A Genius at the Chalet School by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer Read Free Book Online

the trolley up yet? Well, you can't do anything about it, then. I'll lend you my soap if you'll hang on till I get it and you can wash."
   She vanished and Nina removed her beret and coat and settled her cream silk blouse with dainty fingers, by which time her shepherd had returned with a soap, towel and comb.
   "Here you are! I'm sure you're dying for a wash and brush-up after the journey."
   "Well, I am," Nina confessed. "Thank you so much, Maeve. You are kind."
   Maeve grinned. "Not kind - merely polite. And in this place, we put every farthing of tuppence on good manners, I can assure you."
   Nina looked bewildered, but Maeve gave her no chance to discuss it. "Come on and I'll show you where to wash - though I warn you," she added, "that during the day we wash downstairs in the splashery. No galloping up- and down-stairs just as we like! Now let's see." She ran to a list pinned to the door, "O.K. You bath in III cubicle 2. Come on!"
   She marched Nina off to a cross passage. "Here we are. This is your cubey. You always bath here. In the mornings you can either have your bath cold or chill-off. No hot baths except at night. The list will tell you which bath you go for each morning. I mean," as Nina quite frankly gaped at her, "whether you're first, second or third on the list. Go ahead!"
   With her head whirling with all the information Maeve was ramming down her throat, Nina washed face and hands and they went back to the dormitory where she unloosened the long thick plait of black hair and combed it out before replaiting it into a shining tail. Maeve, perched precariously on the window-sill, watched her enviously.
   "What a gorgeous mop you have! My sister Peggy has long hair, too, but Bride has hers bobbed and - well, you see what mine's like!" She pulled a short curly tress over her shoulder. "Never any longer than that, no matter how hard I brush it."
   "But it's a lovely colour," said Nina, who had been admiring the gleaming bronze. "And it's so curly. Mine's as straight as - as - a bar-line.
   "You could always have it permed when you grew up," Maeve said. "I like it straight on you, though. It goes with your face, same as Clare Kennedy's." Nina went scarlet at this frank comment. She finished her hair and having returned Maeve's possessions with thanks, waited while that young woman raced back to Wallflower, of which she was one of the ornaments, to put them away. Then she came back and led the new girl off downstairs to a pleasant sitting-room where three or four girls were sitting talking eagerly. Maeve led Nina up to them.
   "Hello, folks!" she said. "This is Nina Rutherford. She's to try Va. Felicity, you're there, aren't you? Then will you look after her till Vi and Co. come along. She's a pal of theirs, Barbara told me." She gave Nina a friendly grin and added, "See you later! Best of luck!" before she shot out of the room, slamming the door after her with a good-will that set the ornaments on the shelf that ran round the room above shelves lined with books, rattling.
   " That will have to stop to-morrow," said Felicity, a pretty brown-eyed girl of nearly sixteen.
   "It's only Maeve," observed another, a big, rather clumsily-built girl who was plain, but pleasant-faced. She added to Nina, "I'll introduce us. Felicity is Felicity King and she and Rosemary Lamb - this is Rosemary - are in Va and so am I - I'm Hilda Jukes. And this is Penelope Drury who's in Vb. We five all came back earlier which is why we're here. Pen's been here all the hols - her father lives up here just now - and Felicity and Rosemary have fathers who have jobs in Holland so they can get here earlier than people from England. And Dad had to go to Paris on business, so he said he'd take me with him and give me a couple of days and then shoot me off here the day before if the Head didn't mind."
   "But you went to stay at Freudesheim instead," Felicity interrupted. "Lucky you! Sit down, Nina. It's as