CHAPTER VII
An Invitation
"Zickery, dickery, lumby tum, Tip me the wink, and out I'll come, Leave my pagoda so glum, glum, glum, To drink green tea with my own Yum-Yum!"
So chanted Evie Bennett on the following Monday, bursting into VB roomwith a face betokening news, and a manner suggestive of Bedlam.
"What's the matter, you lunatic? Look here, if you go on like a dancingdervish we shall have to provide you with a padded room! Mind theinkpot! Oh, I say, you'll have the black-board over! Hasn't anybody gota strait-waistcoat? Evie's gone sheer, stark, raving mad!"
"I've got news, my hearty! News! news! news!
'What will you take for my news? I know it will make you enthuse! There isn't a girl who'll refuse, Or offer to make an excuse.'
Ahem! A poor thing, but mine own. I'm waxing so poetical, I think I mustbe inspired."
"Or possessed! Sit down, you mad creature, and talk sense. What's yourprecious news?"
"Mrs. Trevellyan requests the pleasure of the company of the youngladies of Miss Birks's seminary to drink tea with her on the occasion ofthe natal day of her nephew, Master Ronald Trevellyan," announced Evie,changing suddenly to a ceremonious eighteenth-century manner, anddropping a stiff curtsy.
"Ronnie's birthday!"
"Oh, what sport!"
"It's on Wednesday."
"Has she asked only us?"
"No, the whole school is to go, mistresses and all," returned Evie."Mrs. Trevellyan wants to introduce Ronnie's new governess to us."
"There are sure to be games, and perhaps a competition with prizes,"rejoiced Annie Pridwell; "and we always have delicious teas at theCastle. Gerda Thorwaldson, why don't you look pleased? You take it asquietly as if it were a parochial meeting. What a mum mouse you are!"
"Is it anything to get so excited over?" replied Gerda calmly.
"Of course it is! The Castle's the Castle, and Mrs. Trevellyan is--well,just Mrs. Trevellyan. There are the loveliest things there--foreigncuriosities, and old pictures, and illuminated books, and we're allowedto look at them; and there's special preserved ginger from China, andboxes of real Eastern Turkish Delight. Oh, it's a fairy palace! You maythank your stars you're going!"
In spite of Annie's transports, Gerda did not look particularlydelighted. She only smiled in a rather sickly fashion, and said nothing.The others, however, were much too occupied with their own pleasurableexpectations to take any notice of her lack of enthusiasm. They hadaccepted her quiet ways as part of herself, and had set her down as anot very interesting addition to the Form, and thought her opinions--ifindeed she possessed any--were of scant importance.
Gerda had made very little headway with her companions; her intensereserve seemed to set a barrier between them and herself, and after oneor two efforts at being friendly the girls had given her up, and took nomore trouble over her. "Gerda the Silent," "The Recluse," "The Oyster,"were some of the names by which she was known, and she certainlyjustified every item of her reputation for reticence. If she did nottalk much, she was, however, a good listener. Nothing in the merry chatof the schoolroom escaped her, and anybody who had been curious enoughto watch her carefully might have noticed that often, when seeminglyburied in a book, her eyes did not move over the page, and all herattention was given to the conversation that was going on in hervicinity.
Having received an invitation to Ronnie's birthday party, of course theburning subject of discussion was what to give him as a present. MissBirks vetoed the idea of each girl making a separate offering, andsuggested a general subscription list to buy one handsome article.
"It will be quite sufficient, and I am sure Mrs. Trevellyan would farrather have it so," she decreed.
"It's too bad, for I'd made up my mind to give him a box of soldiers,"complained Annie, in private.
"And I'd a book in my eye," said Elyned.
"Perhaps Miss Birks is right," said Romola, "because, you see, some ofus might give nicer presents than the others, and perhaps there'd be alittle jealousy; and at any rate, comparisons are odious."
"Miss Birks has limited the subscriptions to a shilling each," commentedDeirdre.
"Then let's take our list now. I'll write down our names, and you cantell me the amounts."
For such an object everyone was disposed to be liberal--everyone, thatis to say, except Gerda Thorwaldson. When she was applied to, she flatlyrefused.
"Don't you want to join in the present to Ronnie?" gasped Romola, inutter amazement.
"Why should I?"
"Why, because we're going to tea at the Castle; and Ronnie is Ronnie,and Mrs. Trevellyan will be pleased too!"
"I don't know Mrs. Trevellyan."
"Well, you soon will. You'll be introduced to her on Wednesday. Shealways says something nice to new girls--asks them where their homesare, and if they've brothers and sisters, and how old they are--and ifshe finds out she knows their parents or their friends she's sointerested. And she has such a good memory for faces! She actuallyrecognized Irene Jordan, although she'd never seen her in her lifebefore, because Irene is so like an aunt, a Miss Jordan who is a friendof Mrs. Trevellyan's."
Gerda had turned a dull crimson at these remarks. She kept her eyesfixed on the floor, and made no reply. What her inward thoughts mightbe, no one could fathom.
"Isn't your name to go down at all, then, on the list?" asked Romola,with considerable impatience.
"No, thanks!" replied Gerda briefly, turning awkwardly away.
Wednesday arrived, and perhaps even Ronnie hardly welcomed his birthdaymore than did his friends at the Dower House. His present--a toycircus--had arrived, and had been on exhibition in Miss Birks's study,and everybody had agreed that it was the very thing to please him. Atthree o'clock the girls went to change their school dresses for morefestive attire, and were more than ordinarily particular in their choiceof preparations.
"How slow you are, Gerda Thorwaldson!" said Deirdre, whose ownimmaculate toilet was complete. "You haven't put on your dress yet. Whydon't you hurry?"
"You needn't think we'll wait for you," added Dulcie.
Instead of replying, Gerda calmly donned her dressing-gown, and,volunteering no explanation, went out of the room and shut the doorbehind her.
She walked downstairs to Miss Birks's study, and, tapping at the door,reported herself.
"May I, please, stay at home this afternoon?" she begged. "I'm afraid Idon't feel up to going out to tea to-day."
"Not go to the Castle? My dear child, I hope you're not ill? Certainlystay at home, and lie down on your bed if your head aches. Nettie shallbring your tea upstairs. I'm sorry you'll miss so great a treat as avisit to Mrs. Trevellyan's."
Gerda made no comment; but as she was habitually sparing of speech, hersilence did not strike Miss Birks as anything unusual. It was time tostart, and the Principal had her nineteen other pupils to think about,so she dismissed the pseudo-invalid with a final injunction to rest.
Gerda did not return to her bedroom till she was perfectly sure thatDeirdre and Dulcie had left it. She had no wish to run the gauntlet oftheir inevitable criticisms, or to be questioned too closely on thenature of her sudden indisposition. She loitered about the upper landinguntil from the end window she saw the whole school--girls, mistresses,and Principal--file down the drive and out through the gate in thedirection of the Castle. Then, going to her dormitory, she rang thebell, and lay down on her bed.
"Would you mind bringing my cup of tea now, Nettie, please?" she asked,when the housemaid appeared. "And then I should like to be leftperfectly quiet until the others come back."
"Of course I'll bring it, miss," said the sympathetic Nettie. "Nothinglike a cup of tea for a headache. The kettle's on the boil, so you canhave it at once. I won't be more than a minute or two fetching it."
Nettie was as prompt as her word. She returned almost directly with thetea, and arranged it temptingly on a little table by the bedside.
"Shut your eyes and try and
go to sleep when you've drunk it," sherecommended. "You'll perhaps wake up quite fresh. It is a pity youcouldn't go with the other young ladies to the Castle. They were all sofull of it--and Master Ronnie's birthday, too! I know how disappointedyou must feel."
Gerda finished her tea far more rapidly than is usual for invalids withsick-headaches; then, instead of taking Nettie's advice and closing hereyes, she rose and put on her school dress, her coat, and her cap. Sheopened the door and listened--not a sound was to be heard. The servantsmust surely be having their own tea in the kitchen, and no one else wasin the house. With extreme caution she crept along the passage and downthe stairs. The side door was open, and as quietly as a shadow shepassed out and dodged round the corner of the house. A few minutes latershe was running, running at the very top of her speed across the warrenin the direction of a certain rocky creek not far from St. Perran'swell.
* * * * *
When the girls returned at half-past six, full of their afternoon'sexperiences, they found Gerda lying on her bed, with the blind drawndown. There was an almost feverish colour in her cheeks.
"We'd a ripping time!" Dulcie assured her. "A splendid 'Natural Objects'competition. I nearly got a prize, but I put 'snake-skin' down for one,and it was really a piece of the skin of a finnan-haddock. EmilyNorthwood won the first, with sixteen objects right out of twenty, andHilda Marriott was second with fourteen. I might have known thatspecimen was fish scales.
"Ronnie was delighted with his circus," added Dulcie. "He gave us each akiss all round. And Mrs. Trevellyan was so nice! She was sorry youcouldn't come, and hoped she'd see you some other time. By the by, how'syour headache?"
"Rather better. I think I'll get up now," murmured Gerda. "I haven'ttouched my Latin to-day."
"Plucky of you to come and do prep. If I had a headache, wouldn't I justmake it an excuse to knock off Virgil!"
It was getting near to the end of February. The days were lengtheningvisibly, and the sun, which only a month ago had appeared every morninglike a red ball over the hill behind the Castle, now rose, bright andshining, a long way to eastward. In spite of occasional spring storms,the weather was on the whole mild, and every day fresh flowers werepushing up in the school garden. The warren, attractive even in winter,was doubly delightful now primrose tufts were venturing to show amongthe last year's bracken, and the gorse was beginning to gleam golden insheltered stretches. The girls were out every available moment of theirspare time, rambling over the headland or haunting the sea-shore. Formost of them the latter provided the greater entertainment.
They had discovered a new occupation, that of salvaging the driftwood,and found it so enthralling that for the present it overtopped all otheramusements. The high spring-tides and occasional storms washed upquantities of pieces of timber, and to rescue these from the edge of thewaves, and carry them into a place of safety, became as keen a sport asfishing. Quite a little wood-stack was accumulating under the cliff, andthe girls had designs of carrying it piece by piece to a point on thetop of the headland, and there building a beacon of noble proportions tobe fired on Empire Day amid suitable rejoicings.
It was exciting work to skip about at the water's edge, grasping at bitsof old spars or shattered boards. The sea seemed to enjoy the fun, andwould bob them near and snatch them away in tantalizing fashion,sometimes adding a wetting as a point to the joke. To secure a finepiece of wood without getting into the water was the triumph of skill,attended with considerable risk, not to life or limb, but to length ofrecreation, for Miss Birks had laid down an inviolable rule that anybodywho got her feet wet at this occupation must immediately return toschool, change shoes and stockings, and desist from further attempts onthat day. One or two of the girls were lucky enough to possessindia-rubber wading boots, with which they could venture to defy FatherOcean and rob him of some of the choicest of his spoils, but they werethe highly-favoured few; the rank and file had to content themselveswith the ordinary method of swift snatching with the aid of a hockeystick.
Two days after Ronnie's birthday party a strong wind and squall duringthe night had furnished material for more than usually good sport, andthe whole school betook itself to the beach to try to reap a harvest.Laughing, joking, squealing, the girls pursued their quarry, enjoyingthe fun all the more for the accidents of the moment. Evie Bennettdropped her hockey stick, and nearly lost it altogether. Romola Harveyslipped and fell flat into a pool of water; and many other minor mishapsoccurred to keep up the excitement until the catch of the year wassecured, a large piece of timber which it took the united efforts of allarms to drag successfully up the beach. Deirdre and Dulcie at last,grown reckless ventured a risky experiment on their own account, withthe result that a wave caught them neatly, and gave them the fullbenefit of sea-water treatment.
"Oh, you're done for. Go back at once!" commanded Jessie Macpherson, thehead girl, whose office it was to see that the rule about changing shoeswas duly observed.
"Sea-water doesn't hurt," protested the chums.
"Your feet are wet through, so back you trot this instant. Do you wantme to report you?"
Very loath to leave the shore, Deirdre and Dulcie were neverthelessbound to obey, so they toiled regretfully up the steep path from thecove, casting a lingering eye on their companions, who were still hardat work.
"Where's Gerda?" asked Dulcie. "She's not down there, and now I think ofit, I haven't seen her for the last half-hour or more. Did she getwet?"
"I really didn't notice. I suppose she must have, and been sent back. Weshall probably find her in the garden."
The two stepped briskly over the warren, their shoes drying on theirfeet with a rapidity which made them disparage Miss Birks's excellentrule about changing.
"It's just her fuss--we should have taken no harm," said Deirdre. "Isay, surely that's Ronnie's laugh. I'd know it anywhere. Where is thechild?"
The girls were passing close to the high wall which separated the Castlegrounds from the warren, and as it seemed more than probable that Ronniewas inside, playing in the garden, they managed with considerableeffort, and the aid of some strong ivy, to climb to the top and peepover. Here a most unexpected sight met their gaze.
On the grass, under a tamarisk bush, sat Gerda with Ronnie on her knee.She had evidently made friends with the little fellow to a great extent,for he seemed very much at home with her, and the two were laughing andjoking together in the most intimate fashion. It was such an absolutelynew aspect of Gerda that Deirdre and Dulcie were dumb with amazement.When, at the Dower House, had she laughed so gaily, or talked in soanimated and sprightly a fashion? No shy, reserved, taciturn reclusethis; her eyes were shining, and her whole face was full of a brightexpression, such as the others had never seen there before.
"Hallo, Gerda! What are you doing here?" called Deirdre, finding speechat last.
Gerda dropped Ronnie, and sprang to her feet with a sharp exclamation.No one could have looked more utterly and egregiously caught. She stoodstaring at the two faces on the top of the wall, and offered noexplanation whatever. Ronnie, however, waved his hand merrily.
"We've been playing Zoo," he volunteered. "Gerda's been a lion, andgobbled me up, and she's been an elephant and given me rides, and wewere both polar bears, and growled at each other. Listen how I can growlnow--Ur-ur-ugh! Oh, and look what she's given me for my birthday! Itcomes from Germany," producing from his pocket a little compass. "Now ifever I get lost, I can always find my way home. See, I can show youwhich is north, and south, and east, and west."
"You'd better be going back, Gerda," remarked Dulcie grimly. "You knowwe're not allowed in the Castle grounds without a special invitation."
"I'll come through the side gate," replied Gerda, turning from Ronniewithout even a good-bye. Deirdre and Dulcie dropped from the wall, andmet their room-mate at the identical moment when she passed through theturnstile.
"Well, of all mean people you're the meanest!" observed Deirdre. "I callit sneaky to take such an advanta
ge, and go to play with Ronnie byyourself. We'd do it if it were allowed, but it isn't."
"I wonder his governess wasn't with him," said Dulcie. "He's generallyso very much looked after."
"And as for going inside the Castle garden, it was most fearful cheek,"continued Deirdre. "We, who know Mrs. Trevellyan quite well, never thinkof doing such a thing."
"What I call meanest," put in Dulcie, "was to try and curry favour withRonnie by giving him a birthday present on your own account. Miss Birkssaid there were to be no separate presents: we were all to join, so thatthere'd be no jealousy--and you wouldn't subscribe. Oh, you are a nasty,hole-and-corner, underhand sneak! Have you anything to say foryourself?"
But Gerda stumped resolutely along with her hands in her coat pockets,and answered never a word.