Miss Hopkins
Though Avelyn, as a weekly boarder, was not quite in the innermost heart
of the Silverside clique, she was nevertheless considered one of the
elect. Her room-mates rubbed it into her that she _was_ a boarder, and
as such must be very thankful for her privileges. On the whole, they
treated her rather well. They included her as much as they could in what
fun was going on, helped her to plait her hair, showed her their private
treasures, and shared their occasional boxes of chocolate impartially
round the dormitory. Avelyn felt that she was living two lives: one
began at nine o'clock on Monday morning, and lasted till four on Friday,
and the other occupied the intervening time. Each circled independently
in its own orbit. The school life was quite fascinating and absorbing,
especially now she was getting used to it. It was jolly to sit on the
beds in the dormitory and compare experiences with the other girls. They
generally had something interesting to talk about, especially Irma
Ridley. Irma had an inventive mind, and a keen appetite for romance. She
read every novel she could get hold of, though only a very few, and
those of a strictly classical character, were allowed in the Silverside
library. She had a good memory, was an excellent raconteuse, and would
sit in the gloaming and tell thrilling tales to anybody who was prepared
to listen. To her room-mates she supplied the place of a monthly
magazine of fiction. It was Irma who first started the rumour about Miss
Hopkins. The girls were dressing for supper when she made her amazing
statement.
"Do you know," she remarked, pausing with her hairbrush in her hand, "I
verily believe that Hopscotch either already is, or is just about to
be--engaged!"
If Cupid himself had darted in through the window, bow and arrows in
hand, the occupants of the Cowslip Room could not have been more
electrified.
"What!"
"Hopscotch?"
"You're ragging!"
"It's the limit!"
Miss Hopkins, the mathematics mistress, had never struck the school as a
likely subject for romance. She was middle-aged, nippy, determined,
brusque, and a disciplinarian. There was a slight burr in her speech,
acquired north of the Tweed, and she had a habit of saying, "Come, come,
girrls!" She had never yet been seen without her pince-nez, and it was a
tradition that she slept in them. In the minds of her pupils she was
indissolubly intertwined with decimals, equations, and problems of
geometry. They connected her with triangles, not hearts, though of
course there was no telling where the little blind god might suddenly
elect to shoot.
"I'm not ragging!" declared Irma earnestly. "I tell you I really mean
it. What's more, I've seen him!"
"When?"
"Where?"
Irma enjoyed an audience. She sat down on Janet's bed with the pleasant
consciousness that she had gripped her listeners.
"I went into the study this afternoon to fetch Miss Kennedy's
fountain-pen, and I found Hopscotch there--alone with a gentleman. I'm
afraid I surprised them."
"Did they look embarrassed?"
"Well, they both stopped talking, and stared at me while I hunted about
for the pen. _I_ felt embarrassed!"
"What's he like?"
"Middle-aged, with a moustache that's growing grey--not bad-looking on
the whole."
"It would be very suitable," decided the others.
They were trying to readjust their mental attitude towards Miss Hopkins,
and transfer her from the mathematical plane to the sentimental. To do
so required a wrench, but it was decidedly thrilling. They all suddenly
began to remember symptoms of incipient romance on the part of the
mistress.
"She wears a locket on her watch-chain. It's probably got his photo
inside," decided Ethelberga.
"And she always snatches up her letters in a frantic hurry," added Janet
sagely.
"Has she known him long?" asked Avelyn.
Irma nodded doubtfully.
"I should think it's probably quite an old affair. They may have been
boy and girl together."
"Perhaps they've been separated for years and years, and have only just
cleared up their misunderstandings," suggested Laura.
"Was he holding her hand?" asked Janet.
"N--no, I can't say he was holding her hand; but then, you see, I'd
knocked at the door first, and she'd said 'Come in!'"
"That would give them time," agreed Janet.
A silence followed, and the girls looked pensively at one another. The
atmosphere seemed charged with romance. The ringing of the first bell
for supper brought them back with a disagreeable thud to reality. They
had not yet changed their dresses, and a wild scramble ensued. Whether a
mistress in the bonds of Cupid would overlook such details as
unpunctuality was an experiment too risky to be tried. They passed on
their information in the course of the evening, and by 11.30 next
morning even the day girls had digested the news.
Miss Hopkins could not understand the changed attitude which the school
suddenly adopted towards her. There was an undercurrent of something
inexplicable. The girls gazed at her in form with a kind of tender
interest. If she toyed with the locket on her watch-chain, they visibly
thrilled. Once, when she dropped a letter from her pocket, Irma, who
picked it up, actually blushed as she handed it back. When the twelve
gates of Jerusalem were mentioned in the Scripture lesson, Laura Talbot
asked whether a jasper stone was ever used as an engagement ring in
Hebrew times. Being a practical, sensible sort of person, Miss Hopkins
decided that the war--that national bond of union--was bringing her into
closer touch with her pupils. The girls, meanwhile, were discussing a
possible wedding present, and wondering who would be her successor as
mathematical mistress.
Several of them were already beginning to work little good-bye souvenirs
for her. They hustled them out of the way in a hurry if she chanced to
come into the room. For at least a fortnight nothing happened, and
speculations were rife.
"Why doesn't she wear an engagement ring?" asked Mona Bardsley.
"Doesn't want to publish it yet, I suppose," opined Minnie Selburn.
"Do you think she'll be leaving at Christmas?"
"One can never tell."
"Has Tommiekins said anything?"
"Not a word."
One Thursday afternoon an event happened. Irma, looking out at the
fifth-form window, watched a masculine form walk up the drive and ring
the front-door bell. She instantly identified him with the stranger whom
she had seen in the study with Miss Hopkins.
"I knew him again in a moment," she assured the others. "I never forget
faces, and his was unmistakable."
The flutter among the boarders was immense. It was known that Miss
Hopkins was in the study interviewing the gentleman. Little Daisy
Garratt had been in the first-form room reworking a returned sum, when
the maid had entered and announced: "Mr. Judson is in the study, please,
m'm," and Miss Hopkins had risen immediately from her desk, and told
Daisy she might go, an opportunity of which that round-eyed junior had
instantly availed herself.
So his name was Judson! It was not highly romantic, indeed it suggested
gold paint; but after all, what's in a name? Everybody decided at once
that he had brought the engagement ring, and that Miss Hopkins, blushing
and conscious, would wear it upon the third finger of her left hand at
tea-time. They began to search about for suitable speeches of
congratulation. Several daring spirits, heedless of conduct marks, hung
about the hall, hoping to catch a glimpse of Mr. Judson as he said
good-bye. There was competition for front places at the windows that
overlooked the steps. Twenty interested pairs of eyes watched his
coat-tails disappear down the drive. There was much speculation as to
why he had not stayed longer, and what he was carrying inside his little
black bag. When Miss Hopkins came in to tea an electric wave of
excitement surged round the room, then broke in disappointment. Her left
hand was ringless. She seated herself in the most matter-of-fact
manner, and began to eat bread and butter and talk about the last air
raid in London.
Before preparation it had all leaked out. Mr. Judson was traveller for a
large firm of scholastic publishers, and on both occasions he had called
to interview Miss Hopkins about some new arithmetic books. She had
decided that they were suitable, and had ordered copies for the fifth
and sixth forms. That was the whole of the business. In the minds of the
boarders Cupid flew out of the window with a bang. He left blank
desolation behind.
"Were there only arithmetic books inside that little black bag?" asked
Mona disgustedly.
"It's too sickening when I'd nearly finished my pin-cushion cover!"
broke out Minnie Selburn.
"Mine was to be a nightdress case!" lamented Alice Webster.
The inmates of the Cowslip Room, as originators of the whole romance,
felt particularly flat. In disconsolate spirits they went to bed. It was
not nice to be told by Adah Gartley that they were silly geese, whose
heads were filled with a pack of sentimental rubbish. Their injured
feelings seethed, rallied, and finally bubbled up.
"There's something disagreeable about Adah!" remarked Janet tartly.
"It isn't only Adah, it's Joyce and Consie," corrected Laura.
"They deserve something for their nastiness!" ventured Ethelberga.
"Something strong!" agreed Avelyn.
Irma, half undressed, paused in the act of pulling off her stockings,
and made the important suggestion:
"I say, let's play a trick on the prefects!"
"What a blossomy idea!"
"They richly deserve it!"
"It would be just top-hole!"
"What could we do?"
"Ah, that's just the question, my good child!" said Laura, putting a
thoughtful finger to her forehead. "There's an art in ragging. It ought
to be done delicately. We don't want clumsy tricks, such as apple-pie
beds. As for booby traps, they're vulgar and dangerous; I wouldn't soil
my fingers with making one. It must be something that will annoy them,
but not harm them or anybody else. I haven't got a brain wave yet, but
perhaps ideas may come."
"Suppose we go and reconnoitre," proposed Avelyn.
"A very jinky notion. We might get an idea on the spot."
The four prefects slept in the Violet Room at the end of the passage.
They were allowed to sit up later than the rest of the school, and at
this moment were downstairs finishing some preparation. It was an easy
matter, therefore, to visit their quarters. Laura, Irma, Janet,
Ethelberga, and Avelyn made a dash down the passage, turned up the gas,
and began an inspection. The Violet Room was quite the prettiest of the
dormitories; it was also the largest, and had a round table and four
easy chairs with comfortable cushions. The table was spread with a
white cloth, on which were set forth four cups and saucers, a tin of
cocoa, a small basin of sugar, and a plate of biscuits. The prefects
were working overtime for an examination, and were allowed this special
indulgence to refresh their tired brains before they went to bed. They
boiled a tin kettle on a gas ring, and brought it upstairs with them.
They considered their nightly cocoa party one of their greatest
privileges.
"Looks jolly comfortable!" sniffed Avelyn, regarding the preparations
with envy.
"It's well to be a prefect!" agreed Janet.
"Shall we eat the biscuits?" suggested Irma.
"Certainly not!" replied Ethelberga.
Laura had taken up the cocoa tin, and was plunged in thought.
"I've got it!" she announced suddenly. "I don't mean the tin, but an
idea. Wait half a second for me!"
She dashed back to the Cowslip Room, and was away several minutes. When
she returned, her face beamed triumph.
"They won't enjoy their cocoa to-night!" she chuckled. "I've mixed two
teaspoonfuls of Gregory's powder with it! It will be a nice little
surprise for them, won't it?"
"Sophonisba! I should rather think so! I say, let's turn down the gas
and scoot. We shall have Miss Kennedy coming along in a minute."
The prefects came upstairs at ten o'clock, carrying their kettle. They
retired into their dormitory and shut the door. Two scouts from the
Cowslip Room, arrayed in dressing-gowns and bedroom slippers, presently
tiptoed down the passage, and listened outside. The door was thick, and
denied them the full benefit of the conversation, but they caught such
words as "cheek", "disgusting", and "abominable", so retreated
satisfied. They expected a storm next morning, but, rather to their
surprise, the prefects took no notice of the matter. Adah had decided
that it would be undignified to make a fuss.
"It will fall flat if we say nothing!" she urged.
"We'll just jolly well lock up our cocoa tin in future, though!"
announced Consie indignantly.