Rhoda gasped with dismay.

"What! Those frightful things with square toes and no heels! Those awful tubs that Thomasina waddles about in!"

Miss Everett laughed gaily. She was only a girl herself, and she cast a quick glance up and down the corridor to see if any one were coming before she drew aside her skirt to exhibit her own flat feet.

"They _are_ awful! I love pretty shoes, too; and the first time I wore these I--I _cried_! I was very home-sick, you see, and nervous and anxious about my work, and it seemed the last straw. Never mind! it's only a little thing, and on Thursday you shall wear your very best pair and I'll wear mine, and we'll compare notes and see which is the prettier."

To say that Rhoda adored her is to state the matter feebly. She could have knelt down in the pa.s.sage and kissed the ugly little feet; she could have done homage before this young mistress as before a saint; when the light streamed out of a window and rested on her head, it seemed to take the form of a halo!

She went meekly downstairs, procured the shoes, and carried them into Dorothy's cubicle, to display before the eyes of that horrified young woman.

"There! We've got to wear those, too! It's the rule. Miss Everett told me, and gave me an order to get them. You had better ask her for one before Thomasina gets a chance."

Dorothy looked at her solemnly, and measured the slipper against her own neat shoe; then she took off the latter and held the two side by side.

One was arched and slim, the other flat and square; one had French heels and little sparkling buckles, the other was of dull leather, unrelieved by any trace of ornament.

"Here's deggeradation!" she sighed hopelessly. "Here's deggeradation!"

CHAPTER SEVEN.

THE RECORD WALL.

There was no end to the surprises of that wonderful school! When Rhoda returned to her cubicle to get "tidy" for dinner, she washed, brushed her hair, put an extra pin in her tie to make sure that it was straight, wriggled round before the gla.s.s to see that belt and bodice were immaculately connected, put a clean handkerchief in her pocket, nicked the clothes-brush over her skirt, and, what could one do more? It seemed on the face of it that one could do nothing, but the other girls had accomplished a great deal more than this. Rhoda never forgot the shock of dismay which she experienced on first stepping forth, and beholding them. It was surely a room full of boys, not girls, for skirts had disappeared, and knickerbockers reigned in their stead. The girls wore gym. costumes, composed of the aforesaid knickers, and a short tunic, girt round the waist with a blue sash, to represent the inevitable house colour. Thomasina's aspect was astounding, as she strode to and fro awaiting the gathering of her forces, and the new girls stared at her with distended eyeb.a.l.l.s. Rhoda had registered a vow never to volunteer a remark to the hateful creature; but Dorothy stammered out a breathless--

"You never said--We never knew--Is it a _rule_?"

"Not compulsory, or I would have told you; you may do as you please.

They wear gyms, at Wycombe in the afternoon, and we have adopted the idea to a certain extent. Most of the girls prefer it for the sake of the games, for it is so much easier to run about like this. For myself, I affect it for the sake of appearances. It is so becoming to my youthful charms."

She simpered as she spoke, with an affectation of coyness that was irresistibly amusing. Dorothy laughed merrily, and Rhoda resisted doing the same only by an enormous effort of self-will. She succeeded, however, in looking sulky and bad-tempered, and went downstairs feeling quite pleased with herself for resisting an unworthy impulse.

All the old girls were in gym. costume, and a quaint sight it was to watch them descending the great central staircase. Lanky girls, looking lankier than ever; fat girls, looking fatter than ever; tall girls magnified into giantesses; poor little stumpies looking as if viewed through a bad piece of window gla.s.s. Plump legs, scraggy legs, and legs of one width all the way down, and at the end of each the sad, inevitable shoe, and down each back the sad, inevitable pigtail! Now and again would come a figure, light and graceful as a fawn, the embodiment of charming youth; but as a rule the effect was far from becoming.

Rhoda's criticisms, however, were less scathing than usual, for she herself was suffering from an unusual attack of humility! If any reader of this veracious history has to do with the management of a self- confident, high-spirited girl, who needs humbling and bringing to her senses, let the author confidently recommend the pigtail and flat-heeled system! To fasten back a mane of hair is at once to deprive the culprit of one of her most formidable means of defence.

She has no shelter behind which to retire, as an ambush from the enemy; she has nothing to toss and whisk from side to side, expressing defiance without a word being uttered. The very weight of the pigtail is a sobering influence; its solemn, pendulum movement is incompatible with revolt. As for the slippers--well, try heel-less shoes yourself, and test their effect! They bring one to earth, indeed, in the deepest sense of the word. All very well to mince about in French shoes, and think "What a fine girl am I," but once try mincing in flat, square soles, and you will realise that the days are over for that kind of thing, and that nothing remains but humility and a.s.sent!

Dinner over, the girls adjourned into the grounds; but as games, like lessons, could not be begun without some preliminary arrangement, most of the pupils contented themselves with strolling about, in twos and threes, exchanging confidences about the holidays and hatching plans for the weeks to come. Rhoda and Dorothy were standing disconsolately together, when Miss Everett flitted past, and stopped for a moment to take pity on their loneliness.

"What are you two going to do? You mustn't stand here looking like pelicans in the wilderness. You must walk about and get some exercise.

I'm too busy to go with you myself, but--er--Kathleen!" She held up her hand in summons to the second-term girl who had volunteered information about the Lords and Commons--"Here, Kathleen, you remember what it is to be a new girl; take Rhoda and Dorothy round the grounds, and show them everything that is interesting. Have a brisk walk, all of you, and come back with some colour in your cheeks!"

She was off again, smiling and waving her hand, and the three girls stood gazing at each other in shy, uncertain fashion.

"Well," said Kathleen, "where shall we go first? The Beech Walk, I suppose; it's half-a-mile long, so if we go to the end and back we shall have a const.i.tutional before looking at the sights. The grounds are very fine here, and there is lots of room for all we want to do. You can find a sunny bit, or a shady bit, according to the weather, but it's only on really scorching days that we are allowed to lounge. Then there's a scramble for hammocks, and the lucky girls tie them on to the branches of trees, and swing about, while the others sit on the gra.s.s.

Once or twice we had tea under the trees, and that was fine, but as a rule they keep you moving. Games are nearly as hard work as lessons!"

"But you needn't play unless you like?"

"Oh, yes, you must; unless you are ill or tired. You can get off any day if you don't feel well, but not altogether. And you would not wish to either. It would be so horribly flat! Once you are into a team, you are all anxiety to get into another, and I can tell you when you see your remove posted up on the board, it is b-liss!--perfect bliss!"

The recruits laughed, and looked at their new friend with approving glances. She was, so far, the only one of the girls who had treated them on an equality, and gave herself no air of patronage, and they were correspondingly appreciative. They asked eagerly in which games she had won her remove, and Rhoda, at least, was disappointed at the answer.

"Cricket! That's the great summer game. I've three brothers at home, and used to practise with them sometimes to make an extra one. They snubbed me, of course: but I'm not a bad bat, though I say it myself."

"And what about tennis?"

"Um-m!" Kathleen pursed up her lips. "We have courts, of course, but its rather--_Missy_, don't you think? The sports captains look down on it, and so, of course, it's unpopular. The little girls play occasionally. It keeps them happy."

This was a nice way to speak of a game which had been for years the popular amus.e.m.e.nt of young England! Rhoda was so shocked and disappointed that she hardly dared mention croquet, and it seemed, indeed, as if it would have been better if she had refrained, for Kathleen fairly shouted at the name.

"My dear, how can you! _n.o.body_ plays croquet except old tab-- I mean ladies who are too old to do anything else. Miss Bruce plays sometimes when she has the vicar's wife to tea. We hide behind the bushes and watch them and shake with laughter. _Croquet_, indeed! I should like to see Tom's face if you mentioned croquet to her!"

"It's a matter of perfect indifference to me what Miss Bolderston thinks," said Rhoda, loftily; but she veered away from the subject of games all the same and tackled lessons instead.

"Are you working for any special examination, or just taking it easily?"

"I'm going in for the Oxford Senior in summer. My birthday is so horribly arranged that it comes just one week before the limit. A few days later would give me a year to the good, but as it is it's my last chance. If I can only sc.r.a.pe through in preliminaries I am not afraid of the rest, but I am hopelessly bad in arithmetic. I add up with all my fingers, and even then the result comes wrong; and when so much depends upon it I know I shall get flurried and be worse than ever."

"The great thing is to keep cool. If you don't lose your head, I shouldn't wonder if the excitement helped you. Say to yourself, `_Don't be a fool_!' and _make_ yourself keep quiet," quoth Miss Rhoda, with an air of wisdom which evidently impressed her hearers. They glanced first at her and then at each other, and the glance said plainly as words could speak that here was a girl who had strength of mind--a girl who would make her mark in the school!

"I'll try!" said Kathleen, meekly. "I am terribly anxious about this exam., for if I do well and pa.s.s better than any one else in the school I shall get a scholarship of 40 towards next year's fees. That would be a great help to my parents, for they are poor, and have only sent me here that I may have a chance of getting on and being able to teach some day. I should be so thankful if I could help, for it's horrid to know the people at home are stinting themselves for your sake. I lie awake at nights imagining that the report is in, and I am first, and then I write a long letter home and tell them about it. Each time I invent a fresh letter, and they are so touching, you can't think! I cried over one, one night, and Tom came round to see what was the matter. At other times I imagine I'm plucked, and I go cold all over; I think I should _die_! Never mind, nine months yet! I'll work like a slave, and if I _do_ fail no one can say it's my own fault."

"You won't fail. Don't imagine anything so horrible! You will get over your nervousness and do splendidly, and write your letter in real earnest," cried Dorothy cheerily. "I am going in for the Oxford too, but you need fear no rival in me. I am one of those deadly, uninteresting creatures, who never reach anything but a fair medium.

There isn't a `distinction' in me, and one could never be first at that rate. A sc.r.a.pe-through pa.s.s is all _I'm_ good for!"

"I could get two distinctions at once! I know more German and French than ninety girls out of a hundred. Two distinctions! It's a big start. I wonder--I wonder if I could possibly be first!" said Rhoda to herself, and her breath came fast, and her cheeks grew suddenly hot.

"Nine months! Nine months!" If she studied hard, and worked up the subjects on which she was behind, might she not have a chance with the rest? The first girl! Oh, if only it could be possible, what joy, what rapture! What a demonstration of power before the school. She went off into a blissful dream in which she stood apart, receiving the congratulations of Miss Bruce and her staff, and saw Thomasina's face regarding her with a new expression of awe. Then she came back to real life, to look remorsefully at her new friend, and notice for the first time her pinched and anxious air.

"But I would give Kathleen the money. I want nothing but the honour,"

she a.s.sured herself, shutting her mind obstinately against the conviction that such a division might not be altogether easy to arrange.

"And Dorothy is going in, too; lots of girls are going in, so why should not I? And if I enter I must do my best; n.o.body could object to that!"

Nevertheless there was an unaccountable weight on her heart, which made it a relief when the subject dropped, and Kathleen began to point out the various out-buildings scattered over the grounds.

"That's the pavilion. We keep all the games there, and it's so nicely furnished. There is quite a pretty sitting-room, and a stove, and all the materials for making tea. On Sat.u.r.day afternoons the winning teams may stay behind and have tea there by themselves, and buy cakes from the housekeeper. It's ripping! We look forward to it as the Sat.u.r.day treat, and aren't you just mad if your side loses! That's the joiner's shop. You can have lessons if you like, and learn to make all sorts of things; but I've no ambition to be a carpenter, so I don't go... That's a summer-house, but it's so earwiggy that we leave it alone... That was meant to be a swimming-bath, but the water comes straight from a well, and it is so deadly cold that the girls got cramp, and Miss Bruce forbade them to use it any more. It looks wretchedly deserted now. If you want to be miserable all by yourself you couldn't have a better place. It's so still and dark, and the birds have built their nests in the corners, and come suddenly flying past, and frighten you out of your wits... Those little patches are the girls' own gardens. You can have lessons in gardening, and get a prize if you are clever. I don't go in for that either, for it's an extra expense."

"Oh, I must have a garden!" cried Rhoda quickly. "I adore flowers, and they could send me cuttings from home. I always had my own garden, but I didn't do the work, of course. I just said how it was to be arranged, and what plants I wanted, and every one admired it, and said how successful it was. I had big clumps of things, you know; not one straggling plant here and another there, but all banked up together.

You should have seen my lily bed! I made the men collect all the odd bulbs and plant them together, and they were a perfect show. The scent met you half-way down the path; it was almost overpowering. And then I had a lot of the new cactus dahlias, and left only about two branches on each, so that they came up like one huge bush with all the lovely contrasting colours. Many people say they don't like dahlias, but that is only because they haven't seen them properly grown."

"Oh well, I loathe them myself, and I always shall do. You never get any satisfaction out of them, however pretty they may be, for as soon as people see them, they begin groaning and saying, `Oh, dear, dear, autumn flowers already! How sad it is. Winter will soon be upon us.'"

Dorothy sniffed derisively. It was evident that no support was to be expected from her on the dahlia question, and Rhoda felt that only time and experience could prove to her the folly of her position.

When all the out-buildings had been explained, Kathleen led the way down a winding path which seemed to lead to nowhere in particular, but rather to come to an abrupt _cul-de-sac_ in the shape of a high grey wall. Her companions wondered at her choice, but she went forward with an air of determination, so that there was nothing left but to follow, and hope soon to return to more interesting scenes. When she came to the end of the path, however, she stood still and began to smile with a most baffling air of mystery. What did it mean? What were they expected to see? The girls wheeled to and fro, looked at the paths, the beds, the flowers, frowned in bewilderment, and then suddenly lifted their eyes to the wall, and uttered simultaneous exclamations of surprise.

The wall was dotted over with little tablets of stone, on each of which was a neatly engraved inscription, and each inscription bore the name of a girl at its head. Rhoda craned forward and read first one and then another: