02 Jo of the Chalet School Read Online Free PDF Page B

Frau Marani well? And where is Maria?’
    ‘My wife is very well,’ he said. ‘She and Maria are still in Wien, where they will stay until Wednesday of next week. Then they will come home to Innsbruck. I am sorry,’ he went on, ‘ that we cannot use our summer home up here for the winter months as I had arranged; but my mother has been very ill, and wishes us to be with her this winter. I am glad you can make room for my girls as boarders. They are very happy with you.’
    ‘I am glad,’ said Miss Bettany simply. ‘I am very pleased to have them – especially Gisela. She makes a splendid head girl.’
    There was a little more conversation, and then Herr Marani took his departure, making for a little chalet at the upper end of the Briesau valley, where some old friends of his lived, and where he intended staying for the few days he would be here.
    The two English girls went back to the Chalet School, and there set to work on the other dormitories. They were still very busy when Marie appeared with a card in her hand.
    ‘Signor di Ferrara,’ repeated Miss Bettany. ‘Who on earth can he be?’

    ‘Better go down and see,’ suggested Miss Maynard. ‘I can finish this quite well by myself. Perhaps it is the father of those two girls come to arrange with you for them to be boarders.’
    ‘And perhaps it isn’t! -Very well, Marie; I will come at once.’
    The Head vanished, and Miss Maynard went on with the task of hanging up the pretty mauve curtains that divided the cubicles of the three-bed dormitory. Half-an-hour later, just as she was sitting down to her Tee mit Citron and cream and honey-cakes from Innsbruck, Miss Bettany came into the Speisesaal .
    ‘Well?’ said Miss Maynard?
    Madge Bettany nodded. ‘Yes; Luigia and Bianca di Ferrara are coming here; and, my dear, we shall start this term with thirty-three pupils!’

Chapter 4
term begins

    ‘Grizel! I’m going to meet the boat! Are you coming? Thus Joey, outside the Chalet School, at the full pitch of her lungs.
    Grizel poked her curly head out of the east window in her new dormitory, and looked across the lake to Buchau, where the little lake steamer was lying. ‘All right! Wait a tick, and I’ll come!’
    She hunted madly for her blazer, which seemed to have completely disappeared. She found it at last under one of the beds, struggled into it, and fled downstairs and out to the path where Joey was waiting for her, dancing with impatience over her delay.
    ‘At last! Thought you were never coming! Come on; we must buck up!’
    They tore along the path to the landing, where the nine o’clock steamer was just tying up.
    ‘There’s Mademoiselle!’ shrieked Joey. ‘Simone’s beside her. I s’pose the other kid’s her sister Renee!’
    ‘I can see Bernhilda!’ proclaimed Grizel. ‘The von Eschenaus are over there! See them? Cooo-eeee!’
    The excitement of the pair sent a smile round the people standing near, but they cared nothing for that.
    From the boat the other girls were waving and calling, and when at last they all met on the path the noise they made was simply terrific. Most folk would have refused to believe that there were only eight girls to make it. Mademoiselle was quite as bad as anybody; and there were so many questions to be asked and answered, that they boat was well on its way to Seehof before any of them moved on.
    ‘How many are we this term?’ inquired Bernhilda Mensch of Joey as they set off for the Chalet.
    ‘Heaps more than last term, anyway,’ replied Joey. ‘Thirty-three.’
    ‘Thirty-three? But how delightful! Who are there?’
    ‘Well – Wanda and Marie von Eschenau and their cousin,’ began Joey.
    ‘Yes – yes! I know that!’ replied Bernhilda with an impatient movement of her hands. ‘Also that Gertrud bring her little sister. But who else?’
    Joey thought. ‘There’s the Robin. You won’t know her, of course. Her father was a friend of my father’s years ago. She’s six, and a darling, and her