the direct result of gwen's transaction about the china was to fling her into the arms of netta goodwin. with such a secret between them it was impossible not to be friendly, and though netta was hardly an ideal chum, there seemed no choice in the matter. moreover, she was the only one in the fifth who had offered advances; the other girls, still indignant at the promotion of a junior, turned the cold shoulder. this unfortunate intimacy caused gwen to be banned the more.
"i see gwen gascoyne has taken up with netta goodwin," said hilda browne.
"then that stamps her," replied edith arnold. "i wouldn't touch netta with a pair of tongs myself. i thought better of the gascoynes!"
netta was a type of girl that can be found in every school and almost every form. rather deficient in moral fibre, and badly trained at home, her influence was always on the wrong side. she was clever enough, as a rule, just to avoid getting into open trouble with the authorities, but under the surface she was a source of disturbance. she had a certain following of gigglers and slackers, who thought
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her escapades funny, and were ready to act chorus to her lead, and though she had never done anything specially outrageous, her reputation at headquarters was not good. every teacher realized only too plainly that netta was the firebrand of the form, and that while she might preserve a smug exterior it was really she who was responsible for any outbreaks of lawlessness among the others.
as junior mistress of the fifth no one had more reason to be aware of this than winnie gascoyne. teaching was uphill work to winnie. she had not beatrice's commanding disposition and capacity for administration, consequently it was the more difficult for her to keep order and enforce rules. she did her conscientious best, but girls easily find out a governess's weak point, and at present netta was trying how far she could go. "ragging miss gascoyne" was a favourite pastime of hers, and one which afforded much sport to her applauders, if not to the victim of her jokes.
a few mornings after gwen's introduction to the fifth there was a class for memory map drawing with the assistant teacher. each girl was supposed to come prepared to make a map of india, and to mark in a large number of places, a fairly difficult task, and one over which many of them grumbled in unison.
"it's not fair! it takes such heaps of time to go over it at home, one hasn't a second for anything else!" wailed minna jennings.
"i'd a raging headache last night, and my mother said she thought rodenhurst was getting too much for me," bleated millicent cooper.
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"poor frail flower! you look as if you'd wither at a breath! better pack you off to a sanatorium!" laughed netta.
"and you to a lunatic asylum, you mad thing! don't you ever get headaches with all this over-swatting?"
"no, my child, for i know a dodge or two! n. g. is no infant in arms, i assure you."
"deign to explain, o commander of the faithful!" begged annie edwards.
"well, as i told you, i'm up to a thing or two, and i flatter myself i know just exactly how to tackle grinnie."
"who's grinnie?" asked gwen rather sharply.
the others roared.
"my sweet babe, my dear ex-junior, let us initiate you into the shibboleths of the fifth! yes, seniors indulge in their little nicknames as well as the lower school, though perhaps we are rather more cultured in our choice of them. be it known to you then that our respected head, vulgarly called the bogey by ill-trained juniors, is among our elect set yclept lemonade, partly owing to her habit of fizzing over, and partly to a certain acid quality in her temper, otherwise hard to define. miss douglas, our honoured form mistress, being a canny scot, goes by the familiar appellation of thistles, intended also to subtly convey our appreciation—or shall i say depreciation?—of her prickly habit."
"and grinnie?" continued gwen.
"your sister, by her perpetual smile, courted the title."
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"it's no good exploding, gwen!" said annie edwards. "if you've got a sister who's a teacher you'll just have to hear her called nicknames. you don't suppose we're going to shut up on your account?"
"and you needn't go sneaking, either, or it'll be the worse for you," added minna jennings.
"we'd soon know who'd told tales," snapped millicent cooper.
"peace, turbulent herd!" said netta, holding up her hand. "our friend gwen, being of a sensible disposition, and a lover, like ourselves, of all wholesome jests, fully realizes the exigencies of her peculiar situation. though in the seclusion of her home she may be bound by many natural ties, family obligations cease entirely in the classroom. if her sister is a mistress, she is a pupil, and therefore bound to side with her form through all those trials of tact known as 'thick and thin'. have i not put the thing in a nutshell, o gwendolen mine?"
gwen could not help laughing, for there was undoubted truth in netta's argument. winnie would, she knew, treat her with the utmost impartiality, probably even more strictly, owing to their relationship. it would certainly never do if she were to be regarded as a sneak in the form, ready to report misdoings and make mischief; such a character would be intolerable to her. winnie must fight her own battles, and she would throw in her luck with her peers.
"you needn't be afraid of me!" she protested. "i'd be the very last to blab; and i like fun as well as anybody."
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"i knew it, oh, altogether-wise-in-judgment! have i not proved thee?" returned netta, with a meaning look in her eyes which only gwen understood. "now, having established thy reputation, i will return to my original thingumgigs."
"oh, netta, stop being a lunatic, and tell us how you mean to tackle grinnie!" interposed minna.
"well, my little dears, it's extremely simple, but a work of genius all the same. genius always is simple, i believe! behold my mapping book with its virgin page. behold also this spotless piece of blotting paper. i turn it over, and hey, presto! a transformation. here's my map, nicely done in pencil, with all the names marked. nothing to do but copy it, you see. at the least approach of danger i turn it with its most innocent side up."
the girls sniggered their admiration. gwen could not approve, but she did not protest. it was not her business to preach, so she told herself. as long as she did her own work honestly, she could not begin her career in the fifth by assuming the very character she had just denied. minna and annie, inspired by netta's brilliant idea, were copying the map on to pieces of blotting paper as fast as they could.
"it wouldn't be a bad plan to trace it the wrong way, and then rub it off like a transfer," suggested millicent.
"just a little too clever, most astute one! grinnie comes round to look, and she'd think you'd got on too quickly, and want to know the reason why. you're bright, millicent cooper, but you're not far-seeing."
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"you'll get caught yourself some time," said millicent.
"true, o queen! but i'll have somewhat in the shape of a run first," laughed netta.
gwen felt rather indignant as she began her map drawing. she hated cheating, and it seemed very unjust that netta and the others should win credit for what was not fairly their own work.
"winnie's not half sharp enough," she thought. "if it were beatrice, now, there isn't a girl in the room would dare to try any tricks."
possibly even winnie had her suspicions. she kept a watchful eye on the form, and made an occasional tour round the desks. netta was extremely cautious, but all the same her attention to her blotting paper was rather conspicuous.
"netta goodwin, hand me your mapping book!"
netta started in some confusion at the abrupt order, and dropped both mapbook and blotting paper on to the floor. gwen, equally startled, moved her hand hastily and sent her book spinning after the other. it was a complete accident, but one by which netta did not hesitate to profit. under the shelter of the desk she rapidly substituted gwen's piece of blotting paper for her own, then passed up the book with an air of sangfroid truly heroic in the eyes of annie, minna, and millicent. miss gascoyne examined the pages carefully, but finding nothing incriminating, supposed she had been mistaken. netta might be the chief sinner of the form, certainly, but she was not invariably at fault.
"she thought i was as innocent as mary's little
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lamb!" laughed that damsel afterwards. "you were a trump, gwen, to help me. it was a smart notion of yours to drop your book too. you did it so promptly!" then putting her arm round gwen's neck she whispered: "i helped you when you were in a tight hole, and i'm glad to see you're going to stand by me. i shall always count upon you in future."
so thus it happened that almost in spite of herself gwen became netta's ally, pledged to support her on all occasions. she was afraid to risk a quarrel lest netta should press for the return of the ten shillings she had lent. the debt felt a millstone round her neck, from which there was no immediate chance of relief. netta's particular clique of friends, proving gwen safe, included her in their special set, a compromising arrangement which seemed nevertheless inevitable. the girls did not really mean much harm, but they were silly and flippant, and enjoyed evading rules simply for the fun of the thing. netta loved to show off before the others, and because she found miss gascoyne an easier victim than miss douglas, she kept most of her sallies for the junior teacher. she could estimate to a nicety the fine distinction between giving trouble and open defiance. she never actually overstepped the line, but she contrived to make matters very unpleasant for poor winnie. it was her boast that she could always raise a spark out of miss gascoyne, and her admirers were ready to titter in sympathy.
winnie, mindful of her position as teacher, never mentioned school affairs to gwen; but one day beatrice tackled the latter on the subject.
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"i hear you've struck up a friendship with netta goodwin," she began. "i'm very surprised, for she doesn't seem a nice sort of girl."
"she's the only one who's been kind to me," returned gwen, up in arms at once at beatrice's tone.
"indeed! well, i wouldn't be too much with her if i were you. i'm afraid she's anything but desirable."
"who said i was much with her? has winnie been telling tales about me?"
"don't be nasty, gwen. you know winnie never tells."
"there's no particular harm in netta," protested gwen, taking up the cudgels for her schoolmate out of sheer contrariness. "she's only rather lively and funny. i suppose that's no great crime."
"are you sure father would like her?"
"dad doesn't know her, so i can't pretend to say what he'd think of her," retorted gwen, shuffling out of the matter with what she knew was a lame excuse.
