For the School Colours Part 29

"For the School Colours and for you, dear Lavender Lady!" said Avelyn, kissing the soft hand in token of her vow.

CHAPTER XVIII

The Loyal School League

Avelyn went back to school in a serious frame of mind. She knew that she had undertaken a big thing, and, though she mentally set her teeth and meant to grapple with it, she felt that her dear Lavender Lady did not--could not--realize all the difficulties that lay in her path. Miss Carrington's supreme faith in her buoyed her up, however; she would try her utmost, and if failure came---- No! the Lavender Lady had said it was fatal even to mention failure, and that she must go about her errand absolutely determined to succeed.

She began by sounding the members of her own dormitory. They received the suggestion with wonderful favour.

"The school's been slack enough at games all the winter!" commented Irma.

"Time it bucked up, certainly!" agreed Janet.

"That Hawthorners' Hockey Club was a scandal!" said Laura.

"Well, if we don't take care they'll be turning it into a tennis club for the summer," warned Avelyn.

"We'd better make some sort of a move," grunted Ethelberga.

"It's Adah that's at the bottom of all the trouble," said Laura, sitting on the floor with her arms clasped round her knees, and swaying thoughtfully to and fro. "Adah's a thorough old-fas.h.i.+oned Silversider, and hates the new contingent--that's the matter in a nutsh.e.l.l."

"Isobel and Consie and even Joyce would come round directly if Adah would only let them," agreed Irma.

"And Annie and Gladys would meet them half-way," nodded Janet.

"Adah's the most ripping tennis-player I know," ruminated Laura.

"And so's Annie. She won the trophy last year at The Hawthorns."

"The two together would make the best champions any school ever had."

"Well, look here, they've just _got_ to go together!"

"I've an idea--a brain wave!" said Avelyn. "The Council Meeting will be to-morrow. Well, this afternoon let us propose a tennis set, 'School versus Mistresses'. Miss Peters and Miss Broadwin are simply A1 at tennis, and everybody knows they are, so we'll insist upon Adah and Annie playing together for the school. They can't refuse when it's put like that. Whether they win or lose, it'll pave the way for what we want to bring forward to-morrow."

"Right you are, O Queen! It's a blossomy idea!"

Avelyn got up, and straightened her tie.

"I'll go down now to the dressing-room, and catch those day girls as they come in, and have a talk with some of them."

"And I'll go and sound Miss Peters about the set this afternoon. She's in a good temper to-day, because she's had a letter from the front."

Miss Peters and Miss Broadwin, fresh and fit after the holidays, were quite disposed to accept the challenge of the girls and wield rackets on behalf of the mistresses. Universal public opinion fixed upon Adah and Annie as champions for the school, and they submitted, a little bewildered and dismayed, but bowled over by the suddenness of the suggestion. Every girl at Silverside--except three victims who had music lessons and one who had toothache--crowded round the tennis court to watch the exciting contest. Miss Peters and Miss Broadwin were formidable opponents; they had been members of their college clubs, and though slightly out of practice had not forgotten their former skill.

The two prefects knew that it would need their utmost ability to fight them. With the whole school looking on, each nerved herself to do her best.

In the first game the Mistresses scored. Miss Peters's serves seemed almost invincible, and as for Miss Broadwin her arms were elastic. Adah and Annie looked at each other grimly. They had begun to take their opponents' measure, and also to estimate each other's play. In the next game they exercised extreme caution, and did not repeat certain mistakes. After an exciting rally the score this time fell to the School.

"Now for the tussle!" laughed Miss Peters, as she collected b.a.l.l.s.

Adah could not help admiring the way Annie played that last game. She kept her nerve splendidly, and her back-hand strokes were magnificent.

For an anxious moment or two the luck of the School trembled in the balance, but by a frantic effort on the part of the prefects the set was secured. The vanquished Mistresses took their defeat sportingly, and congratulated the victors.

"One of the best sets we've ever had at Silverside!" declared Miss Broadwin, pinning up a tail of hair that had strayed down her back in the heat of the combat.

"If you two go on like this you'll be invincible!" laughed Miss Peters.

"You need to get a little more accustomed to each other's play, and you'd make splendid champions."

"You were both absolutely topping!" declared the school, crowding round.

Adah took her honours stolidly, but appreciated them none the less.

After all, it was pleasant to be congratulated by the day girls; it made up in some slight degree for the humiliation of that afternoon when they had run away rather than witness the dramatic performance.

"We must practise together," she said to Annie; and Annie actually replied:

"I could stay half an hour every day after school, if you like."

This amnesty between the rivals, heard and reported by several listeners, surely seemed to pave the way for tomorrow's proposals.

Avelyn's mental barometer stood at "high hopes".

The Council Meeting was always held in the big schoolroom, and, by old-established rule, cla.s.ses stopped at 3.30 instead of 4, so as to allow extra time for the proceedings. No mistresses were present, and the girls, within certain limits, were allowed to make any arrangements they thought fit for the ensuing term. The prefects took their places on the platform, and Adah, as head girl, acted chairman.

The room was very full. On the front benches sat rows of round-eyed youngsters, bare-legged, in the prevailing fas.h.i.+on for socks, with their hair tied with broad ribbons. Behind them were excitable pig-tailed juniors, wriggling restlessly in their seats, and continually letting their whispers rise to a murmur that called down rebuke from the platform. These were as sheep ready to follow any leader, and did not understand the objects of the meeting. They had come simply because they were told to do so, and because they thought it would be fun. The larger half of the school, girls from twelve to seventeen, were in a state of indecision. It had been rumoured that Annie Broadside intended to turn the Old Hawthorners' Hockey Club into a tennis club for the summer, and there was in certain quarters a strong feeling that they ought to support her. They wondered what was going to happen. Avelyn, with Laura, Janet, Irma, Ethelberga, Pamela, and several other "backers", sat at the end underneath the clock.

Adah began the proceedings by reading a report of the school activities for the previous term. She made the very best of what she had to say, but it was felt to be a poor record. The societies and guilds had been decidedly languis.h.i.+ng, and had achieved next to nothing. It was impossible to refer to them with any pride. There was perfunctory clapping, markedly half-hearted.

"Now we've got to decide on what we're going to do this term," continued Adah. "I suppose we shall have our usual societies--the Tennis Club, and the Cricket Club, and the Photographic Union. If anybody wants to make any suggestions, now is the time. This is an open meeting, and everyone who likes is at liberty to speak--in turn, of course. There may be some little points you'd like to bring up. Do so by all means. We prefects are perfectly willing to listen to you, and to discuss them."

Adah spoke in her usual rather patronizing fas.h.i.+on. Her words were succeeded by a dead hush. Everybody felt that there were not only little points, but very big points which needed to be raised, yet n.o.body seemed able to voice the general discontent. A whisper pa.s.sed along some of the forms to the effect that day girls ought to have their rights. Adah watched the heads bent together and the moving lips.

"Speak to the chair, please!" she reminded them.

But at that they sat up silently.

Many of the audience wondered if Annie would take up the cudgels for the day girls and fight the question out upon the platform, but Annie made no sign. Was she thinking of the Old Hawthorners' League, and would she perhaps again call a rival meeting on the common, as she had done in the autumn?

"Am I to take it that you consider former arrangements satisfactory?"

asked Adah, frowning at some of the babies, who were playing with a celluloid ball.

Then Avelyn stood up.

"I should like very much to discuss one or two points, if I may," she began.

"Certainly! Go on!"