7 gwendoline arrives

gwendoline came back just before tea, by car. the news flew round. “dear gwendoline mary’s back! come and see the fond farewells!”

gwen’s farewells were a standing joke at malory towers. there were always tears and fond embracings, and injunctions to write soon, that went on for ages between her and her mother and her old governess, miss winter, who lived with them.

faces lined the windows overlooking the drive. gwendoline got out of the car. her mother and miss winter got out, too. her father, who was driving, made no move. he had got very tired of gwendoline in the holidays.

“out come the hankies!” said alicia, and out came gwen’s and her mother’s and miss winter’s. and dear me, out came the hankies of all the wicked watchers at the windows above!

“now we pat our eyes!” went on alicia, and sure enough the eye-patting went on down below—and above too, as everyone sniffed and wiped their eyes.

irene, of course, gave the show away with one of her explosions. the four below looked up in surprise and saw the watching girls, all with hankies to their eyes.

mr. lacy roared. he held on to the wheel and laughed loudly. “they’re putting up as good a show for you, gwen, as you’re putting up for them!” he cried. the girls at the window disappeared as soon as they saw that they had been seen. they felt a little uncomfortable. mrs. lacy might complain of their bad manners now! it would be just like her.

“mother, get back into the car,” said gwendoline exasperated. she hadn’t known she was being watched at all. she did so love these little farewell scenes—and now this one was spoilt! her mother and miss winter were almost hustled back, without another tear or hug.

“i don’t like that behaviour, gwendoline,” said mrs. lacy, offended at the conduct of the girls. “i’ve a good mind to write to miss grayling.”

“oh no, mother!” said gwendoline, in alarm. she never liked being brought to miss grayling’s notice at all. miss grayling had said some very horrid things to her at times!

“it’s all right, gwen. i shan’t let her,” said her father, dryly. “for goodness’ sake, say good-bye now, and go in. and mind—if i hear any nonsense about you this term you’ll have me to reckon with, not your mother. you were bad and foolish last term, and you suffered for it. you will suffer for it again, if i hear bad reports of you. on the other hand, no one will be more pleased than i shall to have a good report of you. and i’ve no doubt i shall.”

“yes, daddy,” said gwendoline, meekly.

“how unkind you are just as we’re leaving gwen,” said mrs. lacy, dabbing her eyes again. “good-bye, darling. i shall miss you so!”

gwendoline took a desperate look up at the windows. gracious, was mother going to begin all over again?

“good-bye,” she said, curtly, and shut the car door. immediately her father put in the clutch and the car moved off. without even turning to wave gwen marched up the steps with her lacrosse stick and night-case. her trunk had been sent on in advance.

maureen had not seen the fond farewells. she did not see gwen till tea-time. gwen took her case up to the dormy and was thankful to find it empty. she looked at herself in the glass. she wasn’t fat any more—well, not very, she decided. all those hateful walks had taken away her weight. and now she had to face a term with heaps of games and walks—but thank goodness, no swimming!

the tea-bell went. gwen quickly brushed her fluffy golden hair, so like maureen’s, washed her hands, pulled her tie straight, and went downstairs.

she walked into the dining-room with the last few girls. she caught sight of her form at the fifth-form table. they waved to her.

“hallo! here’s dear gwendoline mary again!”

“had good hols?”

“you went to france, didn’t you? lucky thing.”

“you’re a day late—you missed a lot already!”

“said good-bye to your people?”

gwendoline felt pleased to be back. of course, it was nice to be at home with her mother and miss winter and be waited on hand and foot, and be fussed over—but it was fun at school. she made up her mind to be sensible and join in everything this term. so she smiled round very amiably.

“hallo, everyone! it’s nice to be back. you’ll have to tell me all the news. i only got back from france yesterday.”

“ah—la belle france!” put in mam’zelle. “we must have some chest-to-chest talks about la belle france.”

gwen looked surprised. “oh—you mean heart-to-heart talks, mam’zelle. yes, that would be lovely.”

“gwendoline, there’s a new girl,” said alicia, in a suspiciously smooth voice. “let me introduce her—you’ll like her. this is maureen. and this is gwendoline mary. a bit alike to look at, aren’t they, mam’zelle?”

“c’est vrai!” agreed mam’zelle. “yes, it is true. both so golden—and with big blue eyes. ah yes, it is a true english beauty, that!”

this gratified both gwen and maureen immensely, and made them look with great interest at each other. they shook hands and smiled.

“i’ve kept a place for you,” said maureen, shyly, making her eyes big as she looked at gwen. gwen sat down and looked to see what there was for tea. she was hungry after her long car-ride.

“have some of my honey,” said maureen, eagerly. “we keep bees, you know—and we always have such a lot of honey. we have hens, too. so we have plenty of eggs. i brought some back with me. i hope you’ll share them with me.”

gwendoline rather liked all this. dear me, she must have made quite an impression on the new girl, although she had only just arrived!

“the others have been telling me about you,” gushed maureen. “how popular you seem to be!”

this didn’t ring quite true, somehow, to gwendoline. she hadn’t known she was as popular as all that. in fact, though she didn’t admit it frankly to herself, she knew quite well she was probably the least popular of all the girls in the form!

maureen chattered away merrily, and gwen listened, not so much because she wanted to, as because she was so busy tucking in. at this rate, thought the amused alicia, gwendoline would put on more fat than games and gym and walks would take off!

“you’ll be pleased to hear we haven’t got to work quite so hard this term, gwen,” she told her. “more time for games and gym. you’ll like that.”

gwendoline gave alicia one of her looks, as she called them. alas, they never impressed alicia. it wasn’t safe to argue with alicia, or contradict, or try to say something cutting. alicia was always ten times as quick at answering back and a hundred times as cutting as anyone else.

“we’ll have the committee meeting at half-past five,” announced moira. “that seems to be the best time. you’ll be coming, gwendoline, won’t you—have you heard about the christmas entertainment committee yet?”

gwendoline hadn’t so she was duly enlightened. she was pleased. she saw herself at once in one of the chief parts of whatever play or pantomime was chosen. she would loosen her sheet of golden hair—what a pity it wasn’t curly. she would look lovely, she knew she would!

exactly the same thoughts were going through maureen’s mind. she too would like one of the chief parts—and she too would play it with her golden hair loose. she felt she would like to confide her thoughts to gwendoline.

“when i was at mazeley manor,” she began. belinda interrupted at once.

“oh yes—have you told gwen about measley manor?”

maureen frowned. “you know it’s mazeley,” she said, with dignity. “mam’zelle just didn’t know how to pronounce it, that’s all, when she said it.”

mam’zelle caught her name mentioned. she turned, with her wide smile. “ah—you want to talk about measley manor again, your dear old school, n’est ce pas? you have not yet told gwendoline about measley manor?”

maureen saw the girls grinning and gave it up. she went on talking to gwen, who was astonished at all this by-play which she didn’t, of course, understand.

“at my old school we did a pantomime,” said maureen. “it was the ‘sleeping beauty’. i had to have my hair loose, of course. you have to have someone with golden hair for those parts, don’t you?”

gwen agreed heartily. she was very proud of her golden hair, and only wished she was allowed to wear it loose round her face at school, as she did at home.

“the prince was grand,” went on maureen. “i really must tell you all about the play. you’re so interested in plays, aren’t you? well . . .”

and till long past tea-time maureen went on and on interminably with her long and boring tale of what happened in the play at her last school. gwendoline couldn’t stop her or get rid of her. maureen was just as thick-skinned and slow at taking a hint as she was!

“gwen’s met her match at last,” said darrell to sally. “i say, look at bill—and clarissa, too—all dressed up in riding things. don’t they know the committee meeting’s in about ten minutes?”

sally called to them. “hey, you two! where do you think you’re going?”

“to have a look at thunder and merrylegs,” said bill.

“but didn’t you know there’s a committee meeting on almost at once?” said darrell, exasperated.

“no. nobody told us,” said clarissa, looking startled. “it wasn’t up on the notice-board.”

“well, we’ve been talking about it ever since this morning, and except for maureen and gwen, who discussed golden-haired beauties in plays, we’ve talked about nothing else all tea-time,” said darrell. “where are your ears? didn’t you hear a word of it?”

“not a word,” said bill, seriously. “i’m so sorry. of course we’ll come. have we time just to go and see thunder and merrylegs first? we must have been talking about something else, clarissa and i, and not heard the rest of you.”

“you were whinnying away to each other,” said sally. “i suppose you’ve got horses on the brain again. no, don’t go down to the stables now—you certainly won’t be back till the end of the committee if you do. i know you two when you disappear into the stables. you’re gone for ever!”

clarissa and bill walked off to the fifth-form common-room with a good grace. perhaps there would be time afterwards to go to the stables.

“come on,” said sally to darrell. “let’s go and round up all the others. i’m longing for this committee.”