03 The Princess of the Chalet School (23 page)

‘Do you think they will leave the Princess here after all that had happened?’ asked Miss Bettany.

‘If you will consent to keep her,’ replied the captain, ‘I think nothing is more likely. She is terribly tired just now, of course, but it is easy to see that she had gained enormously under your care, and I do not think Cosimo is likely to make another attempt to kidnap her. If I know anything about Ridolpho,’ he added grimly, ‘I should say that he will have Cosimo quietly disposed of in one of the fortresses. He must be mad.

As I told Dr. Russell, there is a queer kink in his brain, and if he were anybody but a prince he would have been shut up long ago. He is desperately cruel to animals – there are some nasty stories about that – and his behaviour can only come from a warped mind. You need have no further anxiety on that account.’

‘I am glad to know that,’ she said simply.

‘His Majesty will doubtless send an envoy to see you, if his Royal Highness does not come as soon as he is able.’

Madge laughed. ‘It sounds frightfully important, Captain Trevillion. Well, we will wait for that. In the meantime, I will take the greatest care of her.’

He nodded, took up his helmet, and went off for his flight. Madge waited till he had vanished into the darkness, then she went upstairs to her own room, where Joey was lying in the little camp-bed. ‘Hullo,’ she murmured, as her sister came into the room.

‘Go to sleep, Joey,’ said Miss Bettany severely. ‘You oughtn’t to be awake now! Do you know what the time is?’

‘Not an idea!’ yawned Jo. ‘Hai-yah! I
am
so sleepy! Good-night!’

She turned on her side, closed her eyes, and fell asleep. Dr. Jem, who was watching, heaved a sigh of relief and set down a glass of something he had been holding. ‘Thank goodness!’ he said in low tones. ‘I was afraid she would have to have to have this to make her sleep. Natural sleep is the best thing in the world for her. Don’t let anyone wake either of them to-morrow. They must have their sleep out, and I don’t believe they will wake one penny the worse for all this.’

Madge nodded. ‘What a mercy! I was dreading an illness for them both. Are you sure, Jem?’

‘As certain as I can be of anything. They are both cool, and resting comfortably. Elisaveta never troubled me, in any case. She’s worn-out physically, of course, and will probably be fractious and tiresome till she’s got over that. But it’s only a matter of a few days at the most. Jo, I
was
worried about. She’s such an excitable piece of goods that there’s never any calculating how things will go with her. I haven’t forgotten the scare she gave us over measles last term!’

‘Neither have I,’ said the young lady’s sister.

It was unlikely that anyone who had had anything to do with it
would
forget. Jo had distinguished herself by running up a temperature of 105º, and staying there for two days, after which she had returned to normal almost at once, and had been convalescent long before Frieda, who had never been over 100º, was able to get up. They had had a terrible fright those two days, and it was held as a joke against the patient.

‘Keep them both very quiet for the rest of the week,’ were Dr. Jem’s final words as he went off to the Kron Prinz Karl, where he was to spend the night. ‘I’ll look in before I go up yonder in the morning; but I don’t suppose they will need anything but rest and what our forefathers used to call “kitchen physic,” and Marie can be trusted to attend to
that
part of the business.’

‘Am I to keep them along, then?’ demanded Miss Bettany, following him downstairs.

‘Oh, if they want a visitor, they could have the Robin, or Frieda Mensch, or some one who can be trusted to be quiet,’ replied the doctor. ‘Don’t let that imp Grizel Cochrane loose, though; and you might keep Evadne, and Margia, and the other excitable people away. That’s all. And, above all, don’t let them think themselves heroines or criminals! If you could manage to treat it as an ordinary everyday occurrence it would be the best of all.’

‘I’ll do my best, but I’m only human!’ retorted Madge. ‘It’s been a ghastly time, and I can’t forget all at once!’

‘I know, dear,’ he replied gravely. ‘I wish I could help you more, but I don’t think I ought to stay away from the Sonnalpe any longer, even though I have young Maynard there to help me. He’s quite young, and it’s a big responsibility for him.’

He said, ‘Good-bye’ after that, and went off, leaving Madge to lock up and then go upstairs to her room, where Joey lay sleeping so profoundly that it seemed as if nothing would wake her. Miss Bettany made haste to follow her example, and got to bed as quickly as she could. She was so tired that she fell asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow, and she never moved until Marie came in with a glass of milk for her the next morning.

‘There must be no bells rung, Marie,’ said her young mistress, as she sat up and took the glass Marie held out to her. ‘The Herr Doktor says that the young ladies are to sleep till they wake of themselves. And will you tell the other young ladies that they must be very quiet? I will get up now, and go to see how Fraülein Elisaveta is this morning.’

Marie nodded her head and went off gaily to spread abroad the news that the two had returned. Of course everyone in the school knew that they had gone off in quite a wrong way, but the girls had promised to say nothing about it to outsiders, so Miss Bettany hoped that it need not get round.

There were great rejoicings at Frühstück that morning, but everyone was very careful to be as quiet as possible, even Evadne managing to keep her voice lowered. ‘And that’s a mercy!’ declared Grizel. ‘There are times when I feel that I could put a green baize bag over her head to make her shut up! She’s worse than any parrot when she gets revved up!’

Joey and Elisaveta slept the clock round, and then woke up, feeling very stiff and sore, but with nothing else, so far as their bodies were concerned, to remind them of their experience. The Princess ate her breakfast and then fell asleep again. Nature was repairing the damages in her own way, and she would be none the worse once she had slept off her weariness.

Joey, more excitable, sat up and demanded a book. ‘I’m all right,’ she argued, ‘only I don’t want to get up.

I feel nearly as sore as I did when I sprained my ankle on the ice the winter before last. I
may
stay in bed for a while longer, mayn’t I?’

‘Well, for the present, I think it might be as well,’ agreed her sister, who knew better than to say that she
must
. That would have been the surest way to set Joey longing to get up.

She was provided with a book and another pillow, and then she was left to herself. When Madge came back an hour later it was to find her small sister buried in the adventures of
Little Women
, and quite happy.

‘How is Elisaveta?’ she asked as she laid the book aside and looked approvingly at the plate of
Kalbsbraten mit Kartoffeln
which the Head had brought her. ‘I say, we could have done very nicely with this yesterday, I can tell you! I’ve never been so hungry in my life before!’

‘It served you right,’ said Madge with the doctor’s last command on her mind. ‘You were very naughty girls to go off as you did, and I’m not sorry that you paid for it. I sha’n't punish you any further, but you needn’t come to us for any sympathy, for you won’t get any.’

That was all she said about it, but it was quite enough. Jo had feared that there would be a big fuss; she had feared more that her sister would be very much upset over it all. But to have it treated like a childish escapade, and to be told that she was a very naughty girl, as if she had been the Robin, took all the gilding off the gingerbread. Elisaveta was treated to the same remarks, with the addition that though she was a princess, it didn’t mean that she could go off as she had done.

‘You were trusted to my care,’ said Miss Bettany with unusual severity, ‘and if you had stayed to think for one moment, you would have
known
that anything which you were told to hid from me – at least, anything so serious as your being sent into hiding – must be told to me first. You didn’t give your father and your grandfather much credit for being gentlemen when you believed all
that
rigmarole, Elisaveta. I am very disappointed in you!’

Elisaveta hadn’t one word to say for herself. It was all so true. As for Dr. Jem, he roared with laughter when he heard how it had been dealt with. ‘It was just exactly what they needed,’ he said when he was grave once more. ‘I imagine they feel horribly small, and will be glad to forget all about it as soon as possible!’

They stayed in bed for the rest of the week, for they were both bruised and sore with their climbing, and as the others had been warned to say nothing about it to either of them, it was soon relegated to the limbo of the school affairs. Madge hoped that it would never be resurrected again, but she was to be disappointed there, though that came later on.

One of the most important questions in the Chalet School at the end of each term was always, ‘What shall we do for the end of term?’ They had had a concert – several, in fact. They had given a nativity play. One term they had had an exhibition of work of all kinds, and another they had given a folk-festival, when they had danced folk-dances and sung folk-songs, to the great enjoyment of their audience; for they had not kept to one country along, but had shown the tarantella, the Schuhplattler, Norwegian dances, and the old English Morris and country dances. In addition to this, they had sung folk-songs of all the countries that were represented in the school, and had finished up with some of the lovely old German Lieder. It really seemed, as Miss Bettany said, that they had done everything they could do.

‘I’m afraid we shall have to begin to repeat ourselves,’ she said to the school, who had been called into consultation. ‘
Can
anyone think of anything different?’

There was silence, while every one racked her brains.

‘Could we give a kind of water festival?’ suggested Grizel.

‘I’m afraid not. You see we haven’t any private baths where you could show your diving and swimming, and if we gave it in the lake we should have a far larger audience than we wanted.’

‘Should we arrange a little masque?’ asked Bette Rincini.

‘It would be delightful if we could; but I’m afraid we couldn’t do one long enough to make people think it was worth while having come for that only. We might combine it with something else, thought.’

Then Elisaveta had an idea – this was before she and Joey had gone off. ‘Let’s give a garden party,’ she had suggested. ‘We could do the masque then, and give some dancing too.’

It was hailed as a grand idea, and the staff had put their heads together and written a charming little masque among them. It was to be called ‘The Court of Queen Summer,’ and would give everybody something to do.

Marie von Eschenau, the prettiest girl in the school, was to be Queen Summer, coming to hold her court in the world, and the others were to be flowers, trees, butterflies, moths, birds, the summer winds, rain, sunshine, and mists. No girl was given a part which had nothing to do but walk on, and everyone was delighted. They had rehearsed it thoroughly, and hoped it would be fine enough to give it in the garden, and to have the garden party. All the last week, before the Friday which was to be the dress rehearsal, when the friends of the school who lived in the valley were to come to see it, people kept going to the barometer and tapping it anxiously to see if it were going up or down. Miss Bettany had to interfere in the end; otherwise the barometer would have been good for nothing by the end of the term.

Friday was a glorious day, and the dress rehearsal went off fairly well, though there were several mistakes made, and Miss Durrant, who was stage-manager, was seen to be tearing her hair in the background.

Luckily, Friday’s audience was not critical, and they enjoyed the pretty play immensely.

The girls went to bed feeling quite pleased with themselves on the whole. Excitement began the next morning at the early hour of six, when Marie, who had a window cubicle, tumbled out of bed and hung over the balcony rail, anxiously inspecting the sky and the lake. ‘It looks as if the weather would be very fine,’

she reported at length. ‘The mountains are covered with mists, but the sky is clear and blue, and the lake is smooth like a piece of glass.’

‘Topping!’ said Joey enthusiastically from her cubicle at the other end of the room.

Bette, who was the prefect in charge of the dormitory, sat up in bed and uttered an exclamation of horror.

‘Marie! Come back at once! You are wearing nothing but your pyjamas! You deserve to catch a bad cold, and
then
you’ll make a pretty queen with a red nose!’

Marie came back to bed reluctantly, but Bette was a prefect who was always obeyed, and she did not dare to linger on the balcony.

Joey, whose exploits had relegated her to a cubicle in the Yellow dormitory, which was halfway down the room, and who bitterly regretted that she had ever gone off as she had done, heaved a tremendous sigh. ‘
May
I go and look out, Bette,’ she pleaded.

‘Yes, if you put on your dressing-gown and bedroom slippers,’ replied Bette cautiously; ‘and come though
my
cubicle, Joey.’

Joey scrambled into the necessary garments and pattered down the dormitory to Bette’s cubicle and out on to the balcony. She sniffed the air loudly and with enjoyment. ‘It’s going to be a gorgeous day,’ she proclaimed. ‘All right, Bette, I’m going back to bed now. When can we get up?’

‘Not for an hour yet, I hope!’ groaned lazy Evadne, who loved her bed in the mornings, and hated getting up any sooner than she absolutely had to do.

‘You can get up after half-past six, if you want to,’ replied Bette. ‘Do stop making that awful noise, Evadne! I didn’t say you
must
get up – only that you
might
! If you want to lie till seven, you may. No one is going to stop you.’

‘Praise the stars for that!’ and Evadne snuggled down under the bed-clothes with a sigh of relief.