The Leader of the Lower School Part 15

"I'm almost sure."

"Then they're mean sneaks! If ever I catch them at such a thing again, I'll spiflicate them!"

CHAPTER X

The Millionairess

"HEARD the news?" enquired Barbara Kendrick one afternoon towards the end of February, lounging into the Juniors' recreation room with a would-be casual air, and whistling a jaunty tune which she fondly hoped was expressive of superior indifference to news of any kind. Two girls sitting reading by the fire closed their books, and three at the table, who were in the agonies of three separate games of patience, temporarily laid aside their cards.

"No; what's up? Anything decent?" asked Norah Bell.

Barbara strolled leisurely to the fireplace, and spread her hands to the blaze. Being a member of the Third, and having a most interesting piece of information to communicate, she did not intend to make it too cheap, and wished to excite the curiosity of the Fourth Form girls before she vouchsafed to enlighten them.

"Oh! something I heard just now downstairs. I was pa.s.sing the Seniors'

door, and Allie Spencer came out and told me."

"Well?"

"She said it concerned your Form."

"Why us particularly?"

"What's going to happen?"

"Is it anything worth knowing, or not?"

"Really, that depends how you take it," said Barbara, enjoying herself.

"Look here, kiddie, you get on and tell us!"

"Gee up, stupid!"

Barbara paused, prolonging for one more blissful moment the joy of tantalizing her audience; but in that moment her chance was lost, for the door opened suddenly, and in burst Hetty Hanc.o.c.k, like a tempestuous north wind, proclaiming without either hesitation or reserve the important tidings.

"I say, isn't it a joke? There's actually a new boarder coming to-morrow."

"New girls seem to choose odd times to come nowadays," said Lennie. "Why didn't she wait till the half term--it's only about two weeks off?"

"Perhaps she's been s.h.i.+pwrecked, like I was," suggested Gipsy.

"Not a bit of it! She doesn't come from far. Her home's only about ten miles off, I believe. Her name's Leonora Parker."

"Parker! Parker! Surely not the Parkers of Ribblestone Abbey?" commented Norah Bell.

"I really don't know."

"But I know!" put in Barbara Kendrick, delighted to score at last by her superior information. "They are the Parkers of Ribblestone Abbey."

"Then they're most enormously rich people."

"Yes, millionaires! And Leonora's the only child."

"So she's an heiress!"

"Rather--an heiress of millions."

"You might call her a millionairess, in fact," chuckled Gipsy.

"Good for you, Yankee Doodle!"

"I say, it's rather a joke her coming here, isn't it?" said Norah Bell.

"A millionaire's daughter! I wonder what she'll be like?"

"Sure to have the best of everything," said Daisy Scatcherd; "the loveliest dresses and the most expensive hats."

"She won't be able to wear anything but her school 'sailor' here!"

commented Dilys. "You needn't imagine she'll come decked out with diamonds, Daisy."

"She'll have absolutely unlimited pocket-money."

"And be able to buy chocolates and walnut creams by the pound!" added Barbara enviously.

"Wonder what Form and what dormitory she'll be in?"

"Well, at any rate I shan't be the last new girl," said Gipsy. "I'm glad to retire from the position."

"Yes, Yankee Doodle. Your little nose will be quite put out of joint."

"A millionairess at Briarcroft! Doesn't it sound magnificent?"

"What a set of sillies you all are!" said Dilys. "I'm not going to make any fuss over Leonora, even if she can buy chocolates by the pound. I'll wait and see how I like her before I give my opinion. She mayn't be nice at all."

In spite of Dilys's att.i.tude of aloofness the others could not help antic.i.p.ating with the keenest eagerness the advent of a fresh fellow boarder. The personality of the "millionairess", as they nicknamed her, was a subject of much speculation, and a whole row of noses was flattened against the panes of the Juniors' sitting-room window to witness her arrival. The glimpse the girls got of her was distinctly disappointing. She wore a tweed coat and skirt, and the orthodox Briarcroft "sailor", with its narrow band and badge.

"I thought she'd have come in a velvet coat and a big picture hat full of feathers!" said Barbara, with rueful surprise in her tone.

"I never dreamt she'd drive up in only a station cab!" said Norah Bell.

"Why didn't she arrive in her own motor?"

When Leonora was introduced by Miss Poppleton to her schoolfellows at tea-time, she certainly did not answer the expectations which had been formed of her. She was short and rather squat, with heavy features and nondescript eyes and hair.

"A most stodgy-looking girl," whispered Hetty. "I don't take to her at all. She's not one half as nice as Gipsy. By the by, where is Gipsy? I haven't seen her since four o'clock."

Gipsy came in just then, and took her seat at the table, looking cold and rather dejected.