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Loyal to the School
BLACKIE & SON LIMITED
50 Old Bailey, LONDON
17 Stanhope Street, GLASGOW
BLACKIE & SON (INDIA) LIMITED
Warwick House, Fort Street, BOMBAY
BLACKIE & SON (CANADA) LIMITED
1118 Bay Street, TORONTO
[Illustration: "IT'S WONDERFULLY GOOD" _Page 151_ _Frontispiece_]
Loyal to the School
BY
ANGELA BRAZIL
Author of "Monitress Merle"
"A Fortunate Term" "For the School Colours" &c.
_Illustrated by H. L. Bacon_
BLACKIE & SON LIMITED
LONDON AND GLASGOW
By Angela Brazil
My Own Schooldays.
Ruth of St. Ronan's.
Joan's Best Chum.
Captain Peggie.
Schoolgirl Kitty.
The School in the South.
Monitress Merle.
Loyal to the School.
A Fortunate Term.
A Popular Schoolgirl.
The Princess of the School.
A Harum-Scarum Schoolgirl.
The Head Girl at the Gables.
A Patriotic Schoolgirl.
For the School Colours.
The Madcap of the School.
The Luckiest Girl in the School.
The Jolliest Term on Record.
The Girls of St. Cyprian's.
The Youngest Girl in the Fifth.
The New Girl at St. Chad's.
For the Sake of the School.
The School by the Sea.
The Leader of the Lower School.
A Pair of Schoolgirls.
A Fourth Form Friendship.
The Manor House School.
The Nicest Girl in the School.
The Third Form at Miss Kaye's.
The Fortunes of Philippa.
_Printed in Great Britain by Blackie & Son, Ltd., Glasgow_
Contents
CHAP. Page
I. NEW LAMPS 9
II. THE OLDEST PUPIL 22
III. LOTUS BLOOMS 36
IV. AN UPHEAVAL 49
V. LESBIA BURNS HER BOATS 62
VI. LESBIA'S FUTURE 75
VII. THOSE JUNIORS 90
VIII. BEFORE THE CURTAIN 104
IX. GIRLS OF VA 117
X. PILGRIMS' INN CHAMBERS 127
XI. A HOLIDAY GOVERNESS 143
XII. THE BLESSED DAMOZEL 154
XIII. IN LUCK'S WAY 168
XIV. A COUNTRY COTTAGE 184
XV. THE STRIPLING 196
XVI. FRICTION 208
XVII. A HARD TERM 221
XVIII. AN ADVENTURE 237
XIX. ALACK! 248
XX. THE HIGHWAY WOMAN 263
XXI. LESBIA DECIDES 275
Illustrations
Facing Page
"IT'S WONDERFULLY GOOD" _Frontispiece_
KINDLY INTEREST 128
NOT A TRACE OF DERRICK 200
SHE SQUEEZED THROUGH THE FRAME WITHOUT MUCH DIFFICULTY 240
LOYAL TO THE SCHOOL
CHAPTER I
New Lamps
"The fault I find with the Kingfield High School," proclaimed Kathleen
Wilcox, squatting on the top of a boot locker, and putting on a new pair
of patent leather house shoes with a deliberate eye to their effect upon
her surrounding friends and foes, "the fault I find--yes, I _do_ find
fault and I _shall_, Lesbia Ferrars, though you _are_ the oldest pupil
and take the school under your wing! You needn't make round eyes at me
like that! I don't care twopence for your glares! Well, as I was
saying--and I _won't_ be interrupted--the fault I find with the
Kingfield High School is that it's not nearly go-ahead enough. If you
ask me I think it's dropping behind the times!"
"Dropping behind the times!" echoed Phillis Marsh in open-mouthed
amazement.
"How far do you want it to go?" retorted Lesbia Ferrars, metaphorically
picking up the glove and accepting combat. "It's as decent as any other
school and nicer than most. Some people never know when they're well
off! If you went to the King's College now you'd have twice the home
work. Perhaps that's what you're hankering after? They're go-ahead in
the matter of work, if you like, at King's!"
"No more home work for me thanks," put in Etta Pearson hurriedly.
"Kathleen may take my share of it and welcome if her tastes run that
way."
Kathleen leisurely put down two elegant feet from the locker, reviewed
them with a glance of conscious satisfaction, then, grasping mental
sword and buckler, condescended to explain herself.
"What a set of lunatics you are!" she said compassionately. "You're not
bright, any of you, or you'd have twigged my meaning at once. Of course
I don't want any more home work piled on our shoulders. I--of all
people--to suggest that! Great Scott! What I _do_ mean is that it's just
lessons, lessons, lessons, eternally lessons, and not enough outside
things. Some schools have all sorts of jolly clubs, and we've hardly a
single decent society except the G. G. I. S. And what's that good for?"
"Good for nothing!" snorted Calla Wilkins scornfully.
"Well, it's all there is anyhow, and though some people may like to sit
doing crochet while a teacher drones away reading an improving book,
it's not in my line. I call it dull."
"Dull as ditch-water!" agreed Etta Pearson, with unction.
"We got through a whole heap of bazaar work at the G. G. I. S. though,"
objected Lesbia, who, though half sympathizing, felt bound to stick to
her guns in the argument.
"I daresay we did! But even _you_ can't pretend you enjoyed that
rubbishy book Miss Yates used nearly to go to sleep over. I call it an
insult to our intellects to read us such absolute 'bread and milk'
twaddle!"
"I told Miss Yates we didn't like the book," admitted Lesbia.
"Yes, and she nearly snapped your head off and said you were always
grumbling," added Calla. "I remember how she jumped on you."
"Well, to go back to my point," continued Kathleen, "here we are on the
first day of a new school year. At any other school there'd have been
great times. The 'King's' girls meet in the big lecture hall and have
speeches and arrange all the clubs for the winter. That's what _I_ call
a 'coming back'. We don't come back, we only ooze back. We hang about on
the stairs till a teacher says 'Oh, my dear, you're moved into VB', or
whatever the form is. There ought to be a proper reading out of the
lists in the gym. Then each form would march to its own room and the
thing would be done decently and in order. We're utterly and absolutely
old-fashioned, and behind the times. That's what's the matter with the
Kingfield High School."
"Humph! Something the matter with your own eyes I should say!" sniffed
Aldora Dodson, who had just joined the group. "What about that notice
stuck up in the hall?"
"What notice?"
"What notice?" mimicked Aldora. "You don't mean to tell me you all
walked past it like blind bats, when it was there as large as life, and
actually staring you in the face! If you want to know what it's about go
and look at it! I can't waste my time telling you things you're too lazy
to read for yourselves."
Aldora's advice, though administered in an uncomplimentary fashion, was
sound. Without further parley the girls took it. They hurried from the
cloakroom and tore into the hall, to discover the truth for themselves.
Quite a crowd was collected round the notice board. It took a little
while to elbow their way through. When at last they reached vantage
spots, where by dint of craning their necks they could see between or
over the heads of those in front of them, their eyes encountered a
home-made poster, so large and conspicuous that it was certainly very
extraordinary that they should have passed it by unnoticed.
The school will assemble
in the
GYMNASIUM
at 2.30
when the new form lists
will be read, and various
new arrangements will be
explained.
M. Tatham.
"Hold me up! I'm fainting!" exclaimed Kathleen. "New? Did my eyes
deceive me or are we actually going to have something new? Wonders will
never cease."
"Good old Tatie!" purred Lesbia. "She's turning up trumps to-day."
"Don't congratulate yourself too soon, my child," admonished Calla, "you
don't know yet what the new arrangements are."
"Take me to the gym at once," commanded Kathleen tragically. "I must
have a front seat and know the best or worst. I'm simply palpitating
till I hear. Are we to study Sanscrit or start a Cosy Cafe to supply
refreshments at eleven? Tell me which, I beseech you. I can't wait."
"Come along, you mad thing," laughed Lesbia. "We're none of us any wiser
than you are. Miss Tatham has got a surprise packet to spring on all of
us, that's evident enough. Trust her to let nothing leak out
beforehand. She's an absolute Freemason for secrecy."
"Well, if it's Sanscrit, I leave the school, so I give everybody fair
warning," chirruped Kathleen, hanging heavily on to Lesbia's arm in an
affectation of flutter.
"And if it's a Cosy Cafe you'll spend all your pocket money there and
make yourself ill into the bargain. I know you! Look here, I'm going to
drop you! My arm's breaking. You must weigh ten stone if you weigh a
pound."
Though the girls laughed and joked as they walked along the glazed
covered passage, they sobered down and straightened their faces as they
entered the gymnasium. Benches and chairs were arranged here in rows,
and were already partly filled with pupils of all ages, from small
children in the preparatory forms to tall students of seventeen.
Teachers hovered about, restraining excessive conversation, and a few
monitresses were distributing books for the opening hymn. Miss Bates,
the music teacher, was beckoning to members of the singing-class to come
and sit near the piano and form an impromptu choir. Kathleen, somewhat
to her bewilderment, was thus pounced upon and borne off to a seat of
honour below the platform, where, separated from her own chums, she sat
with a rather martyred expression among stars of the Sixth noted for
their qualities of voice production. Her anxiety for change was
certainly being amply gratified, though she was still doubtful of the
extent of the proposed alterations.
The fact of the whole matter was that Miss Tatham, the head mistress,
had taken the opportunity during the holidays of attending an
educational conference, where she had come in contact with very modern
views and fresh schemes of school government. She had returned to
Kingfield bristling with ideas, and anxious to test many various
theories which had been aired at the meetings. She was a broad-minded
woman, and able to steer successfully between being a crank or faddist
on the one hand, or a "stick-in-the-mud" on the other. For some time she
had been conscious that the school needed rousing up, and now that she
had been shown the way she meant to use her opportunities.
She stepped on to the platform at 2.30 with the satisfactory feeling of
an architect who has completed a fresh design and has collected his
stores of building material.
A dead hush marked her entrance, and immediately all attention was
concentrated on her pale intellectual face and dark shining eyes. She
possessed sufficient magnetic personality, apart from her office of
principal, to rivet the interest of her three hundred girls. With other
mistresses they might fidget or even whisper, but during her speeches or
classes the bond between teacher and pupil was absolute.
She began very quietly by welcoming them back to school, spoke a few
special words to newcomers, and read out the lists of the various forms,
their teachers, and the names of visiting masters and mistresses for
extra classes. These preliminaries settled, she "got to business", as
Kathleen afterwards expressed it.
"I have been thinking lately," she said, "that we might with advantage
try a new plan at school. You come here to be educated. Now, that does
not mean simply to be crammed with facts, but to be taught the very best
and highest possible way of self development. Certain facts must, of
course, be mastered, and to learn them is a good discipline for training
the mind, but the main point to be aimed at in education is to teach you
a real love of intellectual things. I realize that tastes differ very
much, and that what is an absorbing study for one girl may lack all
interest for another. Life is not long enough to give time to
everything, and it is better to concentrate our attention on certain
things that appeal to our particular temperaments than to have a
smattering of many 'ologies. I have decided, therefore, to set aside two
afternoons in the week for what I may call 'self-expression'. There will
be certain activities offered you, and you will each be allowed to
choose which you wish to follow. I consider that two sides of our
natures which need very careful training are the emotional and the
mental. I am going to give an afternoon to each.
"By our emotional nature I mean that side of us which takes delight in
art, music, and the drama. It shows itself early in very little
children, who will often try to draw, sing, and act almost as soon as
they can talk. If properly cultivated it is a most important part of
self-expression. On one afternoon I am arranging to organize meetings in
various branches of art, music, and acting. These are to be quite
different and apart from your ordinary drawing or music lessons. You
will work at what you wish, and in your own way, though an expert
teacher will be there whom you can consult in any difficulty. I make one
stipulation--that you must each choose your own subject for the term,
and stick to it. I cannot allow chopping and changing. In the studio you
will be given facilities for wood-carving, modelling, stencilling,
painting, leatherwork, and other handicrafts. Those who wish to take up
this branch must put down their names on the Arts List.
"Some of you, perhaps, may have no particular talent for what is called
'creating in material', that is, making beautiful objects in wood,
leather, or clay, or with paints or pastels, but you can create in other
ways. Beautiful sounds give as much pleasure as beautiful sights. I want
us to revive the school orchestra and learn to play some good music.
Those who can sing well are to be given a special opportunity of
creation. This summer I went to the Glastonbury Musical Festival and
heard one of the wonderful song-dramas which are produced there. A
song-drama is a play which is both sung and acted, quite different from
grand opera or musical comedy, and with a charm all its own. It
corresponds in music to the Elizabethan or the Greek drama, for it is
shown with scarcely any scenery, and on the simplest of stages, but its
quality appeals to the very highest emotions. My hope is that we can get
up a short song-drama for a Christmas performance, and that the
orchestra should play the music for it. Those girls who can act, but not
sing, will be given a separate opportunity to exercise their talents.
"Now, this is all on the emotional side of our natures, but we want also
to cultivate the mental side. On our other 'self-expression afternoon'
you will have a choice of various intellectual hobbies. We will have one
department for studying nature, another for recording all the old
legends and ancient customs of our city, a geographical society to trace
our roads and streams, and a literary society for those who wish to try
to write. Of course, you can't belong to them all at once, and you must
choose what you like the best, but I think in such a wide field of
choice every girl will surely find something to suit her, which she can
work at as 'a labour of love'. The alternatives will be posted up in
your form rooms, and you must put down your names by Friday afternoon,
so that we can start next week. Don't choose in too big a hurry, but
take time to think it over--for once made you'll have to abide by your
choice."
There was a tremendous clapping at the close of Miss Tatham's speech.
The idea of "self-expression" appealed to most of the girls, and even
the little ones, who did not quite understand what it all meant, saw
visions of pleasant afternoons and possible fun in store for them. The
coming term seemed to offer prospects such as the school had never held
before. As the new members of VA filed upstairs to their form they could
not refrain from a few comments. Talking in the passages, though
repressed by the mistresses, was not absolutely on the list of
forbiddens at Kingfield High School, so the girls made discreet use of
the privilege whenever possible.
"Well! What d'you think of it all?" inquired Calla, eagerly questioning
the group nearest to her. "I call it ripping."
"Very enterprising of Tatie," conceded Kathleen graciously. "I really
shouldn't have thought her capable of it. Where's she been in the
holidays to get her ideas so shaken up? We must send her there again if
things flag."
"Bags me the orchestra," piped Aldora.
"Oh, the song-drama appeals to me!" squeaked Marjorie Johns.
"'Sh, 'sh! 'Sh, 'sh!" came from the background, as a warning that Miss
Pratt, their new form mistress, intended to insist on discipline, and
rules or no rules would not countenance a chattering rabble under her
very nose if she were obliged to act as escort. Remembering school
etiquette the girls restrained their voices in the presence of the
teacher, and falling into line marched into VA with due decorum, though
once inside the door, with Miss Pratt still outside in the passage,
there was a brief and wild scramble for the best desks, and Aldora
Dodson had almost pushed Lesbia Ferrars out of a coveted seat when the
entrance of authority restored order.
Lesbia, quite upset and panting from the fray, immediately put her books
inside the desk as a sign of possession, and scribbling her name on a
gummed label pasted it on to the lid rather ostentatiously, with an eye
of triumph in the direction of Aldora, who pretended to take no notice.
It meant much to Lesbia to secure that particular desk. She had always
marked it for her own. As a junior she had often peeped into the room
and had made up her mind that if she were ever moved so high up the
school as VA she should like to sit in the seat next the window. The
Kingfield High School did not adopt the horrible system of coating the
glass with white paint, so there was a clear and uninterrupted view over
walls, and across gardens, to the winding river and yellowing woods
beyond. Lesbia's aesthetic soul felt that that view would compensate for
many disagreeable things that would probably happen in the course of
the coming year. She was not particularly clever at lessons, and might
expect future squalls. To look over such a landscape would be a comfort
after Miss Pratt's chidings. Miss Pratt had a reputation in the school
for tartness of manner, though she was an excellent teacher. Her voice,
sharp-clipped, business-like, and unconciliatory, grated upon Lesbia,
who was very sensitive to sounds. Poor Lesbia was at the difficult age
when we are sensitive in many respects. The trouble was that most people
called her "thin-skinned". There are always two ways of describing the
same characteristic. But as Lesbia, with all her faults and virtues, is
going to be our heroine she had better have a chapter quite to herself.