A Genius at the Chalet School (8 page)

CHAPTER 9

Nina duly went to have "English tea" with Mrs. Maynard on the Sunday. No one ever knew what really occurred, but when the young woman returned, the first thing she did was to hunt out Hilda who had cheered up a little by this time.
   "Hilda," she said shame-facedly, "I'm so very sorry I was so unkind to you. Please forgive me if you can."
   This took place in the splashery where Hilda, coming for a drink of water, had encountered Nina in the act of hanging up her coat. Being Hilda, she held out her hand at once, "Of course I will! And will you forgive me for being such an ass? Miss Lawrence told me I might have injured your wrist permanently and that would have been simply ghastly."
   As a result, the startled members of Va beheld the pair coming into the formroom together and if Hilda looked her old happy self, Nina had certainly lost her brooding look. By Wednesday, her arm was out of the sling and Dr. Graves gave her permission to practise with the left hand for ten minutes at a time. The wrist remained weak for some days, but by the time February was half over, Nina was taking her full four hours a day. More than that, she was gaining in colour and weight and seemed to have settled down happily.
   The thing that occupied most minds by then was the St. Mildred pantomime.
   The girls had elected to produce
Beauty and the Beast
and they had roped in a goodly number of the school proper as they wanted to make a really big thing of it. Verity Carey, Mary-Lou's "sister-by-marriage", since Commander Carey had married Mrs. Trelawney, was the Fairy Queen. The whole bunch of prefects with the exception of Betsy Lucy were Robin Hood and his Merry Men. Betsy herself was Puck. Others of the elder girls were servants, messengers, palace guards and other oddments. Seventeen people who knew something about ballet had been handed over to Tatiana Khavasky whose aunt was, to quote Margot Maynard, "a
real
ballet dancer", and the younger folk were fairies, elves, pixies, and goblins. The chief characters were, naturally, in the hands of the St. Mildred girls. Julie Lucy, sister of Betsy and Vi, was the Beast and her Beauty was an extremely pretty girl who had come from another school, one Joy Venn. Big Ruth Wilson was the Merchant and his elder daughters were Dorothy Watson and Polly Winterton, also Chalet School girls. Clem Barras, another Chaletian, was the Wicked Fairy, having laid claim to it from the beginning, and Annis Lovell, a friend of hers, was the Boatman who suffered from spoonerisms. A big girl from Carnbach Grammar School was the Coachman and the last word in pomposity. The Horse was composed of Bride Bettany and a girl from Brighton school, Mary Elliot.
   The pantomime came off in the afternoon. It was necessary to make a matinée of it since part of the audience might not be out after dark, even though the place was the hall built by subscription from various friends just beyond the gates of the Sanatorium. It began at fourteen o'clock - two, in English time - and by half part thirteen, the body of the hall was crowded. Sundry people from the main school were very busy acting as doorkeepers and usherettes and during the second interval, coffee and cakes were to be provided at a moderate sum. As Bride Bettany had remarked, "We want to make all we can for the San, as well as giving them a lot of fun."
   There was resounding applause when the orchestra, made up of pupils of all the school, filed in and took their places. Nina had been requested to take over the piano from Miss Lawrence so was among them to her great delight.
   When Mr. Denny arrived to take possession of the conductor's rostrum, there was a second outburst. It died away as his baton was raised, bows came to the ready and Nina, with her eyes fixed on him, touched the keys lovingly. Then the baton came down and they swung into Nicolai's
Merry Wives of Windsor
overture which they had calmly pitched on for the purpose.
   The final chords crashed out and after the applause, which the conductor acknowledged with three jerky bows, he turned back, the opening chorus sounded and the curtains swept up, showing "The hall in the house of Master Geltibran, a rich merchant". The servants were scuttling about, getting into each other's way, and the Boatman appeared with a couple of stuffed fish to announce solemnly that he had brought "two hied drerring" for his master's refreshment on his journey - which brought the first laugh. The Merchant appeared, gorgeous in crimson and green, together with his three daughters, Adeliza, Mariella and Beauty, the first two in elaborate dresses and the last in a gym tunic with her hair tied back. Her sisters kept crowding her out and calling her "child", despite her complaints that she was nineteen and surely she might be considered grown-up now. Master Geltibran promises the gifts and the elder sisters sneered at Beauty's modest request for a rose. Then there was a cry of "Way! Make way there!" and the Coachman arrived, leading the Merchant's horse in.
   The animal proceeded to display antics that would have caused any ordinary steed to be sold to the nearest circus. It had movable eyelids of enormous size and it winked solemnly at its master before it administered a side kick at the Coachman who got out of the way in such a hurry that he fell over a page and the pair went down. While the crowd were still rocking, the beast sidled up to a chair which the Merchant mounted, but when he tried to get on its back, it turned, cocked its head on one side and winked at him, pawing valiantly while the audience rocked again.
   At long last he managed to get there and the Horse moved off. The audience were not to know that as Ruth's weight descended, the hindquarters gasped, "Gosh! What a ton weight! Thank goodness it's only into the wings!" As a result, the gentleman nearly forgot to wave to his family as they clattered off, the Merchant grinning broadly. Beauty wept gracefully into her handkerchief, but Adeliza yelled, "Whatever you do, don't forget my diamond tiara and necklace!" which had been her modest request! Mariella, not to be outdone, bawled a reminder of the dozen dresses from Paris she had ordered. The scene ended with a sung farewell during which the servants poured on to the stage in such numbers that Joey Maynard, sitting next to Miss Wilson and Miss Annersley, was moved to murmur, "Labour must have been cheap then!"
   The next scene took place before a front-cloth and was the Merchant's house. The Cook was busy with the dinner and in reply to every question asked merely replied, "Pepper it!" The climax came when a kitchen-maid plaintively asked how she should deal with the rice pudding ordered by Adeliza for Beauty and was told, "Pepper it!" which drew shouts of laughter from the audience. Worse was to come, however, for the Boatman arrived to ask if he could take any people to parket. He complained that he could do with a tup of kea and asked if Cook had any cruffins or mumpets. At this point, Miss Annersley moaned gently and Joey mopped her streaming eyes with her programme as her handkerchief seemed to have gone missing!
   By way of contrast, the next scene was the Court of the Fairy Queen which opened with a chorus which was a very old song indeed,
The Fairies
, produced by Joey who had begged, borrowed or stolen all she could find for the purpose. This was followed by a charming dance given by the ballet. Then the Fairy Queen sang the story of the spell laid on Prince Charming by the Wicked Fairy, Nettlesting, and which could only be broken by a maiden as good as she was beautiful who loved the Beast with all her heart.
   Verity had a beautiful voice, with a lark's lilt in it, and fully deserved the applause she received. However, no encores could be allowed, so the orchestra swung into a merry round dance and the little fairyfolk skipped and pranced gaily.
   Into this happy scene irrupted Nettlesting. Clem looked really dreadful. She had "back-combed" her whole red-brown mop until it stood on end above her face and over her shoulders. She had given herself a ferocious scowl and, someone having fatally introduced her to nose-paste, had adorned her own pretty nose with a hump in the middle.
   Joey sat up and surveyed her with interest. "Heavens! How could Clem manage to make herself so ghastly?" she queried in tones that carried up to the stage and nearly gave Nettlesting a fit of the giggles.
   However, she controlled herself, raised the crooked stick she was carrying and bellowed that the Queen would never lift the spell for no such girl existed. So defiant were here words and gestures that Verity, usually no actress, was roused to make her reply with real dramatic fervour, much to the relief of the producer, Miss Wilson, who had frequently moaned over the flat gentleness of her words during rehearsal. Nettlesting defied her and the Queen told her rebellious subject that when the spell was broken, the Wicked Fairy would be banished to the Land of the Green Goblins forever, where-upon, the Green Goblins, whose faces looked simply awful, done with green greasepaint, suddenly came tumbling in and hailed Nettlesting as their future queen in a song whose chorus ran,

"Pinch her, nip her,

Hit her with a slipper!

Turn her in reverse!

Drive her in a hearse"

And show her what our queen will meet

When she comes to Green Goblin Land!"

   All the time, they were tumbling about, turning somersaults and cartwheels until one visitor muttered to her next door neighbour that those children must be made of indiarubber!
   With a final shriek of rage, Nettlesting strode off, her future subjects tumbling after her. The ballet took the stage with a graceful dance to a Chopin valse and the curtains came down to rise a minute or two later on a front-cloth scene between the Merchant, the Coachman and the Horse.
   Once more the audience were reduced to helpless laughter as the Merchant bemoaned his ill-luck in the matter of the rose and berated the Coachman for not finding him any. The Coachman, speaking in words of three or four syllables, pointed out that you couldn't expect to find roses growing in the Muscovy plains in the middle of winter. The Horse suddenly kicked out at him with a playful hind hoof, and then proceeded to chase him round the stage to the tune of a wild rondo from the orchestra while the Merchant, hurriedly mounting a log handily at one side, encouraged his steed, ejaculating, "Good old Dobbin! Keep it up, old boy! Move a bit faster, Consequential, or he'll dot you one!
Got
him!" as the Horse contacted the Coachman's hindquarters, rather harder than was meant and the yell that gentleman let out was genuine! Finally, the three careered off and the curtains fell once more.
   They rose again on the Garden of the Beast's Palace. The girls had spent a good deal of effort and ingenuity on this. Paper roses trailed over the painted canvas walls and about a trellised archway. Rosebushes had been contrived out of them and branches of fir with quite good if somewhat unusual effect. In the middle of the stage rose a cardboard fountain, the water being effected by means of strands of fine silver wire curved over gracefully into the bowl. A garden seat from St. Mildred's stood at one side and hither came the Merchant who seemed to have mislaid his Horse for the time being. He dropped on to the seat and gave way to a long soliloquy during which he proclaimed that though he had sought everywhere, he could not find the rose Beauty wanted. Towards the end of his speech, the orchestra began playing a lullaby pianissimo. He yawned and then stretched himself out on the seat with one of the parcels for a pillow and the ballet drifted in in a dreamy dance performed mainly down front so that very few people could see the small fairies carefully wheeling in a table already laid and drawing it up beside the sleeping gentleman. The music modulated into the lovely old English lullaby,
Golden Slumbers
, while the ballet melted into the wings with the fairies and as it ended, the Merchant roused up, rubbed his eyes, saw the table with many ejaculations and rubbed them again.
   He finally sat up and after lifting the covers and remarking on each dish, helped himself and fell to. When he had eaten, he looked round and woke up to the fact that he was in a rose garden. He wandered round it, rhapsodizing all the time and finally plucked a rose. There was a terrific "
Crash!
" and the Beast stood beside him, growling most alarmingly. The Merchant fell on his knees and begged for mercy. The Beast growled again and a band of soldiers, gorgeous in red and gold, marched in and surrounded the trespasser. The Merchant shrieked - and little wonder. The Beast was an awesome-looking creature, clad in a teddy-bear suit that covered him from chin to toes and with a head on him that no animal in the Zoo had ever produced. He advanced on the stricken man and at this point, an entirely unrehearsed effect occurred.
   Joey had been obliged to bring her twins to the show as she wanted everyone in the house to share the fun. Felix and Felicity, the two-and-a-half-year-old twins, had watched everything with wide blue eyes, gurgling when the grown-ups laughed and otherwise behaving beautifully. But this was where Felix, staring at the queer creature on the stage, suddenly exclaimed in bell-like tones, "Oh!
Funny
doggy! Wants to stwoke ve funny doggy, Mamma!"
   "You can't! Sit still!" Joey hissed, leaning over to hold him down, while the Merchant uttered a remark that sounded like "Pup-chick!" and the Beast made a most peculiar sound.
   The girls were well-drilled, however, and the Beast recovered himself at once and proceeded to demand why his hospitality had been so abused. The Merchant, in very wobbly tones, explained and the well-known condition for his release was uttered. The Merchant promised and was led off into the palace while the ballet danced in and the scene ended.
   There was a brief interval, during which Joey impressed on her youngest pair that they must sit quietly. Then the curtain rose on the Merchant's front hall again and he arrived and told his story. The elder sisters complained when they heard that Beauty was to marry the Beast and own the beautiful palace. Their father told them it was their own fault for being so greedy and a very funny scene took place which ended with the Horse arriving to bear Beauty away and gallumphing off in a highly upsetting manner for its rider who nearly fell from it before it reached the wings.
   A drop scene of a river when the Boatman, the Cook, the Coachman and the ubiquitous Horse fooled excellently, gave the perspiring scene-shifters a chance to set the Throne Room of the palace. They were just ready when an entirely unexpected event happened.
   The Horse had tried to kiss the Cook. Every time he stretched out his neck in her direction, she shrieked and ran. The audience were mopping their eyes and screaming with laughter, when the hindquarters tripped, bunted into the back of the forequarters which was not expecting it and staggered forward, tripped over the Coachman and the latter went down, fell flat, the back legs subsiding on top of him and the forelegs sitting on top of the backlegs.
   The audience merely wept - it was about all they could do by this time. As for the orchestra, which was supposed to keep up an undercurrent of music here, the members were doubled up over their instruments and it was reported later that Nina simply laid her head on the piano keys and shook with laughter. Even Mr. Denny - Plato to his pupils - dropped his baton and leaned on the desk and writhed with mirth.
   Luckily for the pantomime, Adeliza and Mariella kept their heads. They had been in the wings, waiting for their next entrance and they rushed on to the stage, Adeliza hissing at all within hearing, "Gag till we can straighten up!" before she and Mariella hauled the horse off the unfortunate Coachmen who was nearly purple under his greasepaint by the time they got him on his legs again. Indeed, Adeliza deserved a medal for presence of mind for she raved at everyone in an impromptu speech which fitted in so well, that quite half the visitors thought it was all part of the act.
   The next scene showed the arrival of the wedding party in the Throne Room. For no known reason, Adeliza swept in on the arm of Little John and Mariella arrived with Robin Hood. The outlaw band sang a chorus extolling the glories of a free forest life and followed this up with the old Morris dance,
How D'Ye Do, Sir?
"
   The music then modulated into
Haste to the Wedding
and Beauty arrived, all in white and complete with veil and bouquet, what time the Beast entered from the other side, supported by the Captain of the Guard and the entire Guard. A quartette followed between Beauty, the Beast, the Merchant and the Captain, after which the entire party danced a charming minuet before going out to supper.
   As the last of the party vanished, the stage darkened and Nettlesting and her retinue appeared. Standing well down centre, Nettlesting, lighted by a green lime which made her look even more awful if that were possible, solemnly cursed the happy pair with a most comprehensive curse.