it was exactly ten days before the opening of the autumn term at the gables. the september sunshine, flooding through the window of the principal's study, lighted up the bowl of carnations upon the writing-table, and, flashed back from the chippendale mirror on the wall, caught the book-case with the morocco-bound editions of the poets, showed up the etching of "dante's dream" over the mantelpiece, and glowed on miss kingsley's ripply brown hair, turning all the silver threads in it to gold. miss kingsley, rested and refreshed after the long summer holiday, a touch of pink in her cheeks and a brightness in her eyes, left as a legacy from the breezes of the cheviot hills, was seated at her desk with a notebook in front of her and a fountain pen in her hand, making plans for a fresh year's work.
[10]miss janet, armed with a stump of pencil and the back of an envelope, ready to jot down suggestions, swayed to and fro in the rocking-chair with her lips drawn into a bunch and the particular little pucker between her eyebrows that always came when she was trying to concentrate her thoughts.
"it really is a difficulty, janet!" said miss kingsley. "a suitable head girl makes all the difference to a school, and if we happen to choose the wrong one it may completely spoil the tone. if only lottie carson or helen stanley had stayed on! or even enid jones or stella hardy!"
"it's hard luck to lose all our best senior girls at once!" agreed miss janet, biting her stump of pencil abstractedly. "but if they're gone, they're gone."
"of course!" miss kingsley's tone savoured slightly of impatience. "and the urgent matter is to supply their places. it's like making bricks without straw. haven't you any suggestions? i do wish you'd stop rocking, it worries me to hear your chair creak!"
miss janet, seasoned by thirty-five years' acquaintance with her sister's nervous temperament, rose and walked to the window, where she stood looking out over the sunlit tennis court to the bank of exotic shrubs that half hid the blue line of the sea. there was a moment's pause, then she said:
"suppose you read over the list of 'eligibles', and we'll discuss their points each in turn."
miss kingsley reached for a certain black-backed [11]shiny exercise-book and opened it. the entries were in her own neat hand.
"there will only be eight girls in the sixth form this term," she volunteered. "taking them in alphabetical order they are: nellie appleby, claire bardsley, claudia castleton, vivien forrester, lorraine forrester, audrey roberts, dorothy skipton, and patricia sullivan."
miss janet smiled.
"first of all you may cross off the last," she suggested.
"decidedly. patsie sullivan as head girl would be about as suitable as—as——"
miss kingsley paused for an appropriate simile.
"as making charlie chaplin archbishop of canterbury!" finished miss janet with a chuckle.
"it's unthinkable! most of the others are soon weeded out too. nellie appleby and claire bardsley—good stodgy girls, but quite unfit for leadership—claudia castleton, a new girl, so of course not eligible; audrey roberts—could you imagine silly little audrey in any post of trust? it really only leaves us the choice between lorraine forrester, vivien forrester, and dorothy skipton."
"in last term's exams these three were fairly equal," commented miss janet.
"so equal that i shan't take the results of the exams into consideration. it must be a question of which girl will make the most efficient head. each has her points and her drawbacks. take vivien, now: she's smart and capable, and would revel in exercising authority."
[12]"too much so. i should be sorry for the school with anyone so domineering as vivien forrester at the head of affairs. she's too forward altogether, and inclined to argue and pit her opinion against that of the mistresses. if she were singled out for special office, i believe she'd grow insufferable. dorothy skipton, with all her faults, would be preferable to vivien."
"and dorothy has faults—very big ones too!" sighed miss kingsley. "i never can consider dorothy to be absolutely straight and square. i've several times caught her cheating or copying, and she's not above telling a fib if she's in a tight place. she's clever, undoubtedly, and decidedly popular, and in that lies the greatest danger, for a popular head girl whose moral attitude is not of the very highest might ruin the tone of the school in a single term. i'm afraid dorothy is too risky an experiment."
"then that leaves only lorraine forrester?"
"yes—lorraine."
both the sisters paused, with the same look of puzzled doubt on their faces.
"she's a child i never seem to have got to know thoroughly," said miss janet. "i must say i've always found her perfectly square and a plodding worker. she has given very little trouble in class."
"not so brilliant, perhaps, as vivien, but, on the whole, more satisfactory," commented miss kingsley. "i agree with you that we have never really got to know lorraine. she's a very reserved girl, and hasn't pushed herself forward, but there's [13]great strength of character in her, in my opinion. those big brown eyes look in earnest over anything she's doing. she's never made a bid for popularity, like dorothy skipton, but i've seen her coaching the younger ones at hockey and cricket. she's inclined to go about in a dream, but i believe if she were placed in a post of authority she'd wake up. i really think we could depend on lorraine. the first quality in a head girl is that she must be conscientious, and she certainly comes out top in that respect."
"if it were put to the general vote——" began miss janet, but her sister snapped her up.
"i don't believe in allowing the girls a choice! the popular idol of the school isn't always the one with the best influence. i've quite decided, janet! lorraine is far and away the most suitable among the new sixth. i shall send for her the day before term opens and have a private talk with her. unless i'm very much mistaken in the girl, we shan't be disappointed."
"i believe you are right!" agreed miss janet, sinking into the easy-chair and resuming her rocking, without further remonstrance from her now satisfied sister.
miss kingsley and miss janet had kept school together at the gables for the last twelve years. it was not a very large school, but then porthkeverne was not a very large place—only a little quaint, old-fashioned seaside town, built down the sloping cliffs of a cornish cove, with its back to the heather-clad moors and its face to the broad [14]atlantic. whether you appreciated porthkeverne or not was entirely a matter of temperament. strangers, whose pleasure in a summer holiday depended on pier, esplanade, band, and cheap amusements, found it insufferably dull, and left for the more flaring gaieties of st. jude's or trewenlock head. porthkeverne was glad to get rid of them; it did not cater for such as these. but there were others for whom the little town had a peculiar fascination; its quaint, irregular houses and grey roofs, its narrow streets of steep steps, its archways with glimpses of the sea, its picturesque harbour and red-sailed fishing-boats, its exotic shrubs and early flowers, its yellow sands and great pinnacled crags, the softness of the west wind and the perpetual dull roll of the atlantic breakers cast a spell over certain natures and compelled them to remain. visitors would return to it again and again, and some of them, who were free to live where they chose, would take houses and settle down as residents. over literary and artistic people porthkeverne seemed to exercise a special charm. authors and artists had collected there, and, partly attracted by the place and partly by each other's society, had formed an intellectual colony that centred round the arts club in the old guildhall down by the harbour.
marine painters, and those who sought to immortalize peasant life on their canvases, found ample subjects among the crags and coves and sea-weed-covered rocks where the blue water lapped softly, or the white waves came foaming [15]and churning up; and the fisher-folk, bronzed, blue-eyed, and straight of limb, were models to set the heart of a millet or a wilkie on the thrill. to authors the quiet place, with its miles of moorland lying inland from the cliffs, was a ripe field for literary work. novelists worked out their plots undisturbed by the hooting of motor horns or the whizzing of tram-cars; scientific men, who had spent years of study over the treasures of the british museum or kew, came there to sort out their materials for books of reference, and to have leisure for making certain experiments; writers of travels reviewed their notes, and archaeologists scheduled the antiquities of the neighbourhood. to this literary and artistic brotherhood porthkeverne offered the calm of the country combined with the mental stimulus of intellectual comradeship, and though, in the inevitable march of events, its individual members often changed, the colony remained and flourished, and sent forth work of a character that was of value to the world of art and letters.
miss kingsley and her sister, miss janet, themselves women of strong literary tastes, had come to the town with the rising tide of the arts settlement, and had established their school chiefly to meet the needs of the new colony. most of their pupils were the children of painters and authors, though a few of the gentry and professional men of the district also took advantage of such a good local opportunity to educate their daughters. the gables was a pleasant old-fashioned white house, standing [16]on a narrow terrace of the cliff, with a high rock behind to screen it from the wind, and a view of grey roof-tops leading down to a peep of the harbour. in the sheltered garden grew, according to their season, white arum lilies and rosy tamarisk, aloes and myrtle and oleander and other beautiful half-tropical shrubs, while geraniums, carnations and humbler flowers bloomed in profusion. there was a veranda covered with a wistaria, and most of the class-room windows were framed with sweet-smelling creepers. long afterwards, when the pupils looked back to their time at the gables, they would always connect certain lessons with the strong scent of honeysuckle, or the faint odour of tea roses, for the flowers seemed just as much a part of the general culture of the school as were the botticelli pictures on the library walls, or the weekly recitals of modern music.
this garden, miss kingsley's fetish and the joy of miss janet's heart, was blooming its best on the particular september afternoon when the autumn term began. soon after two o'clock its green lawn and shady paths began to fill up with girls. they came at first in twos and threes, and then in larger numbers till the place seemed full of them. there were only about forty altogether, but it was seven weeks since most of them had met one another, and the babel of tongues that ensued would have suggested a hundred children at the least. six long-legged juniors occupied the garden-seat, with as many more hanging over the back; a dozen of the smaller fry squatted on the grass, some [17]frivolous intermediates cackled over jokes in the corner by the bay tree, and a few enterprising spirits had mounted the wall to watch for new-comers.
"here's aileen!"
"and grace!"
"with her little sister!"
"and effie after all, though she wasn't sure she'd be back in time!"
"good old effie! i'm glad she's come!"
"where's marcia, by the by?"
"gone to the high school at st. jude's."
"poor wretch, i'm sorry for her! what a traipse to go by train every morning! why, here's doreen, and she's cut her hair short! oh, i say! doreen, old sport, i hardly knew you! what a kid you look!"
doreen shook back her shock of crisp brown hair, conscious of the pleasing fact that it curled at the ends.
"kid, indeed!" she replied, with an indignant thrill in her voice. "i was thirteen last week!"
"shouldn't have thought it," twittered enid. "i was just going to suggest a pair of socks and ankle-band shoes. there's a new teacher for the kindergarten, if that interests you. there, don't get raggy! perhaps you'll find yourself in the sixth after all!"
"no, thank you! i've no yearnings to be in the oxford room. i suppose we shall all be going up a form, though? who are the monitresses this year? have you heard?"
enid slipped down from her post on the wall, [18]and locking her arm in doreen's strolled with her towards the house.
"not a word," she replied. "until the great panjandrum reads out the lists we're utterly and entirely in the dark. of course, most of those who were in the fifth last year will have gone up into the sixth, except, perhaps, beryl woodhouse and moira stanning, but i've been talking it over with vera and pansy, and they both agree it's an absolute toss-up who's to be head girl."
"why, how extraordinary! i should have said there wasn't any doubt about it. there's only one girl who's in the least likely."
"which one?"
"vivien, of course!"
enid pulled an eloquent face.
"it's not 'of course'. i, for one, heartily hope she won't get it. vivien forrester, as she is, is quite bad enough, but vivien forrester as head of the school would be the absolute limit."
"she'll be chosen all the same, you'll see. there really isn't anybody else. when lily anderson left last term, she certainly thought vivien was going to be her successor. she showed her how to keep all the books of the clubs and guilds, so that she could slide into the work easily. and vivien's such a sport at hockey, too!"
"um! i don't know. she has such a jolly good opinion of her own cleverness, but the question is whether miss kingsley exactly shares it or not. hello! hold me up! here comes the duchess herself, as large as life!"
[19]the girl who advanced briskly from the rhododendron walk would have been good looking, but she was spoilt by a rather rabbity mouth and large teeth. her complexion was clear, her brown eyes were bright, and her auburn hair was abundant. she held herself with the confidence of one who has so far found life an unqualified success. in her wake followed a little train of courtiers: sybil snow, nellie appleby, mona parker, phœbe gibson, and adelaide brookfield, all eager sycophants craving her favour, and doing their utmost to ingratiate themselves.
"i tell you i can't promise anything!" vivien was saying. "naturally the head of the school has the power to appoint any secretaries she likes, but it'll be time enough to decide these things afterwards. i wish you wouldn't bother me so! there'll be a proper committee meeting on friday to arrange the societies, and you must just wait till then."
"but if anybody speaks to you about it in the meantime, you'll remember it's the dramatic i'm keenest on?" urged phœbe plaintively.
"i tell you again, i can't promise—but—well, i'll do my best for you, at any rate."
"what's this about the dramatic?" broke in dorothy skipton, who, arm in arm with patsie sullivan, had joined the group. "do you mean to say you're arranging the societies beforehand? really, vivien forrester, of all cool cheek i call this the very limit! who said you were going to be head girl, i should like to know?"
[20]two red spots flared into vivien's cheeks.
"nobody said so!" she retorted. "certainly i didn't, though i dare say i've as good a chance as anybody else. i don't see why you need catch me up like this."
"little bit tall to be promising posts till you're certain you're top dog!" laughed patsie. "old dorothy may be the lucker instead of you. me? rather not! i can hardly flatter myself after my career last term that i'd be chosen as pattern pupil and pitchforked into the post of honour to set a good example to the rest of the school. do i look the part, now?"
the others, surveying patsie's humorous face and twinkling grey eyes, broke into a universal chuckle.
"well, it's hardly your line, exactly!" admitted vivien. "why, if you confiscated surreptitious sweets from the kids, you'd probably eat them before their indignant faces, and give them a tip on how to hide them more carefully in future. i know you!"
"joking apart, though," said dorothy, "i suppose somebody'll be made head of this school. hasn't any one got the least inkling or hint? lorraine! lorraine forrester, come here! we're talking about who's to be head girl. it's a burning question, isn't it? do you know anything?"
the schoolmate addressed as lorraine closed with a slam the book she was reading, and advanced somewhat unwillingly. she was a slim, pretty girl of sixteen, with the general effect of an [21]autumn woodland. everything about her seemed golden brown; her hazel eyes, her creamy complexion, the sunny glint in her rich, dark hair were emphasized by the brown dress she was wearing and the orange carnations pinned in her belt. at the first glance there was a certain likeness to vivien, for the girls were cousins, yet everything about lorraine seemed of a slightly superior quality, as if she had been turned out of a finer mould. she flushed as she evaded dorothy's question.
"i suppose we shall all know when miss kingsley tells us," she answered.
"we'd be duffers if we didn't!" mocked patsie. "in my opinion dorothy'll have an uncommonly good innings, and i'm getting ready to congratulate her."
"no, no! it'll be vivien!" declared mona.
"yes, vivien!" agreed sybil and phœbe together.
but at that moment the loud clanging of the bell put a stop to the conversation, and the girls turned in a body, and hurried into the house.
