there next lesson.'
'I cannot understand it,' murmured poor Mam'zelle, feeling she must be in some sort of a dream, as she looked at the large and shiny blot on Doris's desk. 'I have never made such blots before.'
The class went off into giggles that spread round uncontrollably. Mam'zelle lost her temper.
'Is it so funny that I make blots?' she cried. 'Silence! Another giggle and I will keep the whole class in for break,'
That was enough to keep the class quiet for a while, though there were many handkerchiefs stuffed into mouths when the urge to laugh became too great. Janet was pleased with the success of her joke, and already
she was planning another.
'I'm going to put beetles into Mam'zelle's spectable case,' she giggle to the others, when they were in the common room after tea, discussing with enjoyment the success of the ink-blot. The second-formers had enjoyed the tale immensely and had groaned because they hadn't been able to share in the joke.
'Janet! Not beetles!' shuddered Sheila. 'How could you possibly pick them up to put them in?'
'And anyway, how are you going to get them there?' said Pat.
'easy enough,' said Janet. 'Mam'zelle is always leaving her spectacle case around. The first time she leaves in in our class-room I'll grab it and put the beetles into the case! What ho for a squeal from Mam'zelle! That will teach her to make me learn her horrid French poems!'
The very next day Mam'zelle left her glasses in their case on the first-form desk. Janet winked at the others. She saw them at once. Immediately Mam'zelle was out of the room on her way to the second-form Janet whipped out of her seat and took the case from the desk. She slipped it into her pocket and got back to her seat just as Miss Roberts came in to take arithmetic.
The lesson had hardly been going for more than four minutes when a girl from the second form came in. 'Please, Miss Roberts, Mam'zelle is sorry to interrupt you, but may she have her glasses? She left them in a case on your desk.'
Miss Roberts looked round the big desk and then opened it. No spectacle case was seen, which was not surprising considering that it was safely in Janet's pocket.
'It doesn't seem to be here,' said Miss Roberts. 'Mam'zelle will probably find that they are in her pocket.'
The class giggled to itself. They knew quite well that Mam'zelle would find nothing of the sort! Janet looked quite solemn. It made the others giggle to look at her.
'Girls! What is the joke, please?' asked Miss Roberts, impatiently. She did not like giggles. 'Is there anything funny in Mam'zelle losing her glasses?'
As it happened, there was ' but Miss Roberts, of course, didn't know it. The class sobered down.
'Well, Miss Roberts, it's only that Mam'zelle is always leaving her glasses about,' said Doris.
'Quite,' said Miss Roberts, drily. 'Turn to page forty-seven, please. KATHLEEN! If you stare round the class any more I'll put you with your back to it! What is the matter with you this morning?'
The class had to behave itself. Miss Roberts made it work so hard that most of them thought no more of the next trick Janet was going to play, until break came. Then they all crowded round Janet to see her put the poor surprised beetles into the spectacle case!
Chapter 21: Mam'zelle Gets Another Shock
Janet collected various kinds of beetles and grubs from underneath fences at break. Giggling loudly the first- and second-formers watched her take out Mam'zelle's spectacles and carefully put in the wriggling insects. They were halfdazed with their winter sleep. Janet shut the case with a snap.
'I hope the beetles can breathe,' said Kathleen, in a troubled voice. She was passionately fond of animals, and her kindness extended to even spiders, beetles and moths.
'Of course they can breathe,' said Janet. 'This spectacle case is as big as a room to them!'
'What are you going to do with the case?' asked Hilary. 'Are you going to put it back on the desk so that Mam'zelle can open it next day?'
'Of course, silly,' said Janet. 'We all want to see the fun, don't we?'
'I say, Janet ' won't Mam'zelle be absolutely furious?' said Lucy. 'She'll tell Miss Theobald, I should think. Better be careful ' you don't want to get into a fearful row just before the end of term. You might get a bad report.'
'I don't care,' said Janet. 'I'm going to get even with Mam'zelle, the badtempered thing!'
The beetles and grubs passed quite a pleasant time in the spectacle case, and didn't seem to mind at all, though Kathleen kept worrying about them and opening the case to give them a little air. In the morning Janet placed the case on Miss Roberts's desk just before Mam'zelle came to give her daily French lesson. The whole class was in a state of fidget and excitement. They had tried to keep it under whilst Miss Roberts was teaching them, for she was very clever at sensing anything wrong with the class.
She had been rather sharp with them, but had not seemed to suspect anything. She left to go to the second-form ' and Mam'zelle came in. Mam'zelle had had a bad night. She was not sleeping well these days, and her eyes were circled with big black rings.
'Bon jour!' she said, as she came in. She went to the desk and put down her books. The girls wished her good morning and sat down. Mam'zelle turned to the blackboard
and wrote down a few questions which the class had to answer in writing, in French.
Then suddenly Mam'zelle spotted her spectacle case. She pounced on it with delight.
'Ah! Here are my glasses! Now this is a strange thing! I sent to ask for them yesterday and was told they were not here! All day long I looked for them!'
The girls watched in the most intense excitement. The ones at the back craned their necks round the girls in front of them, trying their hardest to see. The girls at the front were thrilled to have such a good view.
Mam'zelle sat down. She did not open the case at once. She looked round the class. 'D'pechez-vous!' she cried. 'Why are you so slow at beginning your work today!'
The class took up their pens. Mam'zelle yawned and tapped her big white teeth with her pencil. Why, oh why didn't she open her spectacle case?
Ah! Now she was going to. She stretched out her hand and picked up the case. She opened it slowly ' and out scrambled the quick-legged beetles, and out crawled the grubs, wide awake now because of the warmth of the room!
Mam'zelle stared at them. She took out her handkerchief and rubbed it across her eyes. Then she looked cautiously at the spectacle case again. She simply could not believe her eyes.
'It is impossible!' thought poor Mam'zelle. 'My eyes tell me that there are beetles and grubs crawling over my desk, but my sense tells me that my glasses should be there. And no doubt they are there. It is because I am tired that I see these insects crawling out of my case!'
The girls were trying to smother their giggles. Mam'zelle's face was so funny! It was quite plain that she was immensely astonished and couldn't believe her eyes.
Mam'zelle was trying to think calmly. She hated anything that crawled, and one of her favourite nightmares was that beetles were crawling over her. And now here they were walking out of her spectacle case. It was quite impossible. Beetles did
not live in spectacle cases. Her eyes must be wrong. She must go to the occulist again and get fresh glasses. Perhaps that was why she had such head-aches lately! All these thoughts passed through poor Mam'zelle's mind, and the first-formers peered over their books and watched eagerly to see what would happen.
'It cannot be that these insects are real,' Mam'zelle was thinking firmly to herself. 'They are in my imagination only! My glasses must be in the case, although it appears to me that there are insects there instead, I must be brave and put my hand into the case to get my glasses. Then, when they are safely on my nose I shall see that the beetles are not really there!'
The girls began to giggle, though they tried their hardest to stop. Mam'zelle was so puzzled and so amazed. It did not seem to enter her mind for one moment that it was a trick. She put out her hand to feel for the glasses she felt sure must really be in her case.
And of course, all she got hold of were beetles and grubs! When she felt them in her fingers she gave a loud scream! The girls watched in enjoyment. This was simply marvellous!
'What's the matter, Mam'zelle?' asked Doris, demurely, winking round at the others.
'Ah, Doris ' Janet ' come up here and tell me what there is on my desk,' said poor Mam'zelle, looking down in horror as one beetle ran round and round the ink-pot and finally fell right into it.
Doris and Janet leapt up at once. Janet stared solemnly at Mam'zelle. 'Your glasses are in your case,' said the naughty girl. 'Put them on, Mam'zelle, and maybe you will see proper
ly.'
'My glasses are not there!' cried Mam'zelle. 'But do you not see those insects, girls!'
'What insects?' asked Doris, innocently, and the whole class exploded into stifled giggles. But Mam'zelle hardly noticed them.
'Ah, there is something wrong with me!' she groaned. 'I have feared it all these weeks. I am not the same. My temper is so bad. I am so irritable. And now my eyes are wrong. I see things! I see beetles on this desk! If only I could find my
glasses!'
Janet picked up the empty case, quickly slipped Mam'zelle's glasses into it, from her pocket, and then took them out of the case as if they had been there all the time. She handed them to the astonished French mistress.