5 sorting themselves out.
the first week went slowly by. it always did go slowly, and then after that the weeks went faster andfaster. all the girls had now settled in well, and were enjoying themselves.
the weather kept fine and warm and there was still bathing to be had for those who wanted it thetennis courts were still in use too, although the winter game of lacrosse was now being played. sothere was plenty to do in spare time.
gwendoline and daphne had become firm friends. gwendoline had not had a proper friend duringthe four terms she had been at malory towers and she was thrilled to have daphne. she admired thegirl's prettiness and her charming ways, and loved to hear the stories of her wealthy home.
the two girls had much in common. neither of them liked the water and nothing would persuadethem to take a dip in the pool.
"we have to do enough of that each summer." objected gwendoline, one hot day, when her formtried to get her to come along and bathe, "we don't have to swim this term, so fm jolly well notgoing to. anyway, you don't really want me to come—all you want me for is to creep behind me andpush me in!”
"no—we want belinda to see you shivering in your bathing suit, putting one toe gingerly into thewater!” said alicia. "it would make such a comical picture for our classroom wall. gwendoline!“"beast!” said gwendoline, who hated to be made fun of. she walked off with daphne. "just becausethey live, violent things like swimming and tennis and rough games, they think everyone ought to,"she said to daphne. "after alt you and i have never been to school before we came here, and wellnever get used to all their stupid ideas. i wish i had been born french. then i shouldn't have had toswim if i didn't want to. or tire myself out trying to hit a silly ball over a net""we have three courts at home." said daphne. two are hard and one is soft. you see. mother is amarvellous hostess, and she likes to give tennis parties as well as other kinds. but, of course, the onespeople really love are the ones she gives on board daddy's yacht.”
gwendoline hadn't heard about the yacht before. she gazed enviously at her friend. perhaps daphnewould invite her to stay one summer holiday and then she too could go on this wonderful yacht. howpleased her mother would be to know she had made such a fine friend at last!
"you must have hated coming away to school. daphne," she said. "leaving all your luxury, andhaving to pig it here. i don't expect you ever made your bed in your life before you came here.""of course i didn't," said daphne, shaking back her pretty hair. "and i bet you didn't either!”
"no. i didn't," said gwendoline. "my governess miss winter always did things like that for me. shestill does in the holidays. she's a stupid old thing but she's useful in those ways. she wasn't muchgood at teaching me, though, i was awfully backward when i first came here."gwendoline still was! instead of getting down to things and trying to work really hard all the term tocatch up with the others, she made a great show and did very little. her parents were almost resignedto the fact that her reports always contained the words "fair. could work harder.” "weak. does notuse her brains enough." "poor—has not tried her best"her father made plenty of cutting remarks about her reports, but as her mother always sympathizedwith gwendoline, and spoilt her. his remarks did no good at all, except to make gwendoline cross.
then she would burst into tears and it would be all that miss winter and her mother could do tocomfort her. gwendoline knew how to turn on her tears all rightand daphne knew how to turn on her charming smile! it got her out of a good deal of trouble,especially with mam’zelle dupont miss linnie the art mistress, and mr. young the singing master.
mam'zelle could not resist that smile. daphne could make it sweet, pathetic, brave, affectionate—itwas extraordinary what a smile could be!
when daphne presented a badly written french exercise to mam'zelle, she would turn on her smile,and mam'zelle would gaze warmly at her. ah, the pretty child!
"i've done my best, mam'zelle," daphne would say, still keeping on her smile. "but i'm afraid it's notvery
good yet. you see—it's so difficult my not having been to school before.”
then the smile would become rather pathetic, and mam'zelle, quite overcome, would pat daphne'sarm.
"you do your best, mes enfant! you cannot do more! see, i will help you if you like to come to me inthe evenings for extra work!"
mam'zelle would make this generous offer, beaming all over her face. but daphne was quick enoughto deal with it at once. she would shake her head regretfully and say how sorry she was, but alreadyshe had extra work with another mistress.
then on would come that smile again, and the blue eyes would look beseechingly at mam'zelle.
"do not make me do all this french work again, please. mam'zelle,” she would say. i have so muchto do. to catch up with the others my first term.”
and. no matter who had their french exercises to do all over again. daphne never did. she could doanything with mam'zelle, if only she exerted her charm and put on that ravishing smile!
unfortunately it worked the other way with miss parker. miss potts and mam'zelle rougjer —especially with mam'zelle rougier, who, as a rule, made it a habit to dislike those girls that the othermam'zelle liked, and to tike those she didn'tshe was hard on daphne, and soon it became impossible for the girl even to try to smile at her. theyboth disliked one another intensely. if it had not been for the unexpected help of somebody else in theclass, daphne would have had a very bad time, and have bad all her work returned from mam'zellerougier.
that somebody was. surprisingly enough. mary-lout mary-lou had become exceedingly good atfrench, for her mother had had a french girl to look after her in the holidays for the past year, andmary- lou could chatter almost as well in french now, as she could in english, pleasing bothmam'zelles immensely.
mary-loo thought daphne was lovely. she couldn’t help gazing and gazing at her. she would never,never like her as much as she liked darrell and sally, of course, but she couldn't help warming to herprettiness and nice manners.
one day she saw daphne almost in tears over some returned work from mam'zelle rougier. who hadtold daphne that she would return it yet again if it was not given in perfect this time. mary-lou wentto her.
"can't gwendoline help you?" she asked timidly. "she's not doing anything in particular. shall i askher to come and help you?”
daphne dabbed her eyes and turned a watery but still charming smile on mary-lou. "no, it's no goodasking gwen. she'd help if she could. but she's not much better than i am at french!”
"well—i suppose you wouldn’t like me to help you, would you?" asked mary-lou, eagerly. "i'd liketo.”
"oh, thanks awfully." said daphne, thrilled, "you're frightfully good at it, i know. simply wizard.
look, what have i done wrong here?"
mary-lou slipped happily into a seat beside daphne and began to explain a few things to her.
without realizing it she had soon done the whole of the work, and daphne smiled to herself, andthanked mary-lou warmly.
"that's all right," said mary-lou, shyly. she gazed at daphne's curling golden hair. "you've gotbeautiful hair," she said.
daphne was like gwen. she loved people to admireher and say nice things. she looked at little mary-lou and quite liked her. also she thought it wouldbe extremely useful if mary-lou would always help her with her french.
"i suppose you wouldn't give me a hand with my french sometimes, would you?" she asked. i don'twant any extra coaching from either of the mam'zelles, but i'd love to let you explain things to me.
you explain very well.”
nobody had ever asked mary-lou for help before in that way. she went brilliant red, and swallowedhard.
i'd love to." she said at last. "fancy me helping you! i'm the one that's usually always rushing roundfor help. i'd love to, daphne."
so, to the astonishment of the second-formers, they saw the curious sight of little mary-lou sitting bydaphne in the evenings at the end of the common-room, carefully explaining the mistakes made inthe french exercise of the day before!
"and doing all the next day's work for her too!” said darrell in disgust she didn't like to see thefaithful mary-lou sitting so long with somebody else. why, mary-lou had tagged along behinddarrell and sally for terms and terms! surely she wasn't going to make mat awful daphne her friend.
"let her be," said the sensible sally. "if she wants to help her, why not? daphne is awful at french,but i don't blame her for not taking extra coaching from the mam'zelles. you know bow irritablemam'zelle rougier gets in the evening, and you know how long mam'zelle dupont keeps you if youdo go for extra work. you're supposed to go for half an hour and she keeps you two hours!”
"i hope daphne won't put any of her silly ideas into mary-lou's head,” said darrell.
"maybe mary-lou will put a few sensible ideas into daphne's head," said sally. i know you'relonging to interfere, darrell, don't!"
the gills soon sorted themselves out in the form, making their own friends, choosing people to sitnext to and go walks with. it was nice to have a particular friend, and to have someone to confide in.
sally had darrell and darrell had sally. irene had belinda. the two became quite inseparable, anddid one another no good. what one forgot the other certainly didn't remember! they seemed to makeone another worse.
alicia, of course, had betty. alicia was not as good-tempered as usual. she still smarted because shehad not been made head-girl, and she was not at all nice to sally nor as loyal to her as she shouldhave been. sally took no notice, but she was not very happy about itgwen had daphne, of course—and now mary-lou seemed to want daphne too! how was gwengoing to feel about that?
"you needn't worry,” said daphne to gwen. "i'm only using her. silly little thing! i'll let her come outwith me sometimes, when you're busy, because i don't want her to mink i only want her help for myfrench. you can use her too, gwen. copy my work when i've done it!"so gwendoline put up with mary-lou's company at times, and even said nothing when she went offalone with daphne. what did it matter? daphne was only using her!
but all the same daphne couldn't help liking little mary-lou—and it was certainly a change from thesilly gwen to have good-hearted mary-lou trotting by her side once or twice a week!
