Part 5 (1/2)
By four o'clock the whole of the business was concluded, the societies were established, and a very hopeful start had been made. Among the many activities of that important afternoon one point seemed to stand out firmly and clearly--Merle above all the other monitresses had shown herself capable of taking the lead. Where Iva, Nesta, and Muriel had failed to control the school she had restored order, conducted the meeting admirably, and exhibited considerable powers of organisation. She had undoubtedly justified her position, and had won the respect of most of her comrades.
”Did I do all right?” she asked Mavis anxiously, as they walked home.
”Splendiferously! I was bursting with pride! I couldn't have done it myself, Merle! When I saw all that rackety crew talking and ragging, I thought it was hopeless and that we should have to fetch Miss Mitch.e.l.l.
Some of those juniors had just made up their minds to give trouble. You tackled them marvellously.”
”I wasn't going to give in to them!” declared Merle. ”I meant to stop their ragging if I had to go round and box all their ears. Well! They know now they have to behave themselves or I'll know the reason why! But oh, Mavis! I don't think Muriel will ever forgive me for being chairwoman.”
”Why not?”
”She never wanted me to be a monitress!”
”Nonsense!”
”It's the truth.”
”Well, she missed her own opportunity, so she can't blame you for taking it this afternoon.”
”She's against me all the same. Iva and Nesta are quite nice, but there are going to be squalls with Muriel. You'll take my part?”
”Of course I shall, through thick and thin. You can always count on your own sister.”
”That's something to go upon at any rate. I shall need support. I don't believe it's going to be an easy business.”
”'Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown,'” quoted Mavis laughingly.
”Exactly. I wanted tremendously to be monitress, but I didn't realise all I was in for. I see many breezes in front.”
”You'll weather them all, don't fear! After such a splendid start I've every confidence in you. It's only a question now of keeping it up and going ahead.”
Merle was not mistaken in her estimation of the difficulties that lay before her. A certain section of the juniors, led by Winnie Osborne and Joyce Colman, the firebrands of the Third form, offered great resistance to the authority of the monitresses, and put every possible obstacle in their way. To keep these unruly youngsters in order meant a constant clas.h.i.+ng of wills, and needed much courage and determination. Some of the new girls also were inclined to rebel and to air their own views. Sybil Vernon, in particular, was a thorn in the flesh. She had been at boarding-school before, and on the strength of her previous experience she offered advice upon any and every occasion. She was very aggrieved that she had not been eligible for election to office herself.
”I know so much more about it than most of you!” she would explain airily. ”If Miss Pollard had only chosen _me_ as a monitress I could have organised everything exactly like it used to be done at The Limes.”
Sybil was a curious girl, fair, with a fat babyish face, and a vast idea of her own importance. She was very proud of her family, and never for a moment forgot, or allowed anybody else to forget, that she belonged to the Vernons of Renshaw Court, and that Sir Richard Vernon was her second cousin. She expected a great deal more attention than the school was willing to accord to her, and was invariably offended or aggrieved or annoyed about something. The girls did not take her very seriously, and laughed at what they called her 'jim-jams,' which had the effect of making her first very indignant and finally reducing her to floods of tears.
Though Sybil might be annoying there was really not much harm in her, and her criticisms were very easily combated. A different girl altogether, however, was Kitty Trefyre. She also had been at another school, and set forth standards of conduct which were dissimilar from those at 'The Moorings.' She was cautious in airing these, and wisely so, for most of them caused the monitresses to lift their eyebrows in amazement, whereupon she would instantly retract her remarks and declare she was only 'ragging.' How much she really meant Merle never knew, but the latter did not trust her.
”There's a sneaky look about her eyes,” she commented to Mavis. ”Sybil lunges out and finds open fault, but Kitty hits in the dark. I hope she's not going to spoil Iva!”
”Oh, don't say that!”
”They're chums already, and Iva is rather a chameleon! She takes the colour of her character from her friends.”
CHAPTER IV
Chagmouth Folk
As this book partly concerns the doings of the group of girls who came daily from Chagmouth to Durracombe, we will follow them as they motored back on their ten miles' journey from school. Squashed together in 'the sardine-tin,' as they irreverently nicknamed the highly respectable car driven by Mr. Vicary, who owned the garage close to the mill, they held high jinks and talked at least thirteen to the dozen. There was so much to discuss. The school was new to all of them, and naturally they wished to criticise its methods, its teachers, its girls, and its prospects of fun during the ensuing term.