CHAPTER XI
A Stolen Meeting
At the very first available moment Marjorie went to the library andconsulted the latest number of the _Brackenfield School Magazine_. Sheturned to the directory of past girls at the end and sought the letterP. Here she found:
1912-1915. PRESTON, Kathleen Hilary } The Manor, 1913-1916. PRESTON, Joyce Benson } Wildeswood, Yorks.
"Each here for three years," she soliloquized. "I wonder what they'redoing now? I'll look them up in the 'News of Friends'. This isit:--'Kathleen Preston has been doing canteen work in France under theCroix Rouge Francaise at a military station. This canteen is run byEnglish women for French soldiers, and is a specially busy one, thehours being from 6 a.m. to 12, and again from 2 to 7 p.m. A recreationhut is in connection with it. Owing to her health, Kathleen returned toEngland on leave, but is now in the north of France driving an ambulancewagon.'
"'Joyce Preston is at Chadley College learning gardening andbee-keeping. She says: 'If any Brackenfield girls want to go in forgardening, do send them here. I am sure they would love it.' Joyce wasable to get up a very excellent concert for the soldiers in the RedCross Hospital at Chadley, the evening being an immense success.'
"Enterprising girls," thought Marjorie. "Those are just the sort ofthings I want to do when I leave school. I'd like Kathleen best, becauseshe drives an ambulance wagon. I wish I knew them! I'd write to them andtell them I've seen their brother in hospital, only they'd think itcheek. They must feel proud of him getting the V.C. I know how I shouldcock-a-doodle if one of our brothers won it! Oh dear, we haven't seenLeonard or Bevis for nine months! It's hard to have one's brothers outat the war. I wonder what convalescent home Private Preston will be sentto? I must ask Elaine."
Next morning, when Marjorie met Dona at the eleven o'clock "break", shefound the latter in a state of much excitement.
"I had a line from Mother, enclosing a letter from Larry," sheannounced. "This is what he says:
"'DEAR OLD BUNTING,
"'I hope you're getting on all serene at school, and haven't spoilt the carpets with salt tears. I'm ordered to the Camp at Denley, and shall be going there to-morrow. I promised if I went I'd look you up and take you out to tea somewhere. If I can get leave I'll call on Saturday afternoon at Brackenfield for you and Squibs, so be on the look-out for me. The Mater will square your Head. Love to Squibs and your little self.
"'Your affectionate "'LARRY.'"
"Oh, I say, what gorgeous fun!" exclaimed Marjorie. "So he's sent to theDenley Camp after all. It's just on the other side of Whitecliffe. Howabsolutely topping to go out to tea with Larry! I hope he'll get leave."
The girls confided their exciting news to their room-mates and theirmost intimate friends, with the result that on Saturday afternoon atleast sixteen heads were peeping out of windows on the qui vive to seethe interesting visitor arrive.
When a figure in khaki strode up the drive and rang the front-door bellthe event was signalled from one hostel to another. Now Mrs. Morrisonwas very faithful to her duties as Principal, and during term-timerarely allowed herself a holiday; but it happened on this particularSaturday that she went for the day to visit friends, and appointed MissNorton deputy in her absence.
Larry Anderson was shown by the parlour-maid into the drawing-room whereparents were generally received, and left there to wait while hispresence was announced. After an interval of about ten minutes, duringwhich he studied the photographs of the school teams that ornamented themantelpiece, the door opened, and a tall fair lady with light-grey eyesand pince-nez entered.
"Mrs. Morrison, I presume?" he enquired courteously.
"I am Miss Norton," was the reply. "Mrs. Morrison is away to-day, andhas left me in charge. Can I do anything for you?"
"I've come to see my sisters, Marjorie and Dona Anderson, and to ask ifI may take them in to Whitecliffe for an hour or so."
"I'm sorry," freezingly, "but that is quite impossible. It is againstthe rules of the school."
"Yes, of course I know they're not usually allowed out, but the Mater--Imean my mother--wrote to Mrs. Morrison to ask her to let the girls go."
"Mrs. Morrison left me no instructions on the subject."
"But didn't she give you my mother's letter?"
"She did not."
"Or leave it on her desk or something? Can't you find out?"
"I certainly cannot search my Principal's correspondence," returned MissNorton very stiffly. "It is one of the rules of Brackenfield that nopupil is allowed out without a special exeat, and in the circumstances Ihave no power to grant this."
"But--oh, I say! The girls will be so awfully disappointed!"
"I am sorry, but it cannot be helped."
"Well, I suppose I may see them here for half an hour?"
"That also is out of the question. Our rule is: 'No visitors exceptparents, unless by special permission'."
"But the permission is in my mother's letter."
"Neither letter nor permission was handed to me by Mrs. Morrison."
"Excuse me, when I've come all this way, surely I may see my sisters?"
"I have said already that it is impossible," replied Miss Norton,rising. "I am in charge of the school to-day, and must do my duty. Yoursisters will be returning home next Tuesday, after which you can makeyour own arrangements for meeting them. While they are under my care Ido not allow visitors."
Miss Norton was a martinet where school rules were concerned, and theBrackenfield code was strict. She knew that Mrs. Morrison would at leasthave allowed Marjorie and Dona to see their brother in the drawing-room,but in the absence of instructions to that effect she chose to keep tothe letter of the law and refuse all male visitors.
Larry, with an effort, kept his temper. He was extremely annoyed anddisappointed, but he did not forget that he was a gentleman.
"Then I will not trouble you further, and must apologize forinterrupting you," he said stiffly but courteously. "I am afraid I havetrespassed upon your time."
"Please do not mention it," answered Miss Norton with equal politeness.
They parted on terms of icy civility. Larry, however, was not to beentirely defeated. He had only left Haileybury six months before, andthere was still much of the schoolboy in him. He was determined to finda way to see his sisters. He paused a moment on the steps after the maidhad shown him out, and, taking a notebook from his pocket, hastilyscribbled a few lines, then, noticing some girls with hockey stickscrossing the quadrangle, he went up to them, and, handing the note tothe one whose looks he considered the most encouraging, said:
"May I ask you to be so kind as to give this to my sister, DonaAnderson? It's very important."
Then he walked away down the drive.
Meantime Marjorie and Dona had been waiting in momentary expectation ofa call to the drawing-room. They could hardly believe the bad news whenscouts informed them that their brother had left without seeing them.
"Gone away!" echoed Dona, almost in tears.
"But why? Who sent him away?" demanded Marjorie indignantly.
At this crisis Mena Matthews hurried in with the note. Dona read it,with Marjorie looking over her shoulder. It ran:
"DEAR OLD BUNTING,
"Your schoolmistress guards you like nuns, but I must see you and Squibs somehow. Can you manage to peep over the wall, right-hand side of gate? I'll walk up and down the road for half an hour, on the chance. Yours,
"LARRY."
There was a hockey match that afternoon between the second and thirdteams, and all the school was making its way in the direction of theplaying-fields. Within the next minute, however, Marjorie and Dona, witha select escort of friends to act as scouts, had reached the gardenwall, and were climbing up with an agility that would have delightedtheir gymnasium mistress, could she have witnessed the performance.Larry, in the road below, grinned as the two familiar heads appearedabove the coping.
"It isn't s
afe to talk here," called Marjorie. "Go down that side lanetill you come to some wooden palings. We'll cut across the plantation,and meet you there."
"All serene!" laughed Larry, hugely enjoying the joke.
The school grounds were large, covering many acres, and a private roadled down the side towards the kitchen garden. Larry found his sistersalready ensconced on the palings, looking out for him.
"I say, this is rather the limit, isn't it?" he greeted them. "The Materwrote and said I might take you to Whitecliffe, and that icicle in thedrawing-room wouldn't even so much as let me have a glimpse of you. Isthis place you've got to a convent? Are you both required to take theveil, please?"
"Not just yet. But what happened?" asked Marjorie. "Mena says theEmpress is out this afternoon. Whom did you see?"
"A grim, fair-haired Gorgon in glasses, who withered me with a look."
"The Acid Drop, surely."
"Probably. She certainly wasn't sweet."
"And she wouldn't let us go?" wailed Dona.
"No, poor old Baby Bunting. It's a rotten business, isn't it? No dragonin a fairy tale could have guarded the princess more closely. If I'dstayed any longer she'd have thrust talons into me."
"Oh, it's too bad! And you'd promised to take me to have tea at a cafe."
"So I did. I meant to give you a regular blow-out, so far as therationing order would allow us. Look here, old sport, I'm ever so sorry.If I'd only foreseen this I'd have brought some cakes and sweets foryou. I'm afraid I've nothing in my pockets except cigarettes and a coughlozenge. Cheer oh! It's Christmas holidays next week, and you'll betucking into turkey before long."
"How do you like the camp, Larry?" asked Marjorie.
"First-rate. We have a wooden hut to sleep in. There are thirty of us;we each have three planks on trestles for a bed, and a palliasse to puton it at night, and a straw pillow. We get four blankets apiece. I makemy own bed every night--double one blanket underneath, and roll theothers round me, and have my greatcoat on top if I'm cold. Aunt Ellinorhas lent me an air-cushion, and it's a great boon, because the strawpillow is as hard as a brick. We do route marches and trench-digging,and yesterday I was on scout duty, and three of us captured a sentry. Ifwe'd been at the front, instead of only training, he'd have shot mecertain."
"Do you have to learn to be a soldier?" asked Dona.
"Why, of course, you little innocent. That's what the training-camp isfor--to teach us how to scout, and dig trenches, and all the rest ofit."
"Oh! I thought you just went to the front and fought."
"It would be a queer war if we did."
"Are you coming home for Christmas?"
"No, I can't get leave; I only wish I could."
"Cave!" called Ailsa Donald, the nearest in the line of girls who hadundertaken to keep guard. "Miss Robinson is coming across the field thisway."
"We must go, or we shall be caught," said Marjorie. "It's too bad tohave to see you like this."
"But it's better than nothing," added Dona. "You can send me thosesweets you talked about for Christmas, if you like."
"All right, old Bunting! I won't back out of my promise."
The girls dropped from the palings, and dived into the plantation justbefore Miss Robinson, on her way to the kitchen garden, passed the spot.If she had looked through a crack in the boards she would have seenLarry walking away, but happily her suspicions were not aroused.Marjorie and Dona strolled leisurely towards the hockey field. Thelatter was aggrieved, the former highly indignant.
"It's absurd," groused Marjorie, "if one can't see one's own brother,especially when Mother had written to say we might. We had to see himsomehow, and I think it's a great deal worse to be obliged to go likethis and talk over palings than to meet him in the drawing-room. It'sjust like Norty's nonsense. She's full of red-tape notions, and aJack-in-office to-day because the Empress has left her in charge. I feelraggy."
"So do I, especially to miss the cafe. I hope Larry won't forget to sendthose sweets."