Second Form at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton Read Free Book Online Page A

mirth. Mr. Young noticed nothing this time. He walked pompously to the door and gave the girls the quick little bow he always kept for them.
    “Good morning, young ladies!” And out he went, showing his patch of brilliant colour. As he went the bell for Break rang, and the girls tore into the Court, longing to give way to their pent-up laughter.
    “Alicia! You had something to do with it! What was it?”
    “Oh, it was marvellous! When be turned round to the blackboard I thought I should die!”
    “Betty! Darrell! Was it your trick? How did you do it? I looked at the stool and there wasn't a thing to be seen!”
    “That reminds me,” said Betty to Alicia with a grin. “I must get a wet cloth and rub it over the stool” She disappeared, and the girls surged round Alicia, begging her to tell them the secret.
    Meanwhile Mr. Young was walking down one of die long corridors, quite unaware of his beautiful decoration. Mam'zelle Dupont happened to come out of a room just behind him, and stared disbelievingly at the extraordinary sight. She raced after him.
    “Monsieur Young! Ha, Monsieur Young!”
    Mr. Young was scared of both Mam'zelles. He hastened his steps. Mam'zelle ran more quickly.
    “Monsieur, Monsieur, attendez, je vous prie ! Wait, wait. You cannot go out like that! It is terrible!”
    Mr. Young swung round, annoyed. “What is it? What's terrible?”
    “This! This!” said Mam'zelle and tapped him smartly on the chalk. A cloud of it flew off at once. Mr. Young was horrified at being tapped so familiarly by Mam'zelle and amazed at the cloud of chalk that flew from his person. He wriggled himself round to try and see it, remembering what Mr. Lemming's coat had been like.
    “I will attend to you,” said Mam'zelle, out of the kindness of her heart, and caught hold of his arm. She hurried him to a hallstand, took up a brush there, and with extremely vigorous strokes she removed the chalk from his clothes.
    He was angry and not at all grateful. “Twice it has happened this morning,” he said angrily to Mam'zelle and actually shook his fist in her face as if she was the culprit. She backed away, alarmed. Mr. Young snatched up his hat and went off, muttering to himself.
    “He is not polite, that man,” said Mam'zelle to herself. “I do him a kindness, and he puts his fist into my face. I will never speak to him again.”
    The only girl who had seen this episode in the hall was Darrell, and she hurried to the others with the titbit “I was going past the end of the hall and I saw Mam'zelle banging at Mr. Young for all she was worth with the clothes brush,” she panted. “He was so angry! Oh, do let's do it again. Alicia. It's a gorgeous trick!”
    It is always a mistake to play the same trick twice running, and Alicia knew it. But she could not resist the temptation to try it on Mam'zelle Dupont.
    “Shall we?” she asked Betty, and Betty nodded in glee. The girls crowded round to see the queer invisible chalk. They chuckled and laughed when they thought of the singing-lesson, and they let the first-formers into the secret too.
    Altogether the trick cheered up everyone considerably, and the thought mat they would play it once more gave them something to look forward to.
    “Who can rub it on the mistress's chair before the French lesson this afternoon?” demanded Betty. “Alicia and I can't. We've no chance of being in the room. Who is room monitor?”
    “I am.” said Darrell. I'll do it! Give me the chalk! What do you do? Just rub it over the chair?”
    Ten minutes before afternoon school Darrell slipped into the second-form classroom. It was her job that week to tidy the bookshelves, clean the blackboard and see that the chalk was handy and the duster there.
    It took her only a minute to do these things. Then she went to the chair that stood behind the desk and took the chalk from her pocket. She was about to rub it over the seat of the chair when a mischievous idea struck her.
    Couldn't she write