03 The Princess of the Chalet School Read Online Free PDF Page B

before she said, ‘Good-night, you two. Don’t talk after Juliet comes up’; and left them.
    Downstairs, however, she poured out her feelings to Mademoiselle, who sympathized with her. ‘The truth is, we have all got on so well up to this,’ declared Miss Carthew when she had spent her wrath, ‘that we don’t quite know where we are when we meet with anything unpleasant. I backed her up, of course; but I’m convinced that Joey had some right on her side. Impertinence is not a failing of hers. If it had been that monkey, Grizel Cochrane, I shouldn’t have been in the least surprised. Grizel has cheeked me more than once, and doesn’t seem to mind anyone. But for Joey it’s almost unthinkable.’
    ‘It does not seem possible,’ said Mademoiselle reflectively. ‘I agree with you that there must have been something more than you heard. All the same, ma chère , you could only do as you did. I regret that neither Madame nor I saw Matron before she was engaged. But it was impossible, as you know, and her letters of credit were good.’
    ‘Well, I only hope she doesn’t set the whole school by the ears,’ returned Miss Carthew.
    Upstairs, the pair most concerned lay in silence. Joey was trying to recover her temper, and the Robin was grieving because Jo had got into trouble. The baby adored the elder girl with her whole warm little heart.
    She looked up to Jo as an elder sister who petted her and looked after her, and any punishment of her idol meant sorrow for her. The people who had charge of the pair had soon found that the surest way of keeping Joey out of mischief was to remind her that the Robin was almost invariably heart-broken when she was in trouble. As Joey returned the baby’s adoration, it was always a safe deterrent.
    Juliet, coming up half an hour late in blissful ignorance of what had occurred, was so startled by the thick silence in the room that she nearly went for Madame, under the impression that the two must be ill. Then she saw the tears on the Robin’s cheeks and the black scowl on Joey’s brow, so she said nothing, but undressed and got to bed as fast as she could.

    The next day the children were all right again – outwardly, at least. Joey was still brooding over Matron’s unfair accusation, and the Robin had firmly made up her baby mind to hate Matron for being so horrid. They avoided her, of course. Madge got the shock of her life when Joey begged to be set free from any more helping in the house. Never since the Chalet School had been a school had she done such a thing, and the elder sister could not understand it. When the Robin quite independently made the same request, and gave as her reason that she didn’t want to be where Matron was, Miss Bettany realized that there were wheels within wheels here. She said nothing about it, however, merely keeping them employed for an hour or so in the schoolrooms, and then sending them out with Juliet for a ramble up the valley. It was very warm for the end of April, so she gave them sandwiches, cakes, and milk, and told them to stay out till tea-time. The weather had completely changed, and there was no fear of storms.
    They had a glorious time together, making the most of this last day of the holidays. To-morrow the boarders would arrive, and on the next day school would begin.
    They came in to tea, which they had with Miss Bettany in theh study, and then she chased them into a little room off the Speisesaal , where they found the walls were lined with open bookshelves, and there were piles of books standing about. ‘This is our library,’ explained the Head. ‘I have been wanting to arrange some sort of thing before this, but there has never been any chance. Now, Herr Mensch, Herr Marani, and Herr von Eschenau have sent me all these books as leaving gifts from Bernhilda, Gisela, and Wanda, so I got the men to put up these shelves and brought all the books we had for the library in here. I want to get the all put in order to-night, and I