AN INCIDENT IN THE DARK
"That's the dining-hall, as you know," said Jack, as she guided
Geraldine past the big room in which tea had taken place. "This
passage leads out to the Chapel. Like to see it? Come along, then,
and I'll take you to have a look."
The Chapel at Wakehurst was part of the original Priory buildings, and
such restoration as was necessary had been done with due regard to the
beauty of the old architecture. Geraldine gazed round with admiration
as Jack held the door open for her to look in.
"We always have prayers in here," said Jack, closing the door quietly.
Then as the two girls walked away, she added: "We have prayers twice a
day, you know--to say nothing of Sundays! On Sundays one of the
curates from St. Peter's comes up to the school to take the Early
Service and Matins, and those who want to, go down to St. Peter's on
Sunday evenings. Sunday evenings aren't compulsory though, so long as
you've attended both morning services, and there's not a huge rush for
them as a rule. Goodness knows we get enough church all through the
week, without having it three times on Sundays as well!" wound up the
graceless Jack.
"Once we always used to have to put our hats on every time we went into
Chapel," she went on. "But Miss Oakley isn't so frightfully keen on
old St. Paul's ideas about women as the last Head used to be, and she's
abolished it for weekdays. Sundays, of course, you have to wear your
hat, but not for everyday. It used to waste no end of time, putting
them on and taking them off twice a day; and Miss Oakley said she
thought it would be much more reverent really if we didn't always have
to scramble and rush about with them just before and after service."
"Is Miss Oakley nice?" asked Geraldine.
"Nice? Rather! She's absolutely tiptop! The best Head we've ever had
or are likely to have. You can't take liberties with her, though, and
she doesn't half know how to jaw you if you're sent up to her. We are
all frightfully keen on her here, but we're all half-scared of her too.
At least, I know I am! This is the Great Hall, where we have
mark-readings and assemblies and special meetings and things. Come
on--you don't want to go in there now. You'll see quite enough of it
later on. I want to show you the gym."
The gymnasium was a recent addition to the school, and quite a modern
building. It was fitted up with all kinds of marvellous and intricate
apparatus, and Jack proceeded to expand upon these with great gusto.
But, much to her disappointment, she found that Geraldine was not
nearly so interested as she might have been.
"Aren't you keen on gym, either?" she asked in surprise; and Geraldine
shook her head.
"I've never done any at all," she answered. "I--I don't much think I
shall like it. Swinging and climbing always make me feel so giddy."
"Well, you are a rum bird!" commented Jack. "No hockey, no gym--is
there _anything_ you can do, I wonder?" And she looked so concerned at
the new girl's lack of accomplishments that Geraldine felt very humbled
and apologetic.
"I'll have to try and learn," she said meekly, and Jack's face cleared.
"Oh yes, I expect you'll soon pick it up. Well, I think I've shown you
pretty nearly everything. Let's go back to the sitting-room, shall we?
It must be nearly supper-time now. I'm jolly hungry, aren't you?
We'll cut across the mistresses' quarters to get there. We're not
supposed to go that way as a rule, but it's ever so much shorter, and
as to-day's the first day of term, I don't expect anyone will say very
much, even if we are caught."
She opened a green baize door which led into a short passage, closed at
the other end by another door--"to keep out the row," Jack explained,
as she held it open to let Geraldine through. The second door opened
into a square hall, carpeted with rich Oriental rugs, and lighted dimly
by a shaded lamp at the far end. A number of other doors opened into
the hall.
"The mistresses' sitting-rooms," said Jack, with a wave of her hand
towards them.
As she spoke she stumbled over a big black curly-haired retriever dog,
who lay stretched out on a rug, almost hidden in the dim light. She
pitched forward on her hands and knees over his slumbering form, and
Geraldine stopped short with a startled exclamation, as the dog rose
lazily to his feet.
Jack laughed merrily as she picked herself up from the floor.
"Bruno! You old wretch, tripping me up like that!" she said, stooping
to caress the big fellow. "Why, Geraldine, what on earth's the matter?
He won't hurt you," as, looking up, she caught sight of her companion's
frightened face.
"Are you--are you sure he won't?" Geraldine asked fearfully.
"Of course he won't! Why, Bruno's the best-tempered dog that ever was;
aren't you, Bruno, boy? Look, he wants to make friends with you--he's
putting up his paw to shake hands. Don't you like dogs?"
"N--not very much," said the new girl. "Not dogs I don't know. I like
some dogs, though. I've got a darling little fox-terrier of my very
own at home."
"Bruno belongs to Miss Oakley, but he's often about in the school, and
he's a perfect pet," said Jack. "Do shake hands with him! He wants
you to so much."
With an effort Geraldine conquered her nervousness sufficiently to take
the friendly paw the dog was still holding out to her. And when once
the introduction had been effected she lost her fear of him. Bruno,
certainly, appeared good-tempered enough, and he seemed to take a fancy
to the new girl. He followed the two girls back to the Lower Fifth
sitting-room, and once there he sat down as close to Geraldine as he
could get. It was quite difficult to persuade him to go back to his
proper quarters when at length the supper bell rang.
"Very forgiving of him, considering how rude you were to him to begin
with," laughed Jack, when at last they had succeeded in making the big
fellow go back to the mistresses' part of the buildings.
Jack stuck to the new girl for the rest of that evening, much to
Geraldine's gratitude. She even went so far as to accompany her to the
door of the Pink Dormitory when the time came to go to bed, although
her own dormitory, the Green Dormitory, was in quite a different part
of the house.
"I couldn't do it another night because Alice Metcalfe, my dormitory
monitress, is frightfully strict. But she isn't back yet--not coming
till to-morrow, so I may as well make hay while the sun shines.
Besides, it's first night, and nobody takes very much account of rules
the first night," Jack remarked, still chattering gaily in the new
girl's ear. In all her school career, Jack Pym had never before come
across such a splendid listener as Geraldine Wilmott, and she was
forming all sorts of plans in her own mind as to her future
relationship with the new girl.
Just before the Pink Dormitory was reached, the lights in the corridor
went out with a suddenness that was rather alarming because it was so
very unexpected. As a matter of fact, two mischievous juniors had
stayed behind and switched them off at the bottom of the stairs for a
joke; but the majority of the girls did not guess this, and much
laughing and confusion and screaming took place. Geraldine did not
actually scream, but she was very near to losing her self-control, and
her hand shot out and grasped the arm of the girl next to her with a
tense grip which showed how very nearly her command of herself was gone.
The darkness only lasted for a moment. An irate senior hurried back to
the switch-board and turned the lights on again, and the culprits
decamped with all possible speed. Geraldine came to her senses again,
and found to her horror that the girl whose arm she was clasping was
not, as she had imagined, Jack Pym, but Phyllis Tressider, who was
staring at her with undisguised amazement in her blue eyes. With a
hasty apology the new girl loosened her grip of the other's arm, but
that one moment of revelation had been enough for Phyllis.
"I say, did you see?" she said in a low voice to Dorothy Pemberton.
"That new girl's face--it was as white as white! If she'd seen a ghost
she couldn't have looked more scared. What on earth was the matter
with her, do you think?"
Dorothy nodded in a satisfied way.
"I saw," she said. "And she was scared too! Downright funky at
finding herself in the dark for just those few minutes. Oh, well, if
_that's_ the sort of girl she is, we shall soon know how to get even
with her if she interferes with us. I say, old girl, we shall have to
say good-night to each other here. Now we're so far away from one
another it won't be safe for me to go to your cubicle or for you to
come to mine--at any rate, not until we see what sort of a monitress
Muriel is going to be. Oh, dear! It is sickening to think that we're
separated, and that that wretched new kid is going to sleep in my cubie
to-night!"
Meanwhile, the wretched new kid was saying good-night to her new-found
friend, feeling far happier than she had dared to hope to feel on her
first night at school, and quite unconscious of the fact that she had
made such a revelation of her inner self to the two girls who were well
on the way towards becoming her greatest enemies. With all her new
thoughts and experiences filling her head, that little incident in the
dark had almost vanished from her mind.
"See you in the morning, then," said Jack gaily, as she disappeared in
the direction of her own dormitory. And Geraldine hastened to make her
way to Cubicle Thirteen.