CHAPTER IX
St. Ethelberta's
The immediate result to Marjorie of her mock somnambulistic adventurewas that she got a very bad cold in her head, due no doubt to walkingabout the passages with bare feet and only her nightdress on. It washighly aggravating, because she was considered an invalid, and herWednesday exeat was cancelled. She had to watch from the infirmarywindow when Dona, escorted by Miss Jones, started off for The Tamarisks.Dona waved a sympathetic good-bye as she passed. She was a kind-heartedlittle soul, and genuinely sorry for Marjorie, though it was rather atreat for her to have Elaine quite to herself for the afternoon. Mrs.Anderson had been justified in her satisfaction that the sisters had notbeen placed in the same hostel. In Marjorie's presence Dona was nothingbut an echo or a shadow, with no personality of her own. At St.Ethelberta's, however, she had begun in her quiet way to make a placefor herself. She was already quite a favourite among her house-mates.They teased her a little, but in quite a good-tempered fashion, andDona, accustomed to the continual banter of a large family, took allchaffing with the utmost calm. She was happier at school than she hadexpected to be. Miss Jones, the hostel mistress, was genial andwarm-hearted, and kept well in touch with her girls. She talked to themabout their various hobbies, and was herself interested in so manydifferent things that she could give valuable hints on photography,bookbinding, raffia-plaiting, poker-work, chip-carving, stencilling,pen-painting, or any other of the handicrafts in which the Juniorsdabbled. She was artistic, and had done quite a nice pastel portrait ofBelle Miller, whose Burne-Jones profile and auburn hair made her anexcellent model. Miss Jones had no lack of sitters when she feltdisposed to paint, for every girl in the house would have been only tooflattered to be asked.
Dona was a greater success in her hostel than in the schoolroom. Afterher easy lessons with a daily governess she found the standard of herform extremely high. She was not fond of exerting her brains, and herexercises were generally full of "howlers". Miss Clark, her formmistress, was apt to wax eloquent over her mistakes, but she took theteacher's sarcasms with the same stolidity as the girls' teasings. Itwas a saying in the class that nothing could knock sparks out of Dona.Yet she possessed a certain reserve of shrewd common sense which wassometimes apt to astonish people. If she took the trouble to evolve aplan she generally succeeded in carrying it out.
Now on this particular afternoon when she went alone to The Tamarisksshe had a very special scheme in her head. She had struck up animmensely hot friendship with a Scottish girl named Ailsa Donald, whosetastes resembled her own. Dona was in No. 2 Dormitory and Ailsa in No.5, and it was the ambition of both to be placed together in adjoiningcubicles. Miss Jones sometimes allowed changes to be made, but, as ithappened, nobody in No. 2 was willing to give up her bed to Ailsa or inNo. 5 to yield place to Dona, so the chums must perforce remain apart.They spent every available moment of the day together, but after the9.15 bell they separated.
Dona had asked each of her room-mates to consider whether No. 5 was notreally a more sunny, airy, and comfortable bedroom than No. 2.
"The dressing-tables are bigger," she urged to Mona Kenworthy. "You'dhave far more room to spread out your bottles of scent and hairwash andcremolia and things."
"Thanks, I've plenty of room where I am, and my things are all nicelysettled. I'm not going to move for anybody, and that's flat," returnedMona.
Dona next tackled Nellie Mason, and suggested warily that No. 5, beingfarther away from Miss Jones's bedroom, afforded greater opportunitiesfor laughter and jokes without so much danger of being pounced upon. Herfish, however, refused to swallow the tempting bait, and BeatriceElliot, whom she also sounded on the subject, was equally inflexible.
Most girls would have accepted the inevitable, but Dona was not to bevanquished. She had a dark plan at the bottom of her mind, and consultedElaine about it that afternoon. Elaine laughed, waxed enthusiastic, andsuggested a visit to a bird-fancier's shop down in the town. It was aqueer little place, with cages full of canaries in the window, and anaquarium, and some delightful fox-terrier puppies and Persian kittens onsale, also a squirrel which was running round and round in a kind ofrevolving wheel.
Elaine and Dona entered, and asked for white mice.
"Mice?" said the old man in charge. "I've got a pair here that will justsuit you. They're real beauties, they are. Tame? They'll eat off yourhand. Look here!"
He fumbled under the counter, and brought out a cage, from which heproduced two fine and plump specimens of the mouse tribe. They justifiedhis eulogy, for they allowed Dona to handle them and stroke them withoutexhibiting any signs of fear or displeasure.
"Suppose I were to let them run about the room," she enquired, "could Iget them back into their cage again?"
"Easy as anything, missie. All you've got to do is to put a bit ofcheese inside. They'll smell it directly, and come running home, andthen you shut the door on them. They'll do anything for cheese. Givethem plenty of sawdust to burrow in, and some cotton-wool to make anest, and they're perfectly happy. Shall I wrap the cage up in brownpaper for you?"
Dona issued from the shop carrying her parcel, and with a bland smileupon her face.
"If these don't clear Mona out of No. 2 I don't know what will," shechuckled.
"How are you going to smuggle them in to Brackenfield?" enquired Elaine."I think all parcels that you take in are examined. You can't put a cageof mice in your pocket or under your skirt."
"I've thought of that," returned Dona. "You and Auntie are going to takeme back to-night. I shall pop the parcel under a laurel bush as we go upthe drive, then before supper I'll manage to dash out and get it, andtake it upstairs to my room. See?"
"I think you're a thoroughly naughty, schemeing girl," laughed Elaine,"and that I oughtn't to be conniving at such shameful tricks."
Shakespeare tells us that
"Some cannot abide a gaping pig, Nor some the harmless necessary cat".
Many people have their pet dislikes, and as to Mona Kenworthy, the verymention of mice sent a series of cold shivers down her back.
"Suppose one were to run up my skirt, I'd have a fit. I really shoulddie!" she would declare dramatically. "The thought of them makes meabsolutely creep. I shouldn't mind them so much if they didn't scuttleso hard. Black beetles? Oh, I'd rather have cockroaches any day thanmice!"
It was with the knowledge of this aversion on the part of Mona that Donalaid her plans. She left the cage under the laurel bush in the drive,and by great good luck succeeded in fetching it unobserved and conveyingit to her dormitory, where she unwrapped it and stowed it away in herwardrobe. When she had undressed that evening, and just before thelights were turned out, she placed the cage under her bed. She waiteduntil Miss Clark had made her usual tour of inspection, and the door ofthe room was shut for the night, then, leaning over, she opened the cageand allowed its occupants to escape. They made full use of theirliberty, and at once began to scamper about, investigate the premises,and enjoy themselves.
"What's that?" said Mona, sitting up in bed.
Dona did not reply. She pretended to be asleep already.
"It sounds like a mouse," volunteered Nellie Mason.
"Oh, good gracious! I hope it's not in the room."
The old saying, "as quiet as a mouse", is not always justified in solidfact. On this occasion the two small intruders made as much noise astigers. They began to gnaw the skirting board, and the sound of theirsharp little teeth echoed through the room. Mona waxed quite hysterical.
"If it runs over my bed I shall shriek," she declared.
"Perhaps it's not really in the room, it's probably in the wainscot,"suggested Beatrice Elliot.
"I tell you I heard it run across the floor. Oh, I say, there it isagain!"
The frolicsome pair continued their revels for some time, and kept thegirls wide awake. When Mona fell asleep at last it was with her headburied under the bed-clothes. Very early in the morning Dona got up,tempted her pets back with some cheese which
she had brought from TheTamarisks, and put the cage into her wardrobe again.
Directly after breakfast Mona went to Miss Jones, and on the plea thather bed was so near the window that she constantly took cold andsuffered from toothache, begged leave to exchange quarters with AilsaDonald, who had a liking for draughts, and was willing to move out ofNo. 2 into No. 5. Miss Jones was accommodating enough to grantpermission, and the two girls transferred their belongings withoutdelay.
"I wouldn't sleep another night in that dormitory for anything you couldoffer me," confided Mona to her particular chum Kathleen Drummond. "Isimply can't tell you what I suffered. I'm very sensitive about mice. Iget it from my mother--neither of us can bear them."
"You might have set a trap," suggested Kathleen.
"But think of hearing it go off and catch the mouse! No, I never couldfeel happy in No. 5 again. Miss Jones is an absolute darling to let mechange."
Dona's share in the matter was not suspected by anybody. Her plot hadsucceeded admirably. Her only anxiety was what to do with the mice, forshe could not keep them as permanent tenants of her wardrobe. The riskof discovery was great. Fortunately she managed to secure the goodoffices of a friendly housemaid, who carried away the cage, and promisedto present the mice to her young brother when she went for her night outto Whitecliffe. To nobody but Ailsa did Dona confide the trick she hadplayed, and Ailsa, being of Scottish birth, could keep a secret.