Brenda Page

“ The girls looked at one another in perplexity till Deirdre Samways said slowly: "I suppose Pam wouldn't consider playing in goal for the hockey eleven? Don't you remember last year, when the netball pitch was under water, Pam joined us in hockey practices and kicked the ball out for us as if she'd done it all her life? She's our best wicket-keeper too."
All eyes were turned to Pam. Here was an idea!
"If Pam could keep goal at hockey anything like she does at netball!" exclaimed Glenda. "She is as quick as lightning." ”

“ Monica seemed to shrink back in her seat.
"Nothing," she replied sullenly. "I haven't anything to say. I didn't send the telegram, though."
"We don't suppose you did," retorted Lorna with sarcasm, "seeing that it was sent from London. No doubt you got someone to send it for you."
"Don't argue with her, girls," advised Olive. "She isn't worth it. Just ignore her. If this is true, there are plenty who will see the matter isn't overlooked."
"Prinny for one," stated Lorna. "Madge and Irene went to tell her all about it." ”

“ Nat agreed. Then, touched by Monica's forlorn words and look, she added impulsively: "I say, I'm sorry I made such a fuss over that business about Irene and the hockey match. I expect I sounded an awful prig. Let's forget it, shall we? I'd much rather be in my own study with you—even with all those horrible things on the walls—than pushing myself in with other girls who don't really want me, nice though they are about it, and where there isn't room for my big feet." ”

“ Monica stirred restlessly. "I don't want their friendship," she muttered, then added after a pause: "Besides, from what you say they were all ready to be nasty to me when I arrived—except Nat."
"Well, Nat spoke up for you," said Allison sharply. She went on in a gentler tone: "Nat's a nice kid, even if she does miss important catches at cricket and turn up at school parties with one stocking inside out. You won't come to much harm through her, if she's your friend." ”

“ She might waste a long time wandering vainly about. The hounds were nowhere in view; it might be twenty minutes or more before any of them arrived at this spot. If Nat were injured she would even now be drowning in the well water. What—oh, what could she do?
All these thoughts flashed through Monica's mind in a few fleeting seconds. Then her glance fell upon the windlass and the rope hanging over the well-mouth, falling into the depths below. It was only six years, Nat had said, since the farm had been occupied and the well used. ”

“ If she was going to begin to preach to her——
"How do you like the Fifth?" Allison asked in quite a friendly tone.
"I haven't thought much about them. They seem very pleased with themselves always," replied Monica calmly.
Allison laughed. "Oh, they are quite a nice lot really, but they've always been looked upon as a model form because they do their lessons conscientiously, so they've become rather self-satisfied. How do you like Nathalie?"
"Nathalie?" Monica stared uncomprehendingly.
"Nat Sandrich. Nathalie's her real name, you know, but it doesn't fit very well." ”

“ Deirdre, who was the possessor of an even, placid disposition, only smiled. "But perhaps Nat really is a good player," she said. "She's pretty good at most games, isn't she?"
"Yes, quite," replied Pam. "Only she's generally an unlucky sort of player—falls down or something just at the critical moment."
"Yes," added Madge. "Don't you remember last sports day, how she led all through the obstacle race and at the very last obstacle, when everybody thought she was bound to win, she got stuck while crawling between the rungs of the ladder and could move neither forwards nor backwards? ”

“ The girls looked at one another, but no one said anything.
"What I think," continued Glenda, "is that it's rather hard lines on us to have a girl of this sort foisted on us. If she's too bad a character for one school to put up with, then she isn't good enough for St. Etheldreda's."
"Hear, hear!" came from one or two listeners.
"Well," said red-haired Irene, the top girl of the form, "we aren't all saints by any means, but I've never yet heard of a girl at St. Etheldreda's who has had to be threatened with expulsion. I don't want to chum up with a girl of that sort." ”

“ Netball is a far superior game."
Nat looked supremely incredulous. "How do you make that out? Netball is tame compared with hockey."
"Hockey makes you round-shouldered, so a famous doctor once said."
"Netball's a soft game," Nat countered, adding conclusively: "Look at Allison's black eye last year and the time when Madge Amhurst had a front tooth knocked out. Whoever heard of anyone getting a black eye or black-and-blue ankles at netball! Anyone can last through a thirty minutes' netball match, but you've got to be up to form to last to the end of seventy minutes' gruelling hockey." ”

“ Prue's eyes began to sparkle. Then her face fell. "Yes, but where could we hide them so they couldn't be found? Short of digging a hole in the garden and burying them—and for that we've neither the time nor the tools—where could we put them? They'll search everywhere, every nook and corner."
Monica bent forward and whispered earnestly in the ears of the other two girls. When she had finished, Meggie was giggling and Prue smiling broadly.
"It might work," Prue admitted. "They might not think of looking there. ”

“ Allison was smiling. "So it's the new girl, then, that's so keen on learning?" she said.
"Well, you see, she's made up her mind she's coming out top of the exams this term. She wants to crow over the Fifth, and she seems a person who can be very obstinate when she gets an idea into her mind. There's French and Latin on one wall, as you see, and maths on the second. That's the last theorem we've learnt, also the formula for arithmetical progression or something of that sort. The third wall is devoted to history and geography. ”

“ In a very few minutes an excited little group of hockey players, who had gathered in the hall to await the dinner bell, were discussing the bad news in dismay.
"Oh dear!" said Glenda, as Madge gave them the details. "What hard luck for Allison! I do hope her mother's illness isn't serious! Rotten luck for us, too, though, of course, we shan't mind if things come right for Allison. I'm afraid it means losing the match to-day. Allison at centre-half is as good as half a dozen ordinary players, and we've no one to put in her place."
The girls nodded with grave faces. ”

“ The first period that morning was devoted to a Scripture lesson, and while the majority of the class conscientiously endeavoured to trace the genealogy of the numerous kings of Israel and Judah, the new girl fidgeted restlessly in her seat, now gazing round the room at the pictures hanging on the walls, now scribbling aimlessly on her desk with her pencil. She certainly did not appear to be giving much attention to the lesson, but Miss Bennett, for some reason or other, chose to take no notice of her. Just as the bell went and Miss Bennett was rising to go out, Monica appeared to wake up. ”

“ Irene interjected sharply. "Personally I refuse to take part if Monica Carr does. She can't play fair."
Nat answered smartly. "I don't see that you have any right to criticize anyone for not playing fair. Do you call it playing fair to pry into and purloin another girl's private correspondence?"
Irene subsided with flaming cheeks and a look on her face that was half anger, half shame.
So Nat got her way in the end. Punctually at a quarter to two the next afternoon a large crowd of girls assembled at the school gates. ”

“ For a moment Deirdre could not think who she was, then she remembered the queer new girl whose disturbing ways had caused so much talk in the Fifth.
"Whom do you mean?" she asked curiously.
"Nat Sandrich," replied Monica. "She's tremendously fast, and clever too. I can't think how it is she hasn't got a place in the first eleven."
Deirdre was not at all a clever girl. Her interests were chiefly in outdoor pursuits, particularly games, a subject on which she was always willing to talk. ”

“ Our form is playing a school eleven, as there aren't enough girls in the Sixth to make up an eleven of their own."
"Yes, but what I meant was, which girl is batting for the Fifth and which for the school?"
Nat burst out laughing. "Why, both batsmen are on one side, of course."
"And all those other girls?"
"Oh, they are all on the other side and trying to get the batsmen out. There is the bowler; the wicket-keeper—the girl with the pads on—and the rest are fielding."
It was Monica's turn to look astonished. "What, two against one, two, three—ten, eleven! I don't call that a bit fair." ”

“ Half an hour later they drifted back to the gym room to report failure in every direction. The Fourth and Third Forms, not to mention the Second, had stoutly denied all knowledge of the missing sticks, and seemed as genuinely surprised at their disappearance as the seniors themselves, though the netball players seemed amused at the news. As for Prue Preston, everybody affirmed that she had been with the rest of the Fourth all the evening after prep time, first in the common room at a meeting and then playing draughts with the indoor games club. Monica Carr had also been with them. ”

“ Even the select little band of Sixth-formers, never noted for over-working themselves, seemed to have caught some of the prevailing atmosphere of restlessness. Miss Bennett, who was not very interested in the girls, beyond seeing that they worked well and adhered rigidly to the school rules, put it down to the incessantly wet weather. Miss Cazalet, who took more interest in the girls' pursuits outside lesson hours than any of the other mistresses, was still in bed. ”

“ Tea bell put an end to the search, but it is to be feared that the prep of many of the Sixth and Fifth suffered that night from lack of the usual time and care bestowed upon it. Girls gathered in groups in each other's studies, still discussing the mystery and suggesting hiding-places, but all efforts proved fruitless. One or two lucky girls, who had not put their sticks back in their proper places after the last game, still retained possession of them, but two people alone could not play hockey and until the rest of the sticks turned up there could be neither practice nor match. ”

“ You girls, living together in what we call a 'community life,' have so many opportunities of 'putting in' as well as 'getting out,' of making our school life here happier and brighter and jollier for us all. ”

“ I can run fast, though I've never learnt any of your games. I used to run about for miles in the country where I lived, and never get tired."
Nat surveyed the slight but alert figure beside her.
"Well, you are certainly light and skinny rather than fat," she admitted, "and you look as if you could run. Come on round with me and let's see how long you can last."
Nat started off with a burst of speed, but glancing round after covering two or three hundred yards she found that Monica was only a few feet behind her. "Yes, you can run quite fast," she jerked out, then dropped into a jog-trot. ”

“ To do her justice, I think Lilian was rather ashamed when she heard that another girl had got into serious trouble through her own misdeeds."
"Then Lilian alone was responsible for that telegram?"
"Yes. She says she got a cousin who lived in London to send it."
"But why didn't Monica explain all this?" asked Allison, perplexed.
"Ah! that is harder to understand. As I said before, I could get little out of her beside a few bald answers to direct questions. Some people find it very hard to unburden themselves, you know—especially children. ”