CHAPTER II
An Invasion
The changes which were taking place this term at Silverside certainlymarked a new era in its traditions. Up till now it had been essentiallya boarding school. There had, indeed, been day girls, who had shared theclasses and some of the games, but they were in the minority, both innumbers and in influence. They had had no part in the various guilds andsocieties, and had been made by the boarders to feel that they wereinferior beings who did not count. The mistresses, themselves resident,had been accustomed to view the boarders as the more important factors,and arranged everything to suit their convenience. It had been theunwritten code of the school that to be a boarder meant to procurepreferential treatment.
Miss Thompson, however, was a level-headed woman, who marched with thetimes. When the opportunity arose of acquiring the connection of TheHawthorns, the large day school at the other side of the town, sheclosed with the bargain, and decided upon an entire change of tactics.Henceforward Silverside was to be run as _the_ girls' day school ofHarlingden. The house was large, its accommodation had hitherto exceededthe needs of the pupils, there was plenty of room for added numbers, andeven in war-time it would be possible to run up a corrugated iron orportable wooden building to serve as lecture hall and gymnasium. The biggarden already contained several tennis courts, and there was a fieldclose at hand which might be rented for hockey. Altogether, MissThompson congratulated herself that she had performed a most excellentstroke of business, and she looked forward to establishing a veryflourishing educational centre, and to laying by a comfortable provisionupon which she might retire when the burden of teaching grew too heavyfor her to bear.
Certainly, Silverside was most excellently situated for the purpose shehad in view. The property had been bought some years before the town ofHarlingden had expanded, and while land was still cheap. The house stoodin its own beautiful grounds, on the top of a hill commanding a fineview over the estuary. It was breezy and healthy, with large loftyrooms, big windows, and ample accommodation in the way of side doors andbathrooms: just sufficiently in the country to allow of walks throughfields and woods, yet near enough to the town to permit most girls toreturn home for their mid-day dinners. As a day school, it was far moreconveniently situated than The Hawthorns. Harlingden, formerly amoderate-sized and not particularly important town, had since theoutbreak of the war been turned into a great munition centre; theGovernment, attracted by the advantages of the estuary, had establishedlarge permanent works there, together with a shipbuilding industry. In afew short years the population had doubled. Fresh suburbs sprang up likemushrooms. In the Silverside district this was particularly noticeable,for where formerly there had been quite a rural walk between hedges,leading to the town, there now stood rows of neat villas with stuccoedfronts and balconies, and conspicuously new gardens.
The boarders at Silverside, who preferred country to town, greatlydeplored this suburban growth. They had always begged to take theirwalks in an opposite direction, and had ignored Harlingden and itsindustries as persistently as possible. The advent of about fifty daygirls into Silverside they regarded as neither more nor less than analien invasion. They sat together in a tight clump when school opened atnine o'clock on Wednesday morning. Until the new gymnasium could beerected, it was difficult to find a room large enough to accommodateeverybody. The old drawing-room had been emptied of furniture and fittedwith forms, and here, by sitting very close, the girls managed to cramthemselves in for the opening ceremony. Miss Thompson, elated at heart,but more stately and dignified than ever in manner, addressed her pupilsin a short speech.
"As Silverside is entering on a new chapter of its career," she began,"I should like to put before you all, as briefly as possible, what Iconsider to be the ideals of the school. Those who have been here someyears already know our traditions, but it will do them no harm to hearthem again, and those of you who are new will, I hope, understand, andbe prepared to accept them with equal readiness.
"First of all, we stand for Work. We are living in very strenuous times,and it is the duty of all who love their country to do their best. Everyfaithful struggle with your lessons here makes you more fit to help yourcountry by and by. If you have no ambition for yourselves, remember thatyou are part of a great nation, and as such you must not slack, but doyour bit to raise the general standard of education. You'll find there'sa joy and a satisfaction in mastering rules of arithmetic or irregularverbs, when you feel that you are doing it not only for yourselves butfor the general good. Then there are certain other things for whichSilverside has always stood--truth and straightforward dealings, and aspirit of unity and of loyalty to the school. We have striven toestablish a high tone here, and at all costs let us preserve it.
"This term there is a very large proportion of new girls, and hence abig opportunity for everybody. There will be inevitable changes, andmuch pioneer work to be done, and each girl may find a chance of takinga share in consolidating our traditions. I trust that old and new willjoin hands and do their utmost to work together harmoniously for thegood of the school, and the influence which, through you, it mayexercise on the community later on."
At the end of Miss Thompson's speech the girls separated, and went totheir class-rooms. At the eleven o'clock "break" they poured into thegarden. They stood about in little groups, eating packets of lunch, andtalking. Adah Gartley, Isobel Norris, and Joyce Edwards, the threeeldest boarders, kept together. To them presently advanced two of theinvaders, a ruddy-haired girl of perhaps seventeen, and a stout,dark-eyed girl a trifle younger.
"Our names are Annie Broadside and Gladys Wilks," beganshe-of-the-chestnut-locks. "If we'd stayed on at The Hawthorns, one orother of us would have been head this term. You look about the oldest ofthe old lot here, so perhaps you'll tell us how this school's managed.Do you have monitresses, or prefects, or what? Miss Thompson didn'tmention a word about that in her speech. We'd like to know."
Adah glanced at her rather superciliously.
"We've never had anything of the sort here," she replied.
Annie Broadside's eyes grew round with amazement.
"What? No prefects or monitresses? How in the world did you manage,then?"
"We didn't find them necessary," maintained Adah stiffly.
Gladys Wilks whistled, and looked eloquently at her friend.
"Of course it was a very small school," she remarked, "so I dare say yousomehow muddled on; but _now_--surely there'll have to be something ofthe sort instituted?"
"Those juniors will give trouble if there's no one to tackle them,"added Annie. "Just look at them over there!"
The juveniles in question were certainly behaving with a lack of decorumentirely foreign to the former atmosphere of Silverside. They were, infact, engaged in jumping over Miss Thompson's most cherished flowerbeds, with disastrous consequences to the pet geraniums andcalceolarias.
"The little hooligans!" exclaimed Adah, rushing to the rescue of theunfortunate flowers. "Here, get away, you kiddies! this sort ofperformance isn't allowed. Stop, this minute!"
The five long-legged children who were making a display of their jumpingagility called a temporary halt, and stared aggressively at Adah.
"Who says it's not allowed?" enquired a pert ten-year-old, who wasevidently the ringleader.
"_I_ do."
"Are you a teacher?"
"No."
"A prefect or a monitress?"
"No."
"Then, what are you?"
"I'm a boarder," announced Adah with dignity.
The junior sniggered rudely.
"Boarders have no right to interfere with us, that I can see. We'll doas we like. Come along, girls, follow the leader!" and, turning, shemade a long leap across the bed, landing in the edging of blue lobelias.
Adah stood by, raging and impotent. She would have interfered by force,but very fortunately at that moment the school bell rang, and theirrepressible juniors desisted from their occupation and raced oneanother to the side door.
Adah followed thoughtfully. Her brain was awhirlpool of new impressions, most of them not at all favourable, andshe had not yet had time to assort them and put them into mentalpigeon-holes. One idea loomed large. Silverside was going to be anutterly different place from what it had been before. That brief tusslehad revealed much. Hitherto the little girls had been well-behavedchildren, rather in awe of their elders, and easily held in check; thesenew juniors seemed a different generation, and a very perverse anduntoward one.
Everything, indeed, was changed. Her form room overflowed withstrangers, and there was a new mistress, whose methods were differentfrom those of Miss Hopkins. Adah, mindful of her position as oldestpupil, did the honours of the school, showing teacher and girls wherebooks, exercise paper, and other necessaries were kept, but sheperformed this charity more in the spirit of _noblesse oblige_ than withany goodwill.
When the last of the day girls had taken her departure after fouro'clock, Adah heaved an immense sigh of relief, and sent a scout roundto call a boarders' meeting for 5.15 prompt.
Immediately after tea, therefore, all the resident pupils of Silversideassembled in the summer-house at the bottom of the garden. They hadchosen that spot because it was secluded, and they were not likely to bedisturbed. Their consultations were to be of a private nature, and theydid not wish any mistress to overhear them. The summer-house was notvery large--much too small, in fact, to contain twenty-four girls--butsome squatted on the steps, and some on the window-sills, and someoverflowed on to the lawn. Adah, seated on the little rustic table,looked round to see that her full audience was assembled, and opened theproceedings in a voice that trembled with indignation.
"It seems to me, and I expect to most of you, that matters here havejust about come to a crisis. The school's turned topsy-turvy. It's beeninvaded by this horde of day girls, and everything is altogetherdifferent. Now, Silverside has always existed for the boarders. MissThompson has recognized that, and we've had a great many specialprivileges. It's _we_ who have set the tone of the school, and madeSilverside what it is. As long as we outnumbered the day girls that waspretty easy, but, now that this huge flock has trooped in, it may be adifficult matter to cope with them. We must make up our minds what weintend to do. Has anybody any suggestion to offer?"
"I thought of writing to my father, and asking him to take me away atChristmas," propounded Irma, flushing with nervousness at the sound ofher own voice.
Adah gazed at her with an expression of mingled amazement and sorrow.
"Irma Ridley, I shouldn't have expected this from _you_! Leave theschool, indeed! Where's your loyalty? I hope you haven't been spreadingsuch an abominable notion. No, indeed! We Silversiders mustn't desertthe old ship. We've got to stick to her, and steer her course for herthrough very troubled waters. Don't let anyone suggest ratting again."
Irma, covered with confusion, blushed yet more furiously. The sentimentof the meeting was against her, and she felt that she had blunderedbadly. She murmured an incoherent apology, and began nervously tyingknots in her pocket-handkerchief.
"Surely someone has a better suggestion to offer than this?" said Adah,her clear blue eyes searching the faces of her companions. "Please don'tbe afraid of airing your opinions."
"Silverside must stick to its traditions," ventured Joyce Edwards. "Wemustn't let everything be swamped by the invasion."
"Let's make a Boarders' League," proposed Isobel Norris, "and pledgeourselves to hold together and support one another--a kind of BloodBrotherhood, you know."
"The very thing!" agreed everybody.
The idea was so manifestly satisfactory that each girl wondered why ithad not occurred to herself to suggest it. To bind themselves in soclose a bond of union seemed picturesque and romantic in the extreme. Itappealed to their imaginations tremendously.
"We shall be fighting for the school colours!" said Adah, with a lightof enthusiasm shining in her blue eyes. "It's _we_, the little band ofold pupils, who are to preserve the ideals of the school. These newgirls must be made to realize that they're at Silverside now, and not atThe Hawthorns."
"I guess we'll rub it into them," murmured Laura Talbot to thestill-confused Irma.
It was a new girl after all, however, who made the really practicalsuggestion of the meeting. Avelyn Watson had sat very quietly during theproceedings, feeling herself in a somewhat awkward position. She hadbeen a pupil at The Hawthorns for two years, but her mother had neverreally liked the school, and had removed her from it the precedingChristmas. Avelyn had come to Silverside quite ready to embrace itstraditions and to erase The Hawthorns from her memory. To be confrontedwith more than fifty of her old schoolfellows, some of whom had to-dayclaimed affectionate intimacy with her, had been somewhat of a shock.She did not quite know where she stood. She was not sure whether theboarders were disposed to receive her into the bosom of the League, orif they would regard her as among the aliens. One fact, culled fromformer experience, rose to her lips. She was too shy to state itpublicly, but she bent towards Laura Talbot and whispered:
"Tell them, if they want to do anything, they ought to haveprefects--you see, I _know_!"
Laura immediately broached the suggestion as her own, and gained thewhole credit for it. The idea, hinted at by Annie Broadside and GladysWilks in the morning, had been fermenting in Adah's brain all day, andshe grasped at it eagerly.
"It would give us just the authority we want," she agreed. "We'd bettermake a deputation and speak to Miss Thompson about it. Who'll go withme?"
The Principal, busy and burdened with a hundred new cares, sat in herstudy that evening answering letters from parents. She pushed away herpapers rather wearily as the deputation, consisting of Adah Gartley,Isobel Norris, Consie Arkwright, and Joyce Edwards, entered the roomwith a kind of bashful assurance. She was tired, but she was alwaysready to listen to what her girls had to say. It had been her invariablerule to meet them half-way. She heard them now patiently, asking manyquestions, for they were shy in stating their case, and did not at firstexplain their objects lucidly. When at length she had got at the gist ofthe matter, she leaned back in her chair and thought for a moment or twobefore she replied.
"What you say is very true. The influx of another school intoSilverside may certainly endanger our old traditions. I look to youboarders, who have been with me for years, to uphold every principle forwhich we have hitherto stood. I agree that you might find your task verydifficult unless you were armed with some authority. We have never hadschool officers before, but that was because we did not feel them anecessity. I will try the experiment and see how it answers. You fourare among my oldest pupils. You know what Silverside has stood for inthe past, and you shall help to mould its future. I appoint youprefects, and give you power to report to me, or to any other mistress,breaches of discipline which come under your notice, and in certaincases to take off order marks. Adah, who is the eldest, and was first inlast term's examination list, shall be head girl. I will announce thisat nine o'clock to-morrow. My great object is to amalgamate the twoschools into one as quickly as possible, and I trust that you will notshow any favouritism towards old girls, but will give the new ones equaljustice."
"We'll do our best, Miss Thompson," declared Adah, Isobel, Consie, andJoyce in an obedient chorus.
And doubtless they really meant to do their best; but schoolgirls areprejudiced beings, and apt to be conservative to the core. They haddecided beforehand that the former pupils of Silverside, and theboarders in particular, had the sole prerogative of high ideals,culture, and gentility, and that such refinements could not, and didnot, exist among those who had come from The Hawthorns. In their mindsthe division was as complete as that between the sheep and the goats.They looked upon the Hawthorners as heathen, and upon themselves in thelight of missionaries. They set to work very patronizingly to make theirinfluence felt. Now, there is nothing which most people resent so muchas patronage. The Hawthorners had been happy enough in their old school,and they were keenly insulted at being given to understa
nd that theywere regarded by the Silversiders as inferiors. They held indignationmeetings of their own on the subject.
"Why should those stuck-up things lord it over us?" exploded AnnieBroadside.
"They're not as clever as we are. We beat them easily in class," addedGladys Wilks.
"I should just think we do. They're simply not in the running atmaths.," declared Gertrude Howells.
"And yet they're prefects, if you please."
"At The Hawthorns prefects were always chosen from those who got thehighest marks in the examinations."
"You were top last term, Annie, and would have been head girl if theschool had gone on."
"You were only two marks behind me, Gladys, and you know Miss Perryhadn't counted the botany papers. It was really a toss-up between us."
"Well, we're both out of it now."
"Very much so."
"I don't call it fair that these four boarders should have all theauthority."
"It isn't!"
"If they think we're going to knuckle under to them they're very muchmistaken."
"Giving themselves such airs about being old Silversiders, and treatingus like inferiors!"
"Can't we do anything?"
"Let's form an 'Old Hawthorners' Guild', and vow to stick to oneanother. There are more of us than of them, and we'll beat them inlessons and at games, and let them see who's inferior."
"Right you are! You shall be captain, Annie."
"Then you shall be secretary, Gladys."
"I know everybody will be only too delighted to join."
"They will. But don't let those Silversiders know one single word aboutit."
"They shan't, indeed!"
"We're here, and the school is as much ours as theirs!"
"Our old set will follow us, and not care a toss about the prefects!"
Adah and her fellow-officers had indeed made a terrible mistake by theirsuperior and patronizing ways. Instead of welding the school into one,as Miss Thompson had hoped and intended, they had entirely alienated thenew element and had set up a most unhappy barrier of division.Silverside resolved itself into two parties, each apparently determinedto misunderstand the other, and obstinately resolute not to mix. MissThompson, anxiously watching the result of her experiment, saw only thesurface of things, for most of the trouble lay below, deeper than theken of head mistresses. The teachers were aware of an undercurrent ofdiscontent, but could not absolutely discover the reason. Only the girlsthemselves knew that the school was split into rival factions, betweenwhom there was going to be war.