In the
little garden at Die Rosen at the Sonnalpe Madge Russell eyed her
younger sister thoughtfully. Joey Bettany, head girl of the Chalet
School, glanced up.
"What are you gawping at! Have I grown
another nose over night?" She questioned.
"I'm not
'gawping' as you so delightfully put it, Joey!" Returned
Madge.
"Well what on earth are you doing then?"
Jo protested.
Just as Madge started to reply, her husband Doctor
James Russell stepped outside into the freshening breeze that was
blowing and immediately demanded to 'know what the two of them were
bickering about now'
Jo promptly started talking:
"Madge
was staring at me as if I was a voluptuous rare bird sitting right in
front of her that she might like for Mitagessen, so I merely asked
her what on earth she was gawping at and if I had grown another
nose overnight!"
Halfway through this speech Jem was almost
crying with laughter at the end of this speech.
"J-Joey Where
do you get your expressions from? If ever Mademoiselle heard
that sentence of yours Jo, I don't mind telling you that you'd be out
of money for a fair while!"
With this last remark Jo was
reminded that as head girl of the famous Chalet School she was an
example to all of the school.
"Oh-Oh! And I'm nearly broke as
it is! Oh, be a dear, Jem and don't tell her!"
While Jo
and Madge had been having their small disagreement, another two were
also arguing.
Eleanora Mary Francesca Lyon (She adored her first
name so that is how she always introduced herself) was sitting in a
large arm chair opposite her guardian.
Mr Wilson was fighting a
losing battle with Eleanora (the only other name she allowed people
to call her).
"But Ellie, dear, you must see that I have
no choice about sending you to school now that Professor Lyon has
passed away?"
"My name is ELEANORA and no, I do
not see why I should go to school with a bunch of terribly behaved,
slang speaking little girls!"
Mr Wilson was definitely
snubbed by this obnoxious remark if he hadn't been by anything else
in their conversation - His own three girls had gone to this school,
and he was horrified that any little girl could be so rude. Secretly
he thought she was a horrid little prig, but of course he couldn't
say that so instead he replied with
"If anything hasn't
assured me that you should go to the Chalet School, your last reply
has! I just hope they can make you into a nice school girl!"
With
anger and hurt in his eyes Mr Wilson stood up and walked over to the
door.
"Now please excuse me, I must go. But I will keep in
touch to inform you when you will be leaving for the Chalet
School."
After that last short string of words Mr Wilson walked out of the door.
-- Three days later --
"Eleanora! Eleanora! Come here, dear!"
Eleanora's nurse called.
As Eleanora walked into the room, nurse
started talking again.
"I've had a telephone call from Mr
Wilson. He says that you will be leaving for the Chalet School in
three days time, so will you please pack all your possessions in
time, for he is coming at eleven o' clock on Saturday."
"Alright,
nurse, I shall be ready then," Eleanora replied with a meekness
that nurse had not expected. However, she decided the best thing to
do would be to ignore it, so she merely nodded her head and walked
out of the room.
Could it be, nurse thought to herself, that Eleanora is becoming used to the idea of the Chalet School?
Yet, as much as nurse wondered if Eleanora was becoming any more used to the idea of school, she could not be more wrong.
As snobbish as Eleanora was, she had some common sense. She understood that as her guardian had told her she must go to school, then she must and there was no point arguing about it - but she swore to herself that although she must go to the school, she would not like it and would not take any notice of any stupid little school girls there.