A Genius at the Chalet School (11 page)

   "I'd like to know why it's so warm here when we've still got snow
feet
deep at the Platz," Vi said as she settled her beret on her bronzy curls.
   "I've heard that Vevey and Montreux are always warm," Nina replied. "I know at one time lots of people used to come who couldn't stand the bitter cold of England in winter. I expect it's sheltered at this end of the lake. I do know that when Dad and I were in Geneva there was a most ghastly biting wind and we came here for a day and were both sweltered because we had on winter coats and things. There! I'm ready! Shall I go down or should we all go together?"
   "All together," Mary-Lou said firmly. "Buck up, Barbara! We're all waiting."
   Barbara hastily pulled her beret to a rakish angle and the four left the room and went down to find that most of their crowd were surrounding Miss o'Ryan and the Head had already set off with the prefects. Mdlle was taking VIb and a few from Va and Miss Dene and Miss Wilmot had divided up the remnants.
   "Hurry up, girls!" the history mistress called. "Now are you four the last?"
   "Wait for us!" Christine Vincent and Catriona Watson came plunging down to join them; Miss o'Ryan counted her girls and then marched them out on to the Quai de Plan.
   "Must we croc?" Lesley asked.
   "Not if you don't either lag behind or go racing ahead - and not more than four in a bunch. Keep near me. I
know
you'll be full of questions and you can't be racing backwards and forwards or you'll be tired out long before we reach the end. And we've got to come back, you know," Miss o'Ryan ended with a chuckle. She was only twenty-seven and, in her smart knitted suit of a blue that matched her glorious eyes and chic little hat that she wore pulled sidewise over her black hair, she looked little older than the girls themselves.
   "Which way - which way?" Vi asked eagerly.
   "You remind me of
Alice
," Miss o'Ryan said, laughing. "Turn left, me dear, and keep on till we come to the Quai Arabic. There, we've got to go up the Veveyse to reach the bridge. It's straight on down the river then, and after that, we keep along the lake shore. Lead on, Prunella and Clare, and don't be racing ahead too far."
   "What a gorgeous lake!" Mary-Lou remarked as she, Verity, Nina, Barbara and Vi escorted the mistress to the bridge. "It's not blue like our own Thun - that's a rich blue. This is silvery."
   "Isn't it
huge
?" Verity said as they left the Veveyse and turned left to go along the Quai Maria Belgia with its chestnut trees, at present leafless, but with something about them that spoke of spring near at hand.
   "Well, 'tis the largest of the Swiss lakes. You'd expect that," Miss o'Ryan said calmly.
   "D'you think we can go for a trip on it?" Vi wanted to know.
   "Oh, yes; we're going to Geneva by lake steamer on Monday - if the weather holds. If you mean, can we go sailing, certainly not. Sure, 'tis none so safe with all the mountains round, and at this time of the year."
   Lesley Malcolm had turned back. "Miss o'Ryan, what's that big building over there? Can we go and see it?"
   "Ye can not. Sure, none of you are old enough."
   They stared at her. "Not
old
enough?" Mary-Lou exclaimed. "Why, what do you mean, Biddy?" During the holidays, she was allowed to use the Christian name as Biddy o'Ryan made her home with the Maynards, being an orphan. The Maynard girls called her aunt, but Biddy had objected to being addressed by that title when it was a girl as big as Mary-Lou who used it. The shock of her remark and the sense of freedom they all felt had made Mary-Lou forget her manners.
   However, Biddy made no objection. Indeed, she answered the questions. "Well, now,
would
the Head be letting girls of your age visit the Casino, even if there was no law against it until ye come of age?"
   Lesley's jaw dropped. "Goodness! Is
that
what it is? I thought it was a concert hall."
   "They may hold concerts there for all I know. But it's mainly for gambling 'tis. Never mind it. Look at this." She stopped half-way across a big square and waved her hand round it.
   "It looked like a market square to me," Mary-Lou said.
   "So it is - Place du Marché, no less. But here the Fetes des Vignerons take place only once every twenty-five years - has done for centuries."
   "Is Vevey very old then?" Lesley asked as the rest came crowding round to know why they had stopped.
   "Goes back to the times of the Romans who called it Viviscum and were very fond of its warm baths which maybe you'll be seeing later."
   "Vignerons - that means vine-growers, doesn't it?" Nina said.
   "Are there vineyards
here
?" Vi asked amazedly.
   "There are, of course. Vevey is the second largest town in the Canton of Vaud which is the real vine-growing part of Switzerland."
   "Goodness! What a lot of things the Swiss do!" Vi cried. "They are famous woodcarvers and they make clocks and watches and silk ribbons and lace and chocolate and condensed milk -"
   "Put a sock in it!" Hilary recommended. "We're not anxious to have a lesson in geography. All the same," she turned to the mistress, "when I told Mummy we were coming here for the half-term, she said in her letter back that she hoped we'd have a chance to see over the Nestlé factory. She and Daddy did it two years ago and were thrilled with it. Do you think Miss Annersley will take us, Miss o'Ryan?"
   "Well now, I couldn't be telling you," Miss o'Ryan said non-committally. "In the meantime, time is flying. Come along, girls! On you go! We've got to get as far as the Tour du Peilz before we turn. And you'll be wanting your coffee and cakes, won't ye?"
   "Where do we go for them?" Catriona asked.
   "We'll try the Rue du Lac. They have some good cafés there. But you reach that tower - or the chateau built to commemorate it - before we turn back and you get neither coffee nor cakes until we're coming back. I know ye! 'Tis sitting there talking half the time ye'd be and then the rest would be crowing over us! Go on, Catriona!" But she ended with a gay laugh and Catriona raced back to join her bosom friend, quite unperturbed by this scarifying.
   "I'd like to see that factory," Verity said as they strolled on.
   "Well, there's not much time to see everything," the mistress said, laughing again. "Won't it do you to buy a slab of chocolate in one of the shops?"
   "It wouldn't be the same thing," Verity returned with unusual decision.
   "You pipe down!" Mary-Lou said firmly. "Biddy, go on and tell us some more about Vevey, won't you? Has it any famous people?"
   The rest had gone on, even Nina, called off by Lesley to admire a view down the lake and Mary-Lou, Verity and Vi were the only ones there. Biddy o'Ryan looked very straight at Mary-Lou.
   "I thought we said you shouldn't use that name during school," she said quietly.
   Mary-Lou went crimson. "Oh, I'm so awfully sorry! I quite forgot! Please do forgive me. Only we were all so jolly and - and free and I didn't remember that it was school. I won't do it again."
   "That's all right then. Now we'd best be joining the others."
   No more was said, but Mary-Lou was particular to call the mistress "Miss o'Ryan" for the rest of the week-end and the others had been too excited by all they saw even to notice the slips. They went on with fair briskness now, for Miss o'Ryan was anxious not to be late for dinner. They walked along the Quai d'entre Deux-Villes and then turned up a side-street to get into the Rue d'Italie where the shops were. Not that they had much chance of window-gazing, for the mistress was looking for a café and hurried them on until they found one she remembered from a visit the summer before. They went down the Rue d'Italie and came into the Rue du Lac and there found what she was seeking. Of the meal, Barbara Chester spoke the final word when she said as they walked along the Quai du Plan towards their
pension
, "I've had gorgeous coffee before and gorgeous cakes, too; but of all the melt-in-your-mouth,
luscious
coffee and cakes I ever had, those were the best!"
   And every last girl of the group agreed with her.

CHAPTER 12

"What do we do to-day?" It was Carola Johnstone who asked the question as they sat down to breakfast - or petit déjeuner - on the Monday morning.
   So far, it had been a glorious week-end, even the weather being friendly. The girls had "done" the district as thoroughly as was possible in the short time. They had visited Montreux, Territets and the Castle of Chillon; they had climbed up to Blonay and taken a motor-coach trip round the lake. This was the last full day of the holiday and to-morrow they would return to the Gornetz Platz.
   "What would you
like
to do? Miss Annersley asked. "We could see Geneva, if you liked. It would be all right if you wrapped up well. Or we might take the postal-coach to Neuchatel and spend the day there. Which would you like?"
   They had the salle-a-manger to themselves this morning. A large party of visitors had left on Saturday and besides themselves there had been since then only three ladies, two of whom were artists while the third, a cousin of the elder, acted as lady-courier and general caretaker. They had all gone off to Les Avants, having their rolls and coffee earlier than the school, so the Chaletians felt free to talk as they liked. They discussed the two ideas and finally it was decided to take the morning steamer going westwards round the lake, spend the day in Geneva, and come back in the early evening by postal coach.
   This settled, the girls finished their meal and raced upstairs to get into winter coats and berets. They were quickly ready and, on this occasion, the Head told them that when they reached Geneva, they might break up into small groups of eight or nine as all the escort mistresses would be going with them. Hitherto, she had arranged matters so that each mistress had one day off. After all, as she remarked, it was
their
half-term as well! The eldest girls might go by themselves if they would promise to keep together and not go off down any side-streets or alleys. They fervently promised and as most of them were either eighteen or verging on it and all could speak French and German with a good deal of fluency by this time, she felt that they would be safe enough. The rest - some forty-eight - would be duly escorted.
   "Then that's understood," she said briskly. "We keep together on the boat and when we reach Geneva, we split up. Don't be too late for the postal coach, whatever you do. I'm sure you won't want that lengthy walk back to Vevey. Neither do you want to have to spend your money on chartering transport or trying to find rooms in Geneva itself. Have you all plenty with you, by the way? I suppose you all want to shop?"
   A chorus of assent greeted this. She laughed. "Very well. But I warn you that prices are higher in Geneva than almost anywhere else except Zurich. You see, the Palace of Nations is there and so many organizations are continually visiting the city that prices have gone skyhigh."
   "How sickening!" Betsy Lucy said. "Oh, well, I suppose we can buy chocolate to take home if the worst comes to the worst. Here comes the steamer!"
   The little steamer swung in to the landing-stage and when the three or four visitors to Vevey were off, the girls marked smartly on board. Very trig and trim they looked in their coats and berets of gentian blue, the Chalet School badge in silver and dull crimson worked on the beret. The prefects gathered together at one side of the deck while the rest scattered about and the mistresses, having seen their lambs safely there, settled down in a sunny corner.
   There were not many other passengers aboard, but among them was a large lady who looked at them with interest. She must have been very pretty as a girl, and even now contrived to be attractive although, as Hilary murmured to Mary-Lou and Co., she must turn the scales at every ounce of fourteen stone! She had two small boys of about five and seven with her and they all three chattered continually. Presently, the boys became interested in something on shore and raced across to the rail.
   Their mother scuttled after them, calling them back imperatively, and the staff, who happened to be near the spot, turned to look. The elder boy was climbing up and hanging over precariously and Miss Wilmot, who chanced to be nearest, leapt forward and grabbed him by the back of his coat just as the lady reached them.
   "Oh, merci beaucoup!" she panted as she lifted him firmly down. "Robin, you are a very naughty boy! I've
told
you you're never to climb about on the steamer, If you do it again, I won't let you go on the lake for a whole month!" Then she turned to thank his rescuer.
   What happened next, nearly stunned the interested staff, though the girls, at the other end of the boat, had just seen the happening and then turned to their own affairs again. But the stranger stared at Miss Wilmot as if she couldn't believe her eyes. She let go of the small shoulder she had been grasping and flung out her hand exclaiming, "Nancy Wilmot! It
must
be Nancy!" She glanced at the group from which Miss Wilmot had come and her eyes widened till they looked as if they would drop out of her head. "Why, Miss Annersley - and Mdlle de Lachennais!" she cried. "Is it really
you
? But what are you doing here? What's happened to the Chalet School? And - why, Rosalie Dene! Are you here, too? I simply
must
know the meaning of this!"
   Miss Annersley pulled herself together. "An Old Girl of ours, I'm sure," she said. "But so much has happened during the years, I'm afraid I must own that I can't remember you at the moment."
   "Neither can I," Nancy Wilmot put in. "And yet," she added, "her face
does
ring a bell somewhere. Tell us your name - do! Then we can go on from there."
   The stranger sighed. "My too, too solid flesh!" she mourned. "And to think I used to be as slim as anyone! I suppose I ought to diet and get rid of it, but though I've tried, I never stick to it somehow. As for who I am, I'm Winifred Embury, these days. When I was at St. Scholastika's -
not
the Chalet School; I left before you joined forces - I was Winnie Silksworth."
   "Winnie Silksworth!" Nancy Wilmot exclaimed. "Of
course
I remember you! You were a prefect when I was a pest of a Junior! But what fun to meet you like this! Are you here for a holiday? These are your boys, of course?" She waved towards the pair who were standing gazing amazedly at them.
   "Two of them," Mrs. Embury said briskly. "Robin - and Paul. I have three older who are away in England at school and two younger who are at home with Nannie. But never mind about me! We can talk of me later. What I want to know is what's happened to the Chalet School? Why are you all here? Oh, let's find seats and then we can talk. You two -" she looked at her sons, but Miss Annersley intervened.
   "The girls will look after them." She raised her voice. "Betsy - Carola! Some of you people come and take charge of these two, will you? They aren't shy, are they?" she added, turning to their mother.
   "Don't know the meaning of the word," Mrs. Embury said. "Thank you, girls! If you will! We're getting off at Nyon and before that I simply must get up-to-date a
little
! Off you go, you two, and mind you behave yourselves!"
   The prefects took charge of the small boys, and the mistresses, with the new addition, returned to their corner and sat down. Mrs. Embury opened fire at once.
   "Now tell me!" she demanded. "What
is
all this in aid of?"
   Nancy Wilmot chuckled. "First, let me recall to you Biddy o'Ryan. She was at the Chalet School the summer before you left. I don't know if you remember how a bunch of the Middles adopted her? Now she belongs to the school and is history mistress."
   "I remember the yarn," Mrs. Embury said cautiously. "It's lovely to meet you all again. I've often wondered what happened, but I married the spring after I left school and then Rupert, our eldest, was born and after him came Lionel and Maurice and those two. If any of them had been girls, I'd have hunted up the school, but as they're all boys, I left it alone. Is it still in existence? I hope so!"
   "Very much in existence," Miss Annersley said crisply. "We have an English branch still, but the main part of the school is in the Oberland, up at the Gornetz Platz."
   "Where they have that new Sanatorium?" Winifred Embury asked. "I knew about that, of course. Do you mean that it's a branch of
our
San? What fun! Who's in charge of it? - Dr. Russell?"
   "No; Sir James is still at the English San," Rosalie Dene said. "Yes; he really is that, Winnie. Madame is Lady Russell now. We have three Russell girls with us - Sybil, Josette and Ailie. The Russells have a lovely house in the Welsh hills where the San is; but Sir James is always in demand for big International conferences. It's Jack Maynard who's Head out here. He and Joey have a house next door to the school."
   "Joey - do you mean Joey Bettany? Did she marry him? Oh, my dears! I'm all behind and Nyon is getting nearer and nearer! Tell me all you can now and you've all got to come and stay with us by turn at the week-ends. We live outside Montreux. My husband is in business in Geneva, but we prefer to live away from the city and with a car it's an easy matter for him to go back and forwards."
   Mdlle took a hand in the matter. "But yes; Joey married Dr. Jack when she was twenty and the following year, she had -" she paused, and her black eyes danced.
   "Well, what did she have?" Winifred asked. "Twins? It would be like her!"
   "No; but triplet daughters!"
   Winifred Embury gasped. "Triplets! Oh,
no
! But how like Joey! She always was wholesale! Not that I can say anything with seven sons," she added laughing. "I've beaten everyone else I know."
   "Then prepare to hide your diminished head in a bucket!" Nancy Wilmot retorted. "Joey has you beat! After the Trips, she had three sons - singletons. Then she went to Canada with Jack and had twins while she was there. She has eight."
   Miss Annersley positively smirked. "You're behind the times, Nancy. Jack rang up the
pension
before petit déjeuner to inform us that their fifth daughter arrived at six this morning and everyone is very well."
   With one accord the staff glared at her. Mdlle was the first to speak. "But Hilda," she said plaintively, "do you mean you have known it all this time and never said anything about it till now?"
   "Oh, I meant to tell you people when I got you alone; but the girls can wait till we're safely back at school. I can just imagine the excitement if they knew!"
   "A singleton daughter at last!" Rosalie Dene said. She turned to Mrs. Embury. "Her twins were a boy and girl - Felix and Felicity. Hilda," she looked at the Head, "you're
sure
it was six this morning?"
   "Well, that's what Jack said. I suppose he knows. But why?"
   "Have you forgotten yesterday's date?"
   "April 1st? Oh, I see?" And the Head's laughter pealed out. "No; It's all right. She's escaped April Fool's day by six hours."
   "Thank goodness for that! No; it's just as well the girls shouldn't know until we have them in our own bounds. Well, we can discuss this later. Meanwhile, what about giving Winnie what news we can in the time? As she says, Nyon is getting near."
   "Oh, do! But give Joey my love and tell her I'm delighted to hear about her. She must come and stay with me and bring the baby when she is able. I'm sure a week or two at Montreux would do her good. How old are the twins?"
   "Three in September." Miss Annersley said no more. Beth Chester had confided a secret to her and Joey the Sunday before this week-end, but it was to remain a secret for the present. Even Barbara Chester did not know yet.
   "But we must tell her our other news," Mdlle interrupted. "Winnie. you must come to the Gornetz Platz and see us there. At the moment, we are smaller than you knew us as part of our school in England remains there. However, we grow."
   "You've changed the uniform. You used to have brown and flame."
   "We did that when we came out here. The English branch keeps it, but we decided that with a fresh beginning we would have a fresh uniform."
   "Oh, I see. If I'd seen the brown and flame, I'd have known you at once, of course. It's a lovely blue. What are the other colours?"
   "Crimson and silver. But Winnie - oh, Winifred, then," as Mrs. Embury gave her a look, "well, Winifred, tell us some more about yourself. And what about your sister - Irene, I remember?" Rosalie Dene said. "Is she married, too?"
   Mrs. Embury shook her head. "Irene has gone in hot and strong for nursing. She has no use for men except as patients or doctors. She's matron now of a big hospital in the north, not far from Newcastle. Which reminds me. One of their ambulances is due some time this week with a patient from their area. At least it may not be until next week. She's going to the San at the Gornetz Platz. That's how I knew about it."
   "Alix Rutherford." Biddy o'Ryan murmured. "A young cousin of hers is with us and she's a musical genius, the creature."
   Mrs. Embury had one eye on the shore. "We're almost there. I must collect the boys. Well, what I was going to say is that this cousin is a cousin of my husband's. Her mother was Dorothy Embury before she married Alan Rutherford. She died when the baby was still a baby and he disappeared with her. Now he's dead. as I expect you know, and Irene's Rutherfords have taken charge of the girl. What's she like? Irene guessed more from what they didn't say than from what they did that she's a difficult girl. Martin would like to give a hand with her, he says. He was very fond of Dorothy when they were children and he'd like to help her girl."
   "It's a pity we didn't know sooner," Nancy Wilmot said. "She's with us - over there." She stood up and scanned the groups. "Yes; with that tall, fair girl up in the bows."
   "
Oh
! And Nyon's here and I can't go on. We're going to spend the day with the wife of my husband's partner and she's expecting us by this boat." She had stood up. "Yes; there she is, waiting." She whirled round on the Head. "Where are you staying? When do you go back? To-morrow after déjeuner? I'll tell Martin and he can ring you up. What a blessing we all met like this! For from what Irene said in her letter, the Rutherfords won't have much time or attention to spare for anyone but their own girl. She seems to be pretty bad, poor child!"
   By this time, the steamer had reached the landing-stage and Mrs. Embury had to go. She thrust a card into Miss Annersley's hand as she said good-bye. "There's our address and I know yours. Write and we'll fix up something about meeting - properly meeting, I mean. Come along, you two! Paul, take my hand. Good-bye, everyone! I'll write and so must you! On you go, Robin!"