CHAPTER XII
Diana Breaks Out
Diana went back to school in the wildest and most rampageous of spirits.She felt that she just had to let off steam somehow. She seized Wendy'shand, tore with her to the very top of the house and down again, thencareered along the corridor in such a mad, not to say noisy stampede,that Miss Todd issued from her study like a lion from its lair, andfixed the culprits with the full concentrated power of what the girlscalled her "scholastic eye".
"Winifred and Diana," she remarked in calm, measured tones, "if I haveto remind you again about walking quietly in the passages, it will meanforty lines for you both, and I should be sorry to have to givepunishments on the first day of term."
The tempestuous pair, very much sobered down, tip-toed away, and went tounpack their possessions in their separate dormitories. Diana foundLoveday in the ivy room, and burst in upon her with as much of thebubbling-over spirits as she dared to exhibit, hugging her till shenearly choked her.
"I've missed you loads, Loviekins!" she assured her. "It felt queer tobe in bed, and not have you on the other side of a curtain. I used towake up in the night and begin to speak to you out of sheer force ofhabit. I wanted my 'little elder sissie' awful bad sometimes! Did youmiss me the least tiny atom? Do you care that much for your 'pixiegirl'?"
"Of course I missed you, darling! I'm just delighted to see you again!It's nice to be back. I haven't enjoyed the holidays _very_ much. Inever do----"
"I know," said Diana sympathetically, as Loveday hesitated. "I couldread that between the lines, in your letters. You wrote me absolutelyripping letters! I loved them! You were a dear to write so often. Itmust have taken heaps of time."
"I'd nothing very much else to do," sighed Loveday, disengaging herselfgently from Diana's arms. "Let me go, child! I haven't half finished myunpacking, and you haven't even begun yours yet."
"_Bust_ the unpacking!" said Diana naughtily. "I don't feel inclined tobe tidy; I shall just shovel armfuls of things out, and pitch themanyhow into the drawers. Yes, Loveday Seton, I feel like that! I'm 'fey'to-day, as the Scotch say, and must 'dree my weird'. Don't quite knowexactly what that means; but I guess I've got a little pixie imp dancingaround inside me, and he's going to make me do something crazy. There'sno help for it! It's kismet!"
"And Miss Hampson is also kismet!" said Loveday, leaving her own box andcoming to the rescue of Diana's garments, which were being literallypitched into the drawers with no regard at all for their condition."Look how you're crushing your blouses! Go and sit on the bed, and letme do it. There! What a baby thing you are! You're more like four thanfourteen!"
"It pays," said Diana serenely, squatting cross-legged on her bed, whileLoveday's neat hands arranged her possessions. "If I were a sedate,goody-goody, 'old-beyond-her-years', staid sort of a person, you'd neverspoil me as you do. I'll try to practise it if you like, though.Anything to please you! How would this do?"
Diana's mobile face suddenly underwent a quick change. The corners ofher mouth were drawn down, her eyelids drooped, while her eyes were castupward in a sort of sanctimonious squint.
"Don't!" implored Loveday, almost hysterically. "Oh, suppose your facewere to stick like that! You'd look the most abominable little Pharisee.I'd hate you!"
"You like your pixie-girl best? Then, that settles it! Now, if you everscold me again about anything, I'll put on the Pharisee face; so I warnyou. You've got to choose between them. Yes, I know I'm a handful--Ialways have been--but, perhaps, it's good for you, Loveday mine:develops your character, and makes you more patient and persevering,and--and----"
"You're the cheekiest little imp on the face of the earth!" interruptedLoveday. "Get up, this minute, and come and finish your own work. I'vesomething else to do besides unpack for you. If Miss Hampson comes andfinds my box still half full----"
"She'll say how slow you've been, and what a nice, tidy child Diana is!Don't try to look 'proper', Loveday! It doesn't suit your style ofbeauty. Yes, put my collars away, too, or I shall only crush them.There! Very well done! First prize for order! I think you're absolutelytopping, if you ask me!"
All that evening, and all the next morning, Diana's spirits continued tofizz. She might possibly have worked them off out-of-doors, but theBritish climate was against her; once more the fells were swathed intheir familiar garments of mist, and the rain came pitter-pattering downon the roof of Pendlemere Abbey, and falling from the eaves in amonotonous drip, drip, drip. It was drawing afternoon, and promptly athalf-past two intermediates and juniors would be due in the studio to goon with the various copies and models on which they were engaged. It wasnow shortly after two o'clock, and the school was amusing itself for thehalf-hour between meal-time and lessons. During that brief intervalDiana, so to speak, "popped her cork".
"Hallo, America! You're looking rather weedy, standing on one leg like amarabou stork!" quizzed Sadie. "What's the matter with you?"
"Your beastly, abominable British climate!" retorted Diana. "It goes onrain, rain, raining till I'm fed up. I want to get away somewhere, andsee something different from just school. I wasn't born for a convent!"
"I should think not!" chuckled Vi.
"But I'm in one, and I'm tired of it! I'm tired of you all! Yes, I meanwhat I say!"
"Draw it mild, Stars and Stripes!" warned Sadie.
"I don't care! School's dull, and I'm bored stiff. I'll wake things upsomehow; see if I don't!"
"What'll you do, old sport?"
"Ah! _Just wait and see!_" nodded Diana, putting down the foot that hadbeen twisted round her leg, and stamping to get rid of the pins andneedles that followed her cramped position. "It's just possible I mayturn philanthropist, and give you all a dinky little surprise," sheadded casually, as she strolled towards the door.
The studio was a large room on the upper story, with the orthodox northwindows and top-light, in the shape of a skylight. It was fitted withdesks and easels, and round its walls was a row of casts on pedestals.The girls liked drawing afternoon well enough, but they were not in anyparticular hurry to go upstairs and take out boards and pencils. It wasnot until twenty-five minutes past two that Wendy, Vi, Sadie, and Peggycame leisurely along the top landing. They opened the door of the studioin quite an every-day manner, and walked in. Then they all four staredand ejaculated:
"O-o-o-oh!"
"Jehosh-a-phat!"
"I say!"
"Good night!"
They might well exclaim, for a very startling and unanticipatedspectacle greeted them. The classic heads of the casts had lost theirdignity. Apollo wore a tam-o'-shanter cocked rakishly over his left ear;Clytie had on a motor veil; Juno and Ceres were fashionably arrayed instraw hats; a wreath of twisted paper encircled the intellectual brow ofMinerva; Psyche peered through spectacles; Perseus was decked with aturban; and, worst of all, the beautiful upper lip of Venus sported amoustache. Armed with a pointer stood Diana, ready, like Mrs. Jarley ofthe famous waxworks, to act show-woman.
"Walk up! Walk up, ladies and gentlemen!" she began glibly. "This isn'tfunny at all, it's calm and classical. Greek art up-to-date is what Icall it. If Apollo had lived in this British climate I guess he'd haveneeded a tammy to keep his hair in curl; and Psyche must have beenshort-sighted when she blundered about hunting for Cupid; she'd havefound him in a decent pair of spectacles, poor girl! Clytie sufferedfrom earache, and couldn't motor without a veil; as for Venus, it'sgiving her the vote that's forced a moustache; she's sent for asafety-razor, but it hasn't arrived yet."
More girls had come in during Diana's explanation, and they wanderedround the room in explosions of laughter.
"Why has Perseus got a turban on?" demanded Tattie.
"Because his hair grew thin on the top, and even Tatcho didn't fetch upanother crop of curls, and Andromeda so objected to seeing him bald thatthere was nothing for it but to turn Moslem and wear a turban. He did itin self-defence, because she threatened to buy him a dark wig, and hesaid it would make him look like a Jew."
"That's _my_ hat!" objected Vi, pointing to the straw that decoratedJuno.
"Excuse me--hers! The lady's gone on the land, working like a niggerdigging the ground for the potato crop. You see, Jupiter hasn't gotdemobilized yet, and----"
The flower of Diana's eloquence suddenly withered and dried up as ifelectrocuted. In the doorway, above the heads of the giggling girls,appeared a vision in pince-nez--an avenging vision that passed rapidlythrough the several stages of amazement, consternation, and wrath.
"Di-ana _Hew_litt!" snapped Miss Hampson. "Go down and report yourself_instantly_ to Miss Todd. This is simply disgraceful! Girls, take yourseats! Tattie and Vi, help to remove those--those----" The irate mistresspaused for a word, but, failing to find one adequate to the occasion,began instead, her fingers trembling with indignation, to strip theturban from the classic head of Perseus.
Dead, awful silence reigned in the room. Not a girl dared to giggle; afew began nervously to sharpen pencils, but most sat and stared whilethe casts were denuded of their trappings. Miss Hampson removed themoustache from Venus as if she were apologizing to that deity forsacrilege, and, with her own handkerchief, wiped away from the lovelylip the seccotine which had attached the masculine appendage to theQueen of Beauty. She rolled up the hats in the towel which had served asturban, set her pupils to work at their copies, then marched sternlydownstairs to lay the full enormity of the case before thejustly-shocked ears of Miss Todd. Nobody ever heard exactly whathappened in the interview; no coaxing or persuasion would induce Dianato disclose details even to Wendy or Loveday, but it was generallyunderstood in the school that Miss Todd had "spoken her mind". Oneresult loomed large, and that was the punishment. It was absolutelyunique. Perhaps the Principal was tired of giving poetry to learn orlines to write, and considered that confinement to bounds was not verygood for a girl's health, so she devised something else to act as adiscipline. For a week Diana was condemned not to wear evening-dress. Itwas a far greater trial than it sounds. Each night before supper theschool changed into pretty frocks, and, when the meal was over, spent apleasant hour together at recreation. With everybody else in festiveattire, it was terrible for Diana to be obliged to come downstairs inher serge skirt and jersey, the one Cinderella of the party. Mostespecially trying was it on Saturday, when chairs and tables were pushedback in the dining-room, and dancing was the order of the evening. PoorDiana, in her thick morning-shoes, stood forlornly in a corner, refusingall offers of partners, but watching wistfully as the others whirled by.Miss Hampson, whose wrath was of the short, explosive kind that quicklyturns to softness of heart, was understood to murmur something to MissTodd about the impossibility of waltzing in anything butdancing-slippers; but the Principal's mouth was set firm, and she wouldnot remit the least atom of the sentence till it was paid to theuttermost farthing.
If Diana looked wistful, she nevertheless bore her punishment withdignity. She was a girl of spirit, and she did not mean to betray, evenby the blink of an eyelid, how much she cared. Geraldine, Hilary, andIda had rubbed in her ostracism, and certain impudent juniors hadenjoyed themselves with witticisms at her expense. To these she mustpreserve an attitude of sang-froid. But up in the ivy room, when shewent to bed, the mask fell off. The Diana that cuddled in Loveday's armswas a very different Diana from the don't-care young person ofdownstairs. Loveday--who understood her now--consoled and kissed where aterm ago she would have scolded. There are some dispositions that canonly be managed by kisses.
"It wasn't as if I'd taken a hammer and smashed the wretched old casts!"sobbed Diana. "I really didn't do them any damage; even the seccotinewas easily sponged off Venus. But Miss Todd talked and talked as if I'ddone something irreligious in church. I'd never do that, you know! WouldI, now? She said I had 'an irreverent mind'. I don't believe she'll ever_quite_ forgive me. And oh, Hilary has been so nasty! Thank goodness,dancing evening's done with! I've only Monday and Tuesday nights to gothrough now, then the whole wretched week will be over. I suppose I'm tobe allowed to wear my Sunday clothes to-morrow? If I mayn't, I'll shamill and stop in bed. I won't go to church in my brown coat and tammy,and have Mr. Fleming and everybody staring at me. I just _couldn't_! I'ddie!"
"It's all right about that--don't you worry! I asked Miss Hampson, andshe said: 'Certainly, Sunday clothes'. I'll speak to Hilary, and try toget her to leave you alone. As for those kids, just leave them to me;I'll tackle them, and tell them what I think of the way they behavedto-night--the young wretches! I fancy I'll make them squirm!"
"You mascot! Miss Todd says I've been utterly and entirely spoilt. Do_you_ think I have?"
Loveday took the piquant little face between her two hands and looked amoment into the upturned grey eyes.
"Yes," she decided. "You're undoubtedly a spoilt darling--but you're adarling all the same," she added softly under her breath.