THE NEW FORM-MISTRESS
"I say! Have you heard the news?" cried Hilda Burns, bursting the next
morning into the Lower Fifth sitting-room, where the form was gathered
awaiting the summons to prayers.
All the girls looked up at Hilda's excited entrance. Even Gerry, who
as usual was finding in a book solace from her loneliness, stopped
reading to hear what the news might be.
"No! What is it?" asked various voices; and Hilda, conscious of the
importance of the tidings she carried, said impressively:
"Pretty Polly's ill. Really ill. Not just influenza and bed for a day
or two. She was taken suddenly bad in the night, and they had to send
for the doctor. And it's appendicitis, and she's got to have an
operation at once, and she's going off in an ambulance to a nursing
home this morning."
"I say! Poor Polly! I am sorry," said Jack. And the whole form
proceeded to express its dismay more or less appropriately. In spite
of her strictness and extreme prejudices in favour of tidiness, Miss
Parrot was popular with her form; and real regret at losing her so
unexpectedly was mingled with sorrow for her illness. It was not for a
few minutes, however, that it dawned upon the Lower Fifth that this
sudden calamity would leave it without a form-mistress.
"But I say! What about _us_?" exclaimed Dorothy at length. "Who's
going to take our form? We shall have to have somebody."
"Miss Oakley's wired to an agency asking them to send someone," said
Hilda, who had an uncanny knack of finding out these sorts of things.
Her information proved to be correct, for when prayers were over and
the Lower Fifth marched as usual into its classroom, Miss Oakley was
waiting there for them; and after telling them of their mistress's
illness, she came at once to the point which was exercising the minds
of the form.
"I am glad to say that I have succeeded in getting somebody to fill
Miss Parrot's place for the rest of this term. Miss Burton is coming
from town to-day, and will take over your form from to-morrow morning.
Miss Parrot's unexpected illness has rather upset the usual school
routine to-day, and instead of your classes I am going to set you some
exercises and questions to work out by yourselves. Miss Latham will
come in to you for the last hour this morning and correct your answers
and award your marks. I trust you all to behave well during the time
you are unavoidably left alone; and to show your sympathy with Miss
Parrot by doing all in your power to help her successor. Now, Hilda,
bring me your books, and I will set you some work to do."
The Lower Fifth behaved themselves with exemplary virtue in the
classroom that morning, and in due course the new mistress arrived.
She was not introduced to her form until the next day. The girls were
not very favourably impressed by her appearance. Miss Burton was thin
and rather angular, sandy-haired and spectacled, and she gave the
impression of being both irritable and exacting--an impression which
the Lower Fifth found amply justified when they came into close contact
with their new mistress. Miss Burton was really one of those people
who ought never to have gone in for teaching at all, having no real
liking for her profession, nor any sympathy with or understanding of
girls. She very soon succeeded in ruffling the feelings of the Lower
Fifth, and before the first morning was ended the whole form was in
open rebellion.
It was over Gerry Wilmott that the rupture took place. Margaret
Taylor, who occupied the desk next to Gerry's, was unable to find her
place during the literature lesson, having, through inattention, missed
the announcement Miss Burton made in the beginning of the class. The
girls were reading aloud in turn a play of Shakespeare's, and as her
turn drew nearer and nearer Margaret fumbled desperately with the
pages, finally turning an imploring glance upon Gerry, who was watching
her futile struggles with nervous apprehension. Gerry was only too
glad to do anything for anybody,--the ostracism in which she was kept
by the rest of the form precluded her as a rule from even offering aid
on such an occasion as this,--and she leant over to her neighbour's
desk and pointed it out, just at the very moment when Miss Burton
happened to be looking that way. The new mistress banged on her desk
with such emphasis that the girl who was reading at the moment stopped
suddenly, and the class looked up in amazement, while Gerry gave a
frightened little jump.
"You, girl! What is your name?" said Miss Burton, pointing her pencil
at Gerry.
"Gerry--I mean Geraldine Wilmott," stammered Gerry.
"What do you mean by whispering to another girl during class?" demanded
the mistress, blinking furiously at the culprit through her glasses.
"I--I wasn't whispering," said Gerry. "I--I was only showing Margaret
the place."
"Don't prevaricate!" thundered Miss Burton. "You were whispering. I
saw you."
Up shot Margaret's hand.
"Please, Miss Burton," said that young lady indignantly, moved for once
to take the unpopular new girl's part, "she wasn't whispering. I'd
lost my place, and I made signs to her to show me, and she was only
pointing it out with her pencil."
"I don't believe either of you," said the new mistress. Then with a
fiery glance at Gerry, she said ferociously:
"Go on with the reading from the place where the last girl left off."
This command was shot out with such venom as to render poor Gerry a
thousand times more nervous even than usual. She had lost her own
place hopelessly by this time, and as she fumbled with the pages in the
vain endeavour to find it and comply with the order, Miss Burton spoke
again in a triumphant voice:
"I thought so. You do not know the place yourself, therefore you could
not have been showing it to your companion! You are both of you
extremely naughty, untruthful girls, and you will each take a conduct
mark for your deceitfulness."
"Please, Miss Burton, I wasn't deceiving you!" cried Gerry, goaded into
one of her rare attempts at self-assertion. "I _was_ showing Margaret
Taylor her place, and I _did_ know it quite well until you confused me
and made me lose it."
Miss Burton grew scarlet with anger.
"How dare you argue with me!" she said. "I see that you mean to give
me as much trouble as you possibly can, but I mean to take a firm hand
with you. Go and stand in that corner with your face to the wall until
the lesson is over!"
A gasp of incredulous amazement went up from the Lower Fifth.
"_Miss Burton_! We're not babies!" cried Hilda Burns indignantly.
"We're Fifth Form and not used to punishments like that. You can't
make Gerry stand in a corner!"
"Don't interfere!" said the mistress. "Geraldine Wilmott, do as I
direct you, at once."
Gerry's momentary display of spirit had quite spent itself by now.
With a white face she walked across the schoolroom and took up the
position Miss Burton indicated. And there she stood in silent
humiliation with her face to the wall, while the rest of the form,
sulky and rebellious, dragged through the remainder of the lesson.
Miss Burton did not try any more drastic measures. Perhaps she
realised that she had already gone too far. Or perhaps, having vented
some of her anger upon Gerry, she felt more amiably disposed towards
the rest of her girls. At all events, the lesson ended without another
contretemps; and Gerry was permitted to come out of her ignominious
corner and was seated again in her desk before Miss Latham entered to
take her usual class in history.
The Lower Fifth managed to conceal their indignation during the history
lesson, but when at last the morning's work had ended and the new
mistress had finally departed from the classroom, the storm of anger
burst. For the first time since she had come to Wakehurst Priory,
Gerry found herself the centre of popular sympathy.
"What a beastly shame, Gerry!" said Jack Pym, coming over to Gerry's
desk. "She's a beastly, mean pig--and she hadn't any right to treat
you like that." And she put her hand caressingly on Gerry's arm, a
proceeding which filled Gerry's heart with a sudden thrill of
happiness. It was almost the first time Jack had spoken to her since
that first unlucky day at school. Even her late humiliation seemed
worth while if it was going to bring her Jack's friendship again.
The other members of the form, too, gave vent to many expressions of
sympathy, and schemes of vengeance upon the new mistress were discussed.
"Tell you what--we'll strike!" said Dorothy Pemberton, always ready to
take the side of lawlessness and disorder.
"How?" said Phyllis, eager to support her chum, yet not quite seeing
how a successful strike could be engineered.
"Why, we won't do a stroke of prep for her!" said Dorothy. "We'll work
for all the other mistresses doubly hard to make up, but when it comes
to Miss Burton's work we won't do a thing. We'll all promise not to,
and then if the whole lot of us are in it she can't do anything."
"She can give us conduct marks," said Hilda Burns.
"Yes, but she'll have to give them to the whole lot, so they won't mean
very much. And although we shan't get any marks for her lessons, yet
it won't really count, because we shall all be in the same boat."
"She can complain to Miss Oakley," said Hilda.
"Well, if she does, that will be just what we want. Miss Oakley will
jaw us, of course, but she'll make inquiries too, and when she finds
out what a rotter Miss Burton is, she'll dismiss her right away. Let
her go to Miss Oakley if she likes, it will be all the better. Who'll
sign on to down books for Miss Burton?"
"I will, for one," cried Jack impetuously.
"And I," cried Phyllis Tressider.
"And I."
"And I."
"And I," echoed round the room.
There were one or two doubtful people, but Dorothy's arguments, aided
by Jack's and Phyllis's persuasions, overcame the most conscientious
individuals. One by one the members of the form gave in and took a
solemn vow that they would not do a stroke of preparation for the new
form-mistress.
At length it came to Gerry's turn to be questioned.
"You'll come in, Gerry, of course," remarked Dorothy, in a nicer tone
of voice than she had ever before used towards the new girl.
For a moment Gerry hesitated. It seemed to her that they had not given
the new form-mistress much of a chance. She might be nicer in a day or
two--it would surely be kinder to wait a little while before declaring
such open war upon her. But, on the other hand, it seemed as though a
door had been suddenly opened which would lead to all the things Gerry
most longed for--popularity, the sympathy of her form, Jack's coveted
friendship. All the while Dorothy and Jack had been arguing with and
persuading the other waverers to join the strike, Gerry had been
battling strenuously within her own heart. She wanted, oh, so badly!
to throw in her lot with the rest of the form. Marks and favour with
the mistresses meant so little in comparison with all the other
important aspects of school life. Jack's hand was on her shoulder,
Jack's friendship lay open to her--Gerry instinctively felt--if she
would only throw in her lot with the rest of the Lower Fifth. And
after all, why shouldn't she? She had really had more provocation than
any of the others, for it was she who had suffered the unjust and
humiliating punishment. She looked at Jack, and at the eager
expression on Jack's face she threw her conscientious scruples to the
winds.
"Yes, I'll come in," she said, and Dorothy turned to the rest of the
form with an air of triumph.
"That's all right, then. We're all in it. What prep has that old
beast set us for to-night? Learn by heart that speech of Henry the
Fifth's, work right through the algebra exercise, and write five
hundred words in German on 'Spring.' Thank the Lord, she teaches us
German! It will be some consolation for the rows we're bound to get
into, to think we shall be able to cut out that beastly German for a
bit. What does that leave us for to-night? French, history analysis
for Miss Latham, and that science paper for Miss White. Good! We
shall have a jolly slack time in prep to-night, shan't we?"
"There'll be an awful bust up on Monday morning, though," said Hilda
Burns.
Hilda was still rather doubtful about the strike. As head of the form,
she could not help feeling that she was slightly responsible for its
good behaviour, and might be called to account for its lawlessness by
the powers that were. But she was not strong enough to stand up
against Dorothy and Phyllis and their powerful following, so she cast
in her lot with the rebels and said no more against the graceless plan.