CHAPTER XIII
Reports
Avelyn was looking forward with wildest joy to the Christmas holidays.There were so many things she intended to do at home. She and Daphne andthe boys were all going to set to work to construct chicken coops inpreparation for the hatching of clutches of eggs that would be put downin January. Then, if the weather kept open, there were wonderfulimprovements to be made in the garden, stones to be brought for arockery, and ferns to be fetched from the stream to plant upon it, tosay nothing of the vegetable culture which in these days of foodshortage was the main feature of their outdoor activities.
Avelyn's whole heart was at Walden. She had grown to love every cornerof it with an intense clinging attachment. No place in the world was soprecious as those few acres of land she called home. The prospect of anentire glorious month there filled her with bliss.
"L'homme propose et Dieu dispose", however, and our best-made plans havea knack of "ganging agley". On the Thursday before the holidays Anthonybroke out in spots, and the doctor, who came six miles in his car fromthe little town of Roby, looked at them critically, shook his head, andremarked: "Chicken-pox! There's a good deal of it about just now."
Mrs. Watson was a woman who acted promptly. When she had ushered thedoctor out she tucked up the invalid warmly, put on her hat and coat,and went to the village, where there was a public telephone call office.Here she rang up 138 Harlingden, and held a brief but satisfactoryconversation with her second cousin, Mrs. Lascelles. Then she went home,wrote a letter to Avelyn, and posted it, after which she focused herattention on the invalid, who was feverish and fractious. The news whichAvelyn received in the letter came as a bolt from the blue.
"I'm so sorry, darling," wrote her mother, "but the doctor says Tony haschicken-pox, and you mustn't come home to-morrow. I have telephoned toCousin Lilia, and she offers to take you in for the holidays, so willyou tell Miss Thompson that you are to go there. No time for more, as Iwant to catch the early post. Good-bye, darling! Much love from Mother."
Avelyn had taken the letter to the Cowslip Room to read. She put it inher pocket, sat down on her bed, and tried to face the situation. Not togo home for the holidays! The idea was unbearable. Great tears welledinto her eyes, and for a few minutes she was an absolute baby. Red-hotrebellion raged within her. She was tempted to go home in spite of hermother's prohibition, and beg to sleep in the cottage, or at Mrs.Garside's farm, and risk the chance of infection. She would cheerfullycatch chicken-pox if only she might have it at Walden. A wild ideastruck her of asking Pamela to take her in, but the remembrance of Mr.Hockheimer intervened. She was sure Pamela would not dare to invite avisitor to Moss Cottage.
"And we were going to have such fun together!" she moaned. "I'll hate tospend the holidays in town and at the Lascelles's. Oh, it'll be grizzly!I wish I could stay at school instead. I _will_ go home!"
Better reflections, however, prevailed. Mrs. Watson had brought up herchildren to respect her authority, and Avelyn knew that she would not beable to meet her mother's eyes if she turned up at Walden in distinctdefiance of instructions. There was nothing for it but to submit, thoughit was a miserable business. She took her letter to Miss Thompson, andtold her of the altered arrangement. The Principal looked worried.
"I hope you haven't taken the infection yourself," she remarked. "Youmight spread it over the school. Are you sure you have no spots?"
"Not a single one," Avelyn assured her.
"Well, don't mention anything about it to the other girls; it would onlymake their mothers nervous. Your box shall be left in Harlingden thisafternoon, when the second batch of luggage goes. I suppose you can walkto your cousin's house. They'll be expecting you?"
"Oh, yes! Mother would tell them what time I am coming."
Avelyn went back to the Cowslip Room and began to put her variouspossessions into her box. The packing was a stale business, without anyheart in it. It is horrible to be obliged to pay a visit when you don'twant to go. In spite of Miss Thompson's injunctions, she could not helpconfiding her ill news to her room-mates. It was impossible to keep herwoes bottled up in her own breast. She wanted sympathy badly.
"Hard luck!" said Laura.
"Beastly not to be going home!" agreed Janet.
"Poor old sport! I'll send you some picture post cards," consoledEthelberga.
"Suppose you break out in spots at your cousin's?" suggested Irma.
This was a new view of the case that had not before occurred to Avelyn.
"I'd _welcome_ them!" she declared. "I'd get Cousin Lilia to put me inan ambulance and pack me off home."
"Suppose they wouldn't? They might say it was too far, and send you tothe fever hospital instead."
"I wouldn't stay. I'd run away and manage to get home somehow. By theby, don't tell anybody else about this. Miss Thompson told me to keep itdark."
"Right you are! We won't blab."
All five girls were busy packing. Their beds were strewn with blouses,stockings, and other impedimenta. In the midst of the proceedingsentered Miss Hopkins, rather flustered and overdone with theresponsibility of seeing that thirty-six boarders took their essentialpossessions home with them.
"Dear me, you're very slow in this dormitory!" she observed. "The VioletRoom have finished and gone downstairs. If there were less talking you'dget on a good deal quicker. Here are your reports," dealing out from apacket in her hand five envelopes, addressed respectively to Mrs.Watson, E. A. Ridley, Esq., Mrs. Talbot, Colonel Duncan, and the Rev. F.Carnforth. "Now, make haste! I shall expect to find your boxes strappedwhen I come up again."
Miss Hopkins departed to do her duty in other dormitories, leaving asensation as of east wind behind her. Avelyn stood staring at theenvelope. She was anxious to see her report for this term. The Watsonfamily were lax as regarded letters; at home they usually passed roundtheir correspondence as common property. She tore open the envelope,therefore, and read the report. It was quite a good one, and ended: "Hasdone conscientious work, and shows marked improvement."
Avelyn purred with satisfaction.
"Tommiekins is a dear! Mother will be ever so pleased. Even Hopscotchhas given me 'satisfactory', which is more than I expected from her, andMr. Harrison has put 'painstaking' for music, though I know he thinksI'm rather a duffer at it."
"I wonder what they've said about me?" speculated Laura, fumbling inher box for the envelope which she had just packed.
"And me?" echoed Janet.
There is force in example. In another moment Laura, Janet, Irma, andEthelberga were all perusing their reports.
"'Good' for botany! Oh, how precious!"
"Wonders will never cease! I've actually got 'fair' for generalknowledge."
"Oh, hold me up! I've passed muster in maths."
"What does Miss Kennedy mean by this: 'sadly lacking in order, and wantsmore application'? I'm sure I'm no worse than the rest of you,"exclaimed Janet indignantly.
"Has she put that?"
"Yes, I call it spiteful of her!"
"Poor old sport!"
"It isn't as if I'd been so very behindhand all the term. Miss Kennedyknows I haven't. I declare I shall go and ask her what she means by it!"
The offended Janet, in a furious temper, flounced out of the room insearch of her form mistress. She found her in the study addressingluggage labels.
"Miss Kennedy, I do think it's too bad to give me such a horrid report!"burst out Janet. "Why am I specially 'lacking in application'? I'm sureI've worked just as hard as most of the other girls; and if it's aquestion of order, Irma's far more untidy than I am, and so isEthelberga! I don't call it fair. You've no right to say such thingsabout me!"
Miss Kennedy looked up in extreme astonishment.
"How do you know what I've said about you?" she queried.
"Why, it's here, in black and white!"
"What paper have you there?"
"My report."
"Do you mean to say that you have opened your report?"
Janet's face fell. She shuffled her feet uneasily, and did not reply.
"It was addressed to your father. Who authorized you to open it, Ishould like to know?"
"Well, Avelyn Watson read hers, so we all thought we could read ours,"urged Janet in exculpation.
"Indeed!" Miss Kennedy's tone was as iced vinegar. "What an extremelyhonourable proceeding! Miss Thompson will have to hear of this! It'ssomething new in the school for girls to open their parents' letters."
Miss Kennedy abandoned the labels she was directing, and went at once insearch of the head mistress, to whom she told her astounding tale. MissThompson took off her convex glasses, wiped them solemnly, and put themon again.
"I couldn't have believed they would have _dared_!" she said, with anote of battle in her voice. "Send Avelyn Watson to me. I must deal withthe matter at once."
Miss Thompson might not be very tall, but she was thoroughly capable ofmanaging her school. Every inch of her bristled with dignity. Avelynentered the room a trifle jauntily, but one steady glance from thoseconvex glasses caused her feathers to fall.
"Avelyn Watson, I understand that half an hour ago Miss Hopkins gave youa letter addressed to your mother, to take home with you."
"Yes, Miss Thompson, but I'm not going home for the holidays."
"So I'm aware. In the circumstances the letter should have been posted,but that has nothing to do with it. What I want to know is on whatauthority you have presumed to open it?"
Miss Thompson's grey eyes were almost hypnotic in their power. Avelyn'sfell before their keen scrutiny.
"Mother always used to let me see my reports," she faltered.
"That's quite a different matter, to allow you to look at what she hadalready seen herself. To open a letter addressed to anyone else, withoutpermission, is one of the most dishonourable things that anybody can do.No lady would disgrace herself by such an action. I am amazed beyondmeasure to find that any girl in this school could be capable of it. Ithought you knew our standards better. Have you been a whole term here,Avelyn, and not yet learnt the very elements of honour? Silverside hasalways prided itself upon its traditions."
Avelyn stood aghast. It had never struck her that anyone would construeher thoughtless and impulsive action in such a light. She had nofurther excuse to urge.
"Have you the report here? Then go and fetch it," commanded thePrincipal.
Avelyn went without a word. When she returned and handed Miss Thompsonthe paper, the latter took out her stylo and appended another line:
"Conduct unfortunately not strictly honourable."
She showed the addition to Avelyn.
"I am going to _post_ this to your mother," she remarked pointedly. "Youmay tell your room-mates that they are each to bring me her report. Ishall post theirs also. I am very much disappointed in you all."
Avelyn left the room in the depths of dejection. She had been very neartears all the morning, and now she could restrain herself no longer. Itseemed an absolutely pixie day, with disgrace on the top of bad news.She gave a husky message to Laura, telling her to pass it on to theothers, and then flew into the bath-room and had a good weep in private.Crying is a horrid business; it makes one's head ache, and one's eyesfeel bunged up, and one's throat sore, and one's heart like a lump oflead. If it is true that our emotions cause waves of colour to emanatefrom us, poor Avelyn's aura must at that moment have been a particularlydingy drab.
AN INTERVIEW WITH MISS THOMPSON]
"What will Mother think of my getting 'dishonourable' in my report?" shesobbed. "And I can't go home and tell her all about it. I'll write toher and try to explain, but I'm always a silly at writing. She's keptall our reports ever since we first went to school, and we've none of usever had anything nasty like this in them. It'll just spoil the record.Oh, dear, what an idiot I've been! I wish I hadn't to go to CousinLilia's this afternoon! I know I'll hate Christmas there. Life's aperfectly sickening business!"