9 daphne is annoyed
miss parker was surprised and annoyed when she heard that daphne was not to go with the class on their long walk. she looked crossly at mam’zelle.
“but why this sudden desire for french on daphne’s part?” she said. “she’s just the type of girl that needs a jolly good long walk—yes, and a muddy one too. shake some of her airs and graces off her! give her the extra lesson another time, mam’zelle.”
but mam’zelle was obstinate. she did not like miss parker, with her big nose. she pursed up her small mouth and shook her head. “i cannot take daphne any other time. it is good of the girl to give up a nice walk to improve her french.”
miss parker made a disbelieving noise that irritated mam’zelle at once. “she wants to get out of the walk, you know that perfectly well, mam’zelle. it’s foolish to give her her way like that; daphne gets her way too easily, and i don’t like some of her methods. too underhand for me!”
mam’zelle stood up for her favourite, and began to exaggerate. “miss parker! if you knew how much that girl wanted to go for her walk! ah, to splash through the autumn lanes! ah, to sniff the sea air after being cooped up so long! daphne has sacrificed her pleasure, and she should be praised for that, not blamed. she will be hard at work with me whilst you are all enjoying yourselves out in the lovely air.”
“well, she wouldn’t take mam’zelle rougier in quite so easily as she takes you,” said miss parker, beginning to lose her temper. “she sees through her all right!”
mam’zelle began to bristle. “i will have a word with mam’zelle rougier,” she began. “i will have two, three, four words. she shall not say things about daphne, who is getting so much better at french!”
“let’s drop the subject,” said miss parker, feeling heartily tired of daphne. “go and have it out with mam’zelle rougier if you like. i don’t care! except that i feel daphne has got the better of us, i’m glad not to have her with us on the walk, moaning and groaning, dragging her feet along!”
daphne could not resist telling everyone of the way she had managed to get out of the walk. gwendoline wished she had been sharp enough to do the same. the others were frankly disgusted with the hypocritical little trick.
“fancy doing all that just to get out of going for a walk!” said darrell. “it’ll be fun, splashing through the puddles in our wellingtons. well—if you want to spend the afternoon doing french verbs, good luck to you! that’s just like you, somehow, daphne.”
but, the walk didn’t come off after all! the wind blew itself into a gale, and miss parker decided that it must be put off. the girls were just putting on their macs and wellingtons when she came to the cloakroom to tell them. daphne had already taken her french book to mam’zelle.
“girls! i’m sorry! but the wind has become a perfect gale!” said miss parker, appearing suddenly in the cloakroom. “the walk is off. but to make up, we’ll all go into the gym and have an afternoon of riotous games, shall we? and i’ll get matron to let us have a picnic tea in there, to make a change, if some of you will carry the stuff.”
the girls cheered. an afternoon of jolly games—racing round, competing with one another, laughing, yelling—and ending up with a picnic tea on the floor. that certainly would be a change!
matron came up to scratch too—she provided four super chocolate cakes for a treat, as well as two pots of golden honey. the girls were thrilled.
“what about daphne, miss parker?” said mary-lou, remembering that daphne was with mam’zelle. “shall i go and fetch her?”
“idiot!” said alicia, under her breath. “fancy reminding miss parker about daphne! serve her right to miss all this! i’ll tell mary-lou what i think of her in a minute!”
miss parker looked down at mary-lou’s anxious face, and wondered for the twentieth time why mary-lou bothered about daphne when she had darrell and sally for friends.
“oh, mary-lou, no, you mustn’t disturb daphne!” said miss parker, clearly, so that all the listening girls heard quite well. “she badly wanted to have this extra coaching, mam’zelle tells me, and was quite willing to forgo the walk. she would be willing to forgo the games and picnic too, i am sure. we mustn’t disturb her. when a girl shows herself to be as studious as that it would be a pity to spoil it all.”
mary-lou was the only one who did not see the sly humour of miss parker’s words. the others did immediately, and a roar of laughter broke out. miss parker smiled too.
“sucks for daphne!” said alicia. “serves her jolly well right!”
they had a gay and riotous afternoon, and got thoroughly tired and dusty. then they sat down to an enormous tea, demolishing bread and butter and honey and the four chocolate cakes in no time.
daphne appeared just as the last piece of cake was eaten. she had had an extremely boring afternoon, for mam’zelle dupont had taken her at her word and had given her some very, very thorough coaching in the french verbs. she had made poor daphne repeat them after her scores of times, she had corrected her pronunciation conscientiously, she had even made her write them out.
daphne wished heartily she had never suggested such a thing. she had thought that she would have had a nice cosy time with mam’zelle, talking about herself. but although mam’zelle was fond of daphne and quite taken in by her, she was determined to do her duty as regards coaching the girl. so she kept poor daphne’s nose to the grindstone, and when daphne faintly protested, saying that she thought she had bothered mam’zelle enough and the girls would be back from their walk now, surely, mam’zelle pooh-poohed the idea at once.
“we shall hear the girls come back,” she said, not knowing that they had never gone out. “as soon as we hear them, you shall go down and join them, ma petite, and you will enjoy your tea, i am sure. a good conscience makes us enjoy our food well.”
when mam’zelle, puzzled by the non-appearance of the girls back from their walk, sent daphne down to see what had happened, the girl could have burst into tears when she saw the empty plates, the cake all gone, and the happy faces of the second-formers in the gym.
“you mean pigs!” she cried. “you didn’t go out after all! and you’ve had tea without me!”
“we couldn’t disturb you at your extra french lesson,” grinned alicia. “dear miss parker quite agreed it would be a pity to spoil it for you, as you were so anxious to have it.”
daphne glared at gwendoline. “you might have come for me,” she said. “you could easily have slipped off and fetched me!”
“the only person who tried to get you was mary-lou,” said sally. “she actually went up to miss parker and suggested that she should go and get you. mary-lou doesn’t think that extra french is preferable to walks or games.”
daphne looked at mary-lou and felt warm towards her. not even gwendoline, her friend, had tried to get her out of that awful french lesson to join the games. but mary-lou had. mary-lou had thought loyally of her.
“thanks, mary-lou,” said daphne, and turned a rather watery smile on her. “i won’t forget that. that was decent of you.”
from that time the selfish, boastful, untrustworthy daphne was nice to mary-lou, not only because the smaller girl helped her so much with her french but because she really liked her and admired her. perhaps never before had daphne really liked anyone for themselves.
mary-lou, of course, was delighted. she had quite fallen under daphne’s spell, and was too simple to see the faults in the girl’s character. she was very happy to be with her, and delighted to help her whenever she could. she did not even see that the help she gave almost amounted to making daphne cheat, for many an evening she did practically the whole of daphne’s prep for her.
gwendoline began to be jealous of mary-lou, for she sensed that daphne was really beginning to like her very much. but daphne always laughed when gwendoline spoke to her about it.
“you know i’m only using her!” she said. “don’t be a mutt, gwen. you’re my friend and i don’t want anybody else. i’ve nothing whatever in common with mary-lou—she’s a silly little simpleton, a stupid little mouse!”
it was a good thing that mary-lou did not hear these remarks, for she would have been shocked and hurt. she was very glad to feel that daphne really did like her. she often lay in bed thinking of the girl’s beautiful hair and lovely smile. she wished she was as charming as that. but she wasn’t, and never would be.
daphne did not forgive the others for being mean enough not to warn her, when they knew the walk was off. she was even a little cold to gwendoline about it, and gwendoline, fearful of losing her grand friend’s liking, made haste to lick her boots again, listening to all daphne’s tales with most satisfactory attention.
sally heard daphne one evening. she was sitting near the curtain in the common-room and the two girls, gwen and daphne, did not see her.
“didn’t i ever tell you about the time my mother gave a party on board our yacht, and i sat next to the prince at supper?” began daphne.
“were you allowed to sit up to supper?” said gwendoline. “and whatever did you find to say to a prince?”
“oh, well—he seemed to admire my hair and talked to me awfully nicely,” said daphne, beginning to embroider her tale as usual. “i stayed up till one o’clock that night. the yacht was lovely. it had little lights all over it, and people on land said it looked beautiful—like a ship in a fairy-tale.”
“what were you dressed in?” asked gwendoline.
“oh—a frilly frock with little pearls all over it and my pearl necklace. it’s worth hundreds of pounds,” said daphne.
gwendoline gasped. “where is it?” she said.
“oh, i’m not allowed to bring anything like that to school,” said daphne. “mother’s very strict about things of that sort, you know. i haven’t any jewellery here—or grand dresses—or anything you haven’t got.”
“no. i’ve noticed that—i think it’s very sensible of your mother,” said gwendoline.
sally had got tired of all this grand talk. she slipped off the window-sill. “it’s a pity your mother didn’t supply you with your own lacrosse stick, and another pair of shoes, and plenty of writing-paper,” she remarked. “then you wouldn’t have to keep borrowing from everyone else! a little less yacht, and fewer cars—and more envelopes and a book of stamps would be better for you, daphne!”
daphne looked haughtily at sally. “mind your own business!” she said. “i was talking to gwen.”
“it is my business!” persisted sally. “you are always borrowing from one or other of us—and you never pay back! as you’re so rich, you ought to use some of your plentiful pocket-money to buy the things you lack!”
“beast!” said daphne, as sally went out of the room. “she’s jealous of me, i suppose—just because her people aren’t as well-off as mine!”
