Ambitions
The poor little foundling, pending her mother's trial at the Assizes,
was boarded out in the village with Mrs. Jones, and Diana had permission
to see her twice a week. Miss Todd communicated with the "Home for
Destitute Children", and received the reply that, should the mother be
convicted, as seemed only too probable, they would be ready to receive
the baby, and would apply to the judge for an order for entire charge,
so that it should not be claimed and taken away to a possibly criminal
life when the mother's term of penal servitude was over.
For the present, therefore, there was nothing more to be done except
take an interest in their protegee. Diana set to work to make her a
dress--a really heroic effort, for she hated sewing--and sat stitching
at it on those afternoons when the other girls were riding Lady. It was
typical of Diana that she would not discuss her arrangement about the
pony with anybody, not even Wendy.
"I've done it for reasons of my own, and that's enough!" she said rather
crossly. "You've no need to thank me--it wasn't particularly to please
_you_! I suppose I can do as I like!"
"Of course you _can_, but you needn't flare up so!" retorted Sadie.
"_Most_ people would _expect_ to be thanked. What a queer girl you are,
Diana!"
At which remark Diana grunted and turned away.
It is a funny thing that a burst of self-sacrifice often leaves us in a
bad temper. Diana was no model heroine, only a very ordinary and rather
spoilt girl. The reaction after giving up her pony had sent her spirits
down to zero, and if all her doings are to be faithfully chronicled, it
must be confessed that for a day or two she did not display herself at
her best. She was snappy even with Loveday, and matters came to an open
quarrel with Hilary, who, as prefect, was inclined to be dictatorial. A
war of words followed; Hilary threatened to appeal to Miss Todd, and
Diana, defeated but unrepentant, retired vowing vengeance.
"I'll pay you out some day; see if I don't!" she declared hotly.
"You're not worth noticing!" retorted Hilary, shrugging her shoulders.
Diana retired to the ivy room, had a thoroughly good cry, and came down
with red eyes, but feeling better. She did not speak to Hilary again,
however, for days.
Meantime, examinations were drawing near. Although Miss Todd conducted
her school on absolutely modern lines, she still clung to examinations
as being some test of a girl's attainments. The seniors in especial were
anxious to distinguish themselves. It was their last chance before they
left, and all, with the exception of Stuart and Ida, who were to remain
as gardening students, were leaving at the end of the term. The breaking
up of her school-days meant an anxious time for Loveday. When they were
alone in the ivy room she sometimes confided her troubles to Diana.
"I don't know what I'm to do next. Uncle Fred has told me plainly that
the little sum of money my father left has been nearly all spent on my
education, and that he himself can't do anything for me. I'd like to go
and take a proper training for something--kindergarten, or horticulture,
or domestic economy. But how can I when there's nothing to do it on? I
suppose it'll end in my going out as a nursery governess."
"Oh, Loveday!"
"Well, what else can I do? I daresay I'd love the children, and be quite
happy in a way, but the worst of it is, it's such a blind alley, and
leads to nothing. It's all very well to be a nursery governess when
you're eighteen, but I'd like to be something better at thirty-six. If
you want to get anything decent in the way of a post you have to train."
Diana, to whom all these ideas were fresh and bewildering, was trying to
adjust her brains to the new problems. She wrenched her mind from the
near present, and took a mental review of Loveday's far future.
"But aren't you going to get married?" was the result of her
cogitations.
Loveday, busy plying her hair-brush, shook her long flaxen mane
dolefully.
"I don't say I wouldn't _like_ to. But I don't think it's at all likely.
I'm not an attractive kind of girl; I know that well enough. I'm so shy.
I never know what to say to people when they begin to talk to me. They
must think me a silly goose. You should see my cousin Dorothy; she's
always the very life and soul of a party. If I were like _that_ now! I
don't suppose anybody'll ever trouble to look at me twice. I'm sure
Auntie thinks so. No; I expect I've just got to make up my mind to be a
nursery governess for the rest of my days."
Diana, still in a state of mental bewilderment, looked at pretty Loveday
sitting on the bed brushing out her silky fair hair, and her memory
switched itself back suddenly to the last evening of their motor trip.
She had been sitting in the lounge of the hotel, and through the open
door could see Giles standing in the hall. Loveday had come running
downstairs. Diana would never forget the look that for an instant
flashed across Giles's face. It contained something that she had not yet
altogether grasped or realized.
"I wouldn't make up my mind too soon if I were you," she said slowly.
"You might change it some day."
Whatever the future might hold in store, the present was the most
immediate concern. Loveday wished to take back a good report to her
uncle and aunt, and studied hard so as to obtain a fair place in the
examination lists. She had just a faint hope that if they thought she
showed any intellectual promise they might consider it worth while to
have her trained. They had never made much of her attainments, but if
she could come out third or fourth in the school she felt they would be
pleased. It would be impossible to overstep Geraldine or Hilary, but her
work was tolerably on a level with Ida's and Stuart's, and certainly
above Nesta's.
It was just at this crisis that Miss Todd offered a prize for the best
essay on "The Reconstruction of England after the Great War, and its
Special Application to Women's Labour and Social Problems".
It was rather an ambitious topic for girls to tackle, but the seniors
attacked it with the crude courage of seventeen. It is often easier at
that age to state our opinions than later, when our minds wobble with
first-hand experience of the world. At any rate, it gives a force and
style to an essay to be absolutely sure that what you write in it is the
final thing to be said on the subject. The girls scribbled away, tore up
many sheets, showed bits to admiring friends, and felt themselves
budding authoresses. Public opinion, surging round the school, had
already fixed the laurel wreath on the head of Hilary. Hilary exhibited
decided literary ability; she had quite a clever knack of writing, and
had composed several short stories. When she read these aloud--in
bed--her thrilled listeners decided that they were worthy of appearing
in print.
"Why don't you send them to a magazine?" urged Peggy, who slept in
Dormitory 4.
"Perhaps I may some day--but please don't tell anybody a word about it,"
said Hilary, putting the cherished stories away again inside her
dispatch-case.
In the ivy room Loveday also wrote and burnt, and wrote and tore up, and
wrote again. Composition was her strong point, and though she knew she
could never rival Hilary in mathematics or languages, she might possibly
match her in the matter of an essay. In imagination Loveday took home
the prize and showed it to her uncle and aunt, who were so overcome with
amazement that they at once decided to send her to college on the
strength of it.
On Wednesday afternoon the school had planned a mountain walk; but the
weather, with its usual northern perversity, turned on the water-tap,
and sent down deluges of rain. July can be quite as wet as February, and
through the steaming window-panes the disappointed girls watched little
rivers racing down the walks, and black clouds driving over the fells.
The pent-up energy that wanted to spend itself in walking must find some
other vent. The seniors, with one accord, retired to their form-room to
copy out their essays. Miss Chadwick charitably conducted the juniors,
clad in mackintoshes and goloshes down to the stable, and let them climb
the ladder on to the hay in the loft, where she sat and told them
stories. She did not invite the intermediates, so they were left to
their own devices.
Diana, suffering from a cold, annoyed with the weather, and cross that
she was not allowed to go out into the rain, raged up and down the room,
and finally, for lack of any other form of physical exercise, organized
a jumping competition.
The girls scrambled over the desks and took leaps on to the floor. They
squealed as they did so, and every now and then broke into hallos or
bursts of song. It was certainly not a quiet occupation. In the midst of
the riot the door opened, and Hilary, in a towering temper, made her
appearance.
"I never heard such a disgraceful noise in my life!" she stormed. "It
sounds like a menagerie or an infants' tea-party. Great girls of your
age to be jumping about like babies. You ought to be ashamed of
yourselves! Here are we all trying to copy our essays; and how d'you
think we're going to write with that racket going on over our heads? If
you don't stop I shall fetch Miss Todd. She'll hear it for herself very
soon, if you don't take care, and then there'll be squalls. She's
working in her study."
There was truth in Hilary's remarks. Though they would not acknowledge
there was anything derogatory to the dignity of intermediates in
indulging in the pastime of jumping, they knew full well that should the
noise penetrate to the precincts of the study Miss Todd would issue
forth like a dragon. But Diana was cross, and not disposed to take
reproof lightly. She pulled one of her most impossible faces, and
stormed back at Hilary.
"You seniors want to have the school all to yourselves! It's a holiday
afternoon; and why shouldn't we do as we like? We've just as good a
right to amuse ourselves in our own way as you have. I don't see why you
should tyrannize over us. You're always interfering! What business is it
of yours what we do?"
"Very much my business, Diana Hewlitt, considering I'm prefect," said
Hilary grimly. "If I've any more cheek from you you'll march down and
report yourself in the study. This noise must stop. I give you warning
that if it begins again I shall go straight to Miss Todd."
"You'll be a sneak then," retorted Diana. "I've a great many scores to
settle with _you_, Hilary. You'll have a very unpleasant surprise before
long, so look out!"
Hilary did not deign to answer, but stalked away in majestic silence,
leaving gloom behind her. The girls knew perfectly well that even for a
holiday afternoon they had exceeded the noise limit. Visions of a
surprise visit from Miss Todd kept them silent. Tattie brought out her
sewing, and Peggy her painting. Sadie went down to the library for a
book. Wendy and Jess began a game of halma. Even Diana, after staring
disconsolately out of the window, settled to read _Ivanhoe_. Downstairs
the seniors, in peace and quiet, finished copying out their essays.
"They look so neat now they're done," rejoiced Geraldine. "Shall you
keep your old copy?"
"What's the use?" said Hilary. "Mine's all alterations and corrections.
I shall just tear it up."
"Well, so shall I."
Most of the others followed suit, and made a bonfire in the empty grate
with the originals of their essays. The fair copies they placed inside
their desks. Hilary put hers away with the short stories she had
written, and, happening to be in a rather communicative mood, she
confided the secret of these literary efforts to Stuart. Stuart was much
impressed.
"Why don't you try to publish them?" she asked.
"Well, I would if I could," admitted Hilary.
"I saw a little bit in the end of the _Blue Magazine_ saying that the
editor would be glad to consider contributions."
"Oh, did you? Where is it?"
"I'll find it for you."
Stuart hunted up the magazine, found the paragraph in question, and
tendered good advice.
"I'd certainly send them if I were you. Why shouldn't you try as well as
anybody else? They might be accepted. Just think of having a story in a
magazine! I'd die of swelled head if it were mine."
"I suppose there's no harm in trying," fluttered Hilary. "It would be a
joke to see one's own story in print."
"Send some of them off to-day."
"Shall I?"
"Why not?"
"I don't know which to choose."
"Oh, any of them!"
Thus urged, Hilary drew three of her manuscripts at a venture, put them
inside a long envelope, wrote a short note offering them to the editor,
enclosed it, fastened, addressed, and stamped her letter, and placed it
in the post-box in the hall.
"What fun if you have some luck!" said Stuart.
"I drew a tiny little swastika inside the envelope, and I made three
crosses over it with my right forefinger," confessed Hilary, "but I
don't suppose it's any use; they'll probably come packing back."
"Well, if they do you must send them to some other magazine," said
Stuart hopefully.
Diana felt a little cheered up after reading three chapters of
_Ivanhoe_, but she was still angry with Hilary. She felt that she would
like to play a trick upon her. It would really serve her right for being
so generally disagreeable. There was no need at all for prefects to take
advantage of their office and ride roughshod over the intermediates. How
could she possibly pay her out and settle the score between them? She
pondered for a while, then had a sudden brain-wave and chuckled. First,
she ascertained that the senior room was empty, then she paid a
surreptitious visit to the pantry and purloined a pepper-pot. Hiding
this for safety in her pocket she went back to the senior room, opened
Hilary's desk, and put a plentiful sprinkling of pepper inside.
"It'll make Hilary just sneeze her head off to-morrow!" triumphed Diana.
"She'll think she's got a touch of 'flu', and she'll be in _such_ a
scare! I'd give worlds to see the fun. Only, of course, I daren't show
myself, or she'll find out. No, that would never do."
Putting the pepper-pot back in her pocket, she was in the act of leaving
the room, when in the dusk she collided with Geraldine. The astonishment
was mutual.
"What are you doing here, Diana?" asked the head prefect sharply.
"Oh, nothing in particular. I was just taking a roam round the school,
that's all."
"You've no business to roam into the senior room. Keep to your own
quarters. We can't have juniors coming in here!"
"I'm not a junior!"
"Well, intermediates are quite as bad, if not worse!"
Diana beat a retreat, for the supper-bell was ringing. She marched into
the dining-room with a defiant twinkle in her eyes, and meeting Wendy,
could not refrain from whispering:
"Done 'em brown for once! Hilary'll get the surprise of her life
to-morrow."
"Sh! Sh!" warned Wendy too late.
Geraldine, who was exactly behind, and who had evidently overheard,
glared at the couple, but forbore to speak. Indeed there was not time
for her to do so, for the girls were taking their seats, and Miss Todd
was waiting to say grace. It is undignified for a head prefect to take
too much notice of the chance remarks of intermediates, so Geraldine let
the matter pass, and, whatever her private thoughts might be, did not
revive the subject after supper.