LIVELINESS IN BLUE DORM
Tea was over--a tea which seemed a babel to Joey's unaccustomed
ears, although Cousin Greta would probably have laughed at the term
"unaccustomed," considering the noise that the five Grahams could make
among themselves.
But Cousin Greta would never have guessed what a great school could do
at the first meal, with discipline relaxed and everybody trying to tell
special friends how they had spent the holidays.
Joey sat under the wing of a very young mistress, who wore a great
bunch of violets in her belt, and was addressed as "Miss Lambton." She
saw to it that Joey had plenty of bread and jam and cake, and addressed
two or three good-natured questions to her; but it wasn't in the nature
of things that the new girl shouldn't feel rather out of it, when all
near neighbours wanted to tell Miss Lambton where they had been and
what they had done, and she had to interrupt her adorers in order to
speak to Joey. Gabrielle had been swamped directly they came into
the huge refectory by two vehement people, with a tiny silver shield
fastened to their djibbahs, who assured her vociferously that she had
promised to sit between them for the first tea last term.
However, she remembered the new girl directly tea was over, and made
her way to Joey's side, when the girls rose from table.
"Will you come to your dorm now?"
"I've got to go and say something to the Professor in Lab," Joey said
doubtfully, not being at all sure that when she reached Blue Dorm she
wouldn't be expected to stay there interviewing Matron, or something of
that kind.
"Oh, come on, Gabrielle, if the new kid doesn't _want_ to be shown her
dormitory, don't fag over her," urged two or three impatient voices;
but Gabrielle stood her ground.
"I quite forgot. Ingrid Latimer--she's Senior Prefect--of course, you
don't know her yet--sent me a message for you. She said the Lab was all
right, and she had seen Monsieur Trouville. I don't know what it means,
but perhaps you do."
"Yes, I know," Joey answered shortly. It had been kind of the Senior
Prefect to face the furious Professor for her, and Gabrielle seemed
kind and friendly, too; but you couldn't tell about these girls. They
despised her because of Calgarloch school, and she never knew when they
would have set her on about something else. She didn't feel inclined to
be effusive.
Gabrielle shook off her admirers and conducted Joey up many stairs and
along many passages in silence. Only when she had opened the door of
a large, light, airy room, with blue-washed walls and blue quilts to
the four beds and blue curtains to the windows, did she find her voice
again.
"This is Blue Dorm, Jocelyn. I'm sure you'll like it. Isn't it a
topping view? Look how well you can see the Fossdyke Wash--and that's
the Walpole Fen, all down on the right--it's reclaimed, you know--and
do you see that tower?"
"Yes; I saw it coming along. What is it?" asked Joey, coming a little
more out of her shell.
Gabrielle sunk her voice to an impressive whisper. "It's haunted--it is
really, Jocelyn. Of course Miss Conyngham and the sensible people would
say nonsense; but we've heard awfully queer sounds sometimes, and once
I saw some blue light with my own eyes, when Doron Westerby--another
four had this dorm last term--had toothache in the night, and called
me. You know a man was murdered there; ages back, it was. His enemy
tied him up in an underground room of the tower, and then blew out a
bit of the sea-wall at one of the great autumn tides."
Joey gasped. "How beastly. Are his mouldering bones there now?"
"I think they're cleared up," Gabrielle said regretfully. "You look for
the light, Jocelyn--you'll have a topping chance. I wonder which bed
you'll have--three have windows, you see; it's only in that fourth one
by the door you can't see anything, and I don't think it's fixed yet
who sleeps there."
As if in answer to her words, there was a stampede outside, and the
three other owners of Blue Dorm rushed headlong in. Each carried
something in her hand--a book, a comb, a handkerchief. With one consent
they rushed upon the three window beds, and hurling the article upon
it, shouted breathlessly, "Bags I this!"
Gabrielle got rather red. She walked up to Syb and spoke in a low
voice. Joey caught the words "a new girl" and "playing up." But
whatever her appeal might be, it hadn't much effect. Joey marched over
to the bed by the door.
"This is mine, then," she said.
Matron came in a minute later, in her usual hurry, demanding keys and
everyone's attention instantly. Gabrielle was dispatched to the big
basement room downstairs to help in the unpacking and putting away
of her things; and Joey found she was expected to do the same, after
Matron had shown her exactly where and how her things should go, and
explained that there was a dormitory inspection, inside and out, of
drawers and cupboards every Saturday of term.
Joey ran upstairs with armfuls of clothes, and downstairs to get more
for a long time after that; but at last everything was put away, and
Matron, weary and a trifle dishevelled, made a tour of inspection
before going to see the babies into bed.
The four in Blue Dorm were left to arrange their photographs and
private belongings before changing into their white frocks for supper.
Joey got to work on her shelf and combined chest of drawers and
dressing-table silently and unsociably. The others had a great deal to
say to each other, and took no notice of her for some little time. Then
Sybil, who had finished, came strolling up to the corner by the door,
and cast a glance over Joey's photographs.
"I say, what an awfully good-looking boy," she said, picking up the
photo of Gavin, taken for Mums out of the tip Uncle Staff sent him when
he won the scholarship. "Who's he--your brother?"
The devil entered into Joey. "No; that's the flesher's boy in
Calgarloch, a great pal of mine," she stated easily, arranging Mums
side by side with Father in uniform.
Syb stared. Joey went on. "The kid in socks is the gravedigger's
youngest--he's called Bingo; and these two, Ronnie and Kirsty, belong
to the odd-and-end shop at Crumach."
With which appalling size in thumpers, Joey turned her back upon the
girls, and went on arranging her photographs. Syb left her in a hurry;
the others whispered together. Joey finished her corner, and got out
her evening frock.
"Having us on?" asked Noreen, with a doubtful note of appreciation.
Joey slipped her frock over her head. "Find out," she suggested.
That made a pause, and everybody put on their evening dresses in
silence. Barbara broke it while hair was being brushed.
"I suppose Gabrielle told you that this dorm tubs at night," she
observed unwillingly. "You had better not be late coming up, because
the water gets cold so quickly."
"But of course you'd bath last because of being new," Syb joined in,
rather truculently.
Joey made no answer; she was considering. "Where is the bathroom?" she
asked.
"Right opposite. Blue Dorm uses No. 8," Barbara vouchsafed.
"Thank you," Joey answered, with extraordinary meekness, a meekness
that was almost overdone. These horrid swanky girls had forced her to
accept the worst corner of the room, but it was certainly nearest the
door, and Joey was quite clear in her own mind which of the Blue Dorm
occupants was going to have first tub to-night.
They went down to supper after that; the three together, and Joey
behind. There was a very nice supper laid in the huge refectory; but
Joey was home-sick for the little sitting-room at Calgarloch and the
brandered herrings and the brown bread, and Robina, the lass, bringing
in the pudding, and joining freely in the conversation if she felt
inclined.
Joey sat between two rather big girls, and they only spoke once to her
to ask her name and age, and then talked hockey across her for the rest
of the meal. Not that Joey cared; she assured herself that she didn't
want to be friends with these girls.
There was dancing after supper in the Queen's Hall, but Joey looked
on. Dancing wasn't taught at Calgarloch, and she refused decidedly
when Gabrielle came and asked for a valse. And then at nine there were
prayers, and the whole of the Upper School, with Remove II. A and B of
the Lower, filed past Miss Conyngham and said good-night. The Juniors
had been swept off a good deal earlier.
Joey was really glad when bedtime came. She was longing to get a bit
of her own back. Noreen and Co. had taken her in, and made an utter
fool of her over the tidying of the Lab and the putting on of the
Head Girl's boots; but Joey wasn't going to sit down meekly under
the treatment. She managed to plant herself just in front of Sybil,
Barbara, and Noreen in the long procession; and before she went
downstairs she had put out her towel, sponges, etc., where she could
snatch them easily. The procession moved on; and she moved with it.
She could hear Miss Conyngham's clear, mellow voice, "Good-night,
Jacynth. Good-night, Mary. Good-night, Doron--oh, what about that
tooth? Has it given you more trouble?"
Block number one. Joey heard Syb's grumble behind. "Bother Doron's
toothache--the water will be cold."
Doron's toothache was much better, thank you; yes, the stuff had done
it a lot of good; she wouldn't want any more, she thought. "Thank you,
Miss Conyngham."
Doron Westerby moved on; so did the procession.
"Good-night, Sylvia. Good-night, Trixie. Good-night, Cecily.
Good-night, Kathleen--any more news from home, dear?"
Block number two. Joey wondered if Syb's exaggerated groan would be
heard by Miss Conyngham; they were so near her now.
Yes, Kathleen had heard from home, and Frankie was better. His
temperature had gone down three degrees, thank you, Miss Conyngham.
Kathleen was disposed of. "Good-night, Thelma. Good-night, Winifred.
Good-night--oh, it's you, Jocelyn? Settled your things comfortably into
the Blue Dormitory?"
"Yes, thank you, Miss Conyngham."
"That's right. Sleep well. Good-night, Jocelyn."
The procession moved on. Joey was out of the Queen's Hall and on
the stairs. Up them three steps at a time--the long legs at which
Calgarloch stared amazed were certainly of use now. Behind her she
heard Syb and Barbara disputing whose turn it was to have first bath.
As the turn had to be remembered across the width of the holidays that
was a difficult matter to decide. Joey chuckled inwardly; they really
needn't worry themselves to remember. She plunged at the door of Blue
Dorm and grabbed her things, including pyjamas and dressing-gown. Too
late; the other three saw what she meant to do.
"Here, you are last for the bathroom," Syb shouted.
Joey dived across the passage and flung herself and her belongings into
Bathroom 8. "I don't think!" she said succinctly, as she slammed the
bolt home.
Joey enjoyed her bath. She took as much hot water as she wanted, and
didn't come out, whatever the bangings and objurgations outside the
door, till she had been in the bath as long as she wished. Then at last
she emerged, to face a furious trio waiting for her in Blue Dorm.
Joey plumped down her armful of belongings on her bed. "I should
hurry," she advised politely. "The tap was beginning to run cooler
before I left."
Syb bolted to the bathroom; the other two turned their backs studiously
upon the aggressor, and talked ostentatiously to one another. Joey
curled up on her bed, did her hair in three bangs, and then wrote up
her diary for the first day at Redlands.
"Redlands is a hole, and the girls are pigs. I hate them all, except
p'r'aps Gabrielle. They think it a fair disgrace to have been at a
council school, and say beastly things. I wish I was seventeen this
minute, and coming away: I'll never get a bit of paper big enough to
cross off all the hateful horrid days I've got to stay here. I have
settled never to say a single word to any of these hateful horrid
swanky girls, except, p'r'aps Gabrielle, as long as I live."
The letter to Mums, which was also written while the other three bathed
in tepid water with much bitterness of spirit, expressed a rather
different view.
"It's frightfully pretty here," Joey wrote, "and the Wash lies on
the edge of what you see--all glittering--and the river is mixed
up with it, and the Deeps are like another sea, only green grass.
The College is awfully nice, and some of it is very ancient and
historical. I'll tell you the history bits when I've mugged them up.
I'm in Blue Dorm, and that's the nicest Dorm. I have the bed nearest
the door, and that's frightfully handy for getting first bath. My
room-companions are Sybil, Barbara, and Noreen O'Hara. They were
very interested in my photographs. I'm going to have a topping time
here, I can see, and I should think I'm in the liveliest dorm that
ever was.--Your loving
"JOEY."
"P.S.--You might write soon; I'm frightfully happy here, still you
might write."
A bell rang just as Joey had finished her letter, and a stentorian
voice in the passage cried, "Silence for prayers."
Noreen O'Hara rushed from the bathroom, after a tub lasting a short
two minutes, and hurled herself upon her knees among her sponges
and bath-towel. A minute later a Prefect looked in, and withdrew
noiselessly.
There was absolute quiet for some seven or eight minutes, and then a
little murmur arose again.
Joey had dropped her writing-things and said her prayers like the rest.
She wondered if she ought to feel ashamed of her behaviour with the
bath; the sad thing was that she didn't, particularly. And if she said
she was sorry now, the furious three would think she was afraid of what
they might do to her. Joey decided to stick it out, but have a shorter
and a cooler bath to-morrow.
Another bell rang. Noreen and Syb were already in bed; Barbara jumped
up at the bell, and Joey more slowly followed her example. The Prefect
looked in again.
"All in bed--that's right." She turned to put out the light.
"Good-night."
"Good-night, Ingrid," said the injured three in a burst. "Good-night,"
said Joey pointedly by herself when the others had finished.
Ingrid Latimer looked in her direction. "Why, it's the new kid."
She came across to Joey's bed. "Got my message, young 'un?"
"Yes, thanks awfully."
"That's all right. He won't think any more of it. You come to me, if
anybody tries on that sort of game again. You'll always find some
fat-headed idiots in Coll who think it funny. Good-night."
"Good-night, and thanks no end."
Ingrid turned the light out. Blue Dorm was left in outward peace. It
was outward only!