5
Towards the end of the holidays Flip persuaded Paul to stop off at the
school chalet one day when they were skiing at Gstaad. She felt that
perhaps it wasn't very nice of her to want to show Paul off, but she
couldn't help wanting it.
"The really nicest ones went home for the holiday which is too bad,"
Flip told him. "Gloria's all right. Oh, and I think Maggie and Liz
Campbell stayed and they're awfully nice. Maggie's in my class and
she's always been polite and everything, not like some of the others,
and Liz is two classes above. Jackie and Erna and Solvei are the one's
you'll like best, though. You'll have to meet them when they come back."
"Erna's German, isn't she?" Paul asked.
"Yes," Flip answered quickly, "but Jackie Bernstein's father was in a
German prison near Paris for six months until he escaped and Erna is
Jackie's best friend. And you'll like Erna anyhow because she's going
to be a doctor, too."
"Well--" Paul said, "let's get this business at Gstaad over with before
we worry about anything else. The important thing is for you to get
used to the snow conditions at Gstaad before the ski meet."
The trip to Gstaad went off very well. Flip was so preoccupied with
putting Paul at ease that she forgot to be shy and awkward herself and
astounded the girls by making jokes and keeping up a rapid stream of
talk at the dinner table. And she and Paul kept having to remember that
they mustn't talk about skiing, or let on that they weren't returning
by train but had left their skis at the Gstaad station.
On the last night of the holidays Madame Perceval came up to say
good-night to them, and sat beside Paul on the foot of Flip's bed.
"It's good-night and good-bye, my children," she said. "I leave on the
five thirty-two, tomorrow morning, and Georges will take me to the
train and be back before you're awake."
"Couldn't we see you off?" Flip begged.
"No, dear. I don't like leave-takings. And in any case it's best for
you to be fresh and have had a good night's rest before you go back
to school. Work hard on the skiing; Paul will help you on week-ends,
though you don't need much help any more, and I expect to hear great
things of that ski meet. So don't disappoint me. I know you won't."
"I'll try not to, Madame," Flip promised; and she knew that both she
and Madame Perceval meant more than just the skiing and the ski meet.
"Paul," Madame said, "take care of your father and take care of Flip.
I'll keep in touch with you both and maybe we can all meet during the
spring holidays. Good-night, my children. God bless you." And she bent
down and kissed them good-night and good-bye.
6
After the Christmas holidays, the exciting and wonderful holidays,
there seemed to be a great difference in Flip and her feeling towards
the school. As she ran up the marble staircase she no longer felt new
and strange. She realized with a little shock that she was now an
"old girl." Almost every face she saw was familiar and the few new
ones belonged to new girls who had replaced her as the lonely and the
strange one. She stopped at the desk where Miss Tulip was presiding as
she had on the day when Flip first came to the school with her father
and Eunice. Miss Tulip checked her name in the big register and handed
her a letter. It was from her father.
"Oh, thanks, Miss Tulip," she cried, and slit it open.
"My darling Flippet," she read, "I told you not to worry if you didn't
hear from me for a week or so while I was traveling. I did get you
off that one post card while I was in Paris having twenty-four hours
of gayety with Eunice and now I am in Freiburg in Germany and will be
traveling about for a month or so around here and across the border in
Switzerland. It seems a shame that I will be so close to you and not be
able to come to you at once, but I missed so much time while I was in
the hospital with that devilish jaundice that I must work double time
now to try to make up. However, I _think_ I may be able to manage to be
with you for your ski meet. I shall try very hard to make it. I want
to see you ski (but darling don't worry if you don't win any prizes.
The fact that you have really learned to ski is more than enough) and
I want to see your Paul. I don't know where I shall be during your
Easter holidays but wherever it is I promise you that you will be there
too and we'll sandwich in plenty of fun between sketches. And don't
expect much in the way of correspondence from me for the next few
months, my dearest. You'll know that I am thinking of you and loving
you anyhow, but my work often makes me unhappy and tired and when I
stop at night I fall into bed and it is a great comfort to me to know
that you are warm and fed and well cared for and that you have learned
to have fun and be happy. I know that it was difficult and I am very
proud of my Flippet."
With the letter he enclosed several sketches and Flip thought that
Madame Perceval would have liked them--except the ones he had done of
his twenty-four hours in Paris with Eunice. Flip crumpled the Paris
sketches up but put the others carefully in the envelope with the
letter, slipped it in her blazer pocket and started up the marble
stairs just as a new group of girls came into the hall and started
registering with Miss Tulip.
On the landing she bumped into Signorina. "Have good holidays,
Philippa?" the Italian teacher asked her.
"Oh, yes, thank you, Signorina, wonderful! Did you?"
"Lovely. But it is good to get back to our clean Switzerland. So we
have lost our Madame Perceval. I shall miss her."
"Yes," Flip said, "Yes, Signorina."
Erna and Jackie came tearing up the stairs. "Hello, Signorina! Hello,
Flip!"
"Pill, mon choux, it's good to see you!" Jackie cried as Signorina went
on up the stairs. "When did you get here? Isn't it wonderful to be
back?"
"Flip, meine süsse!" Erna shouted.
Perhaps it was not wonderful, but neither was it terrible.
A group of them congregated in the corridor, since Miss Tulip was
downstairs and could not reprimand them. They all talked at once,
laughing, shouting, telling each other about the holidays. Gloria could
not wait to show them the black lace and silk pajamas Emile had sent
her for New Year, nor to tell them about Flip's visit to the school
chalet with Paul.
"You should _see_ Pill's boy friend," she shouted, "you should just
_see_ him!"
"That child? We saw him," Esmée said in a disinterested voice.
"Out the window the day the hols began? Don't be a dreep, Es. He's no
child. You're just jealous. Pill brought him to the chalet for lunch
and he's dreamy, positively dreamy, isn't he Sal?"
Sally grinned and nodded. "He really is. I never thought Pill had it in
her. She must have a whopper of a line after all."
"All I can say is hurrah for Flip," Maggie Campbell said. "I'd hate to
see Esmée get her claws into someone as nice as that."
Esmée turned angrily towards the laughing Maggie but Jackie broke in,
"I went to six plays and two operas. What did you do, Esmée?"
Esmée announced languidly, still with a baleful eye on Maggie, that she
had gone out dancing every night and worn a strapless evening gown.
"Strapless evening gown my foot," Jackie whispered inelegantly to Flip.
"She'd look gruesome in a strapless evening gown."
Solvei had spent the holidays skiing with her parents. "I bet _I_ could
teach you to ski, Flip," she said.
Oh, horrors, Flip thought. What shall I do if she really wants to try?
Later that evening Erna pulled Jackie and Flip out of the Common Room
and onto the icy balcony, whispering, "I have something to tell you but
it's a secret and you must promise never to tell a soul."
"Cross my heart and hope to die," Flip said, thrilled to be included in
a secret that Erna was sharing with Jackie.
"Jure et crâche," Jackie said, and spat over the balcony, imitating the
tough boys on the city streets.
Erna was satisfied. "Well, it's something I learned during the
holidays," she started. "Maybe you know it already, Flip. It's about
Madame Perceval."
Jackie grabbed Erna's arm. "Don't tell me it's the story of Percy's
past!" She almost shrieked.