Monitress Merle by Angela Brazil

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Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading
Team.

MONITRESS MERLE

BY

ANGELA BRAZIL

Author of "A Fortunate Term"

"The Princess of the School" &c.

_Illustrated by Treyer Evans_

_DEDICATED TO THOSE READERS WHO ASKED ME TO WRITE THE FURTHER
ADVENTURES OF MAVIS AND MERLE_

* * * * *

CONTENTS

I. A LAST BATHE

II. A SCHOOL BALLOT

III. THE NEW MONITRESS

IV. CHAGMOUTH FOLK

V. MISS MITCHELL, B.A.

VI. FISHERMAIDENS

VII. MUSICAL STARS

VIII. YULE-TIDE

IX. FACING THE FOOTLIGHTS

X. THE MUMPS

XI. BAMBERTON FERRY

XII. FIFTH FORM JUSTICE

XIII. "THE KITTIWAKE"

XIV. THE HAUNTED TREE

XV. LEAVE-TAKINGS

XVI. THE TADPOLE CLUB

XVII. THE FOURTH OF JULY

XVIII. LOVE-IN-A-MIST

* * * * *

Illustrations

"WHY DIDN'T 'EE FASTEN UP THE CHAIN?"

"WE'RE JUST READY! YOU CAN COME IN IF YOU LIKE!"

MR. CASTLETON DID NOT LOOK AT ALL PLEASED

SHE HAD BROUGHT HER WONDERFUL STRADIVARIUS VIOLIN

HE KEPT THEM DAWDLING

THE FOURTH OF JULY PARADE

* * * * *

CHAPTER I

A Last Bathe

The warm, mellow September sunshine was streaming over the irregular
roofs and twisted chimneys of the little town of Chagmouth, and was
glinting on the water in the harbour, and sending gleaming, straggling,
silver lines over the deep reflections of the shipping moored by the side
of the jetty. The rising tide, lapping slowly and gently in from the
ocean, was floating the boats beached on the shingle, and was gradually
driving back the crowd of barefooted children who had ventured out in
search of mussels, and was sending them, shrieking with mirth, scampering
up the seaweed-covered steps that led to the fish market. On the crag-top
above the town the corn had been cut, and harvesters were busy laying the
sheaves together in stooks. The yellow fields shone in the afternoon
light as if the hill were crowned with gold.

Walking along the narrow cobbled path that led past the harbour and up on
to the cliff, Mavis and Merle looked at the scene around with that sense
of rejoicing proprietorship with which we are wont to revisit the pet
place of our adoption. It was two whole months since they had been in
Chagmouth, and as they both considered the little town to be the absolute
hub of the universe it was really a great event to find themselves once
more in its familiar streets. They had spent the summer holidays with
their father and mother in the north, and had come back to Durracombe
just in time for the reopening of school. On this first Saturday after
their return to Devonshire they had motored with Uncle David to his
branch surgery at Chagmouth, and were looking forward to several hours of
amusement while he visited his patients at the sanatorium.

Readers who have followed the adventures of Mavis and Merle Ramsay in
_A Fortunate Term_ will remember that the sisters, on account of
Mavis's health, had come to live with their great-uncle Dr. Tremayne at
Durracombe, where they attended school daily at 'The Moorings.' Dr.
Ramsay, their father, had decided shortly to leave his practice at
Whinburn and go into partnership with Dr. Tremayne, but the removal to
Devonshire could not take place till nearly Christmas, so the girls were
to spend another term in sole charge of Uncle David, Aunt Nellie, and
Jessop the elderly housekeeper, an arrangement which, though they were
sorry to be parted from their parents, pleased them uncommonly well. It
was a favourite excursion of theirs to accompany their uncle on Saturdays
when he motored to visit patients at Chagmouth. On these occasions they
would have lunch and tea with him at Grimbal's Farm, where he had his
surgery, and would spend the intervening time on the seashore or
wandering along the cliffs. To-day, tempted by the brilliant sunshine,
they had brought their bathing costumes, towels, and tea-basket, and
meant to secure the last dip of the holidays in case the weather should
change and further mermaiding should prove impossible. They chatted
briskly as they climbed the path up the cliff.

"Too bad Bevis has gone back to school! I thought we should just have
seen him before he went!"

"And Tudor too! I met Babbie, while you were inside Carlyon's shop buying
chocs, and she told me Tudor started yesterday, and Gwen went last
Tuesday to a boarding-school near London. It was decided quite in a hurry
because there happened to be a vacancy for her. It's a very fashionable
school where they take the girls out to theatres and concerts and all
sorts of places. Gwen's fearfully thrilled to go. They wanted to send her
there before, only they couldn't get her in. Somebody else has left
unexpectedly though, so there was a cubicle at liberty for her."

"It will just suit Gwen! But she'll miss her riding. She nearly lived on
Taffy's back as a rule. Won't it be very lonely for Babbie all by herself
with a governess? Will she come to school for French and dancing as
usual?"

"She's coming to 'The Moorings' altogether. They're going to motor her
over every day, and fetch her back at four. She's quite pleased about it.
She always liked 'The Moorings' much better than Gwen did."

"And 'The Moorings,' from all reports, is going to be an utterly
different school this term!"

"So I suppose! Hope it won't be too much changed, that's all! A new
teacher, hot from a High School, means a new broom that will sweep very
clean. It strikes me those nice do-as-you-please lessons with Miss Fanny
will be dreams of the past, and we shall have to set our brains to work
and swat! Ugh! It's not a particularly delirious prospect!"

Mavis laughed.

"Don't wrinkle your forehead into quite so many kinks! You look about
forty!" she objected. "It mayn't turn out as hard as you expect. Anyhow,
don't let us spoil the last Saturday of the holidays with thinking about
it. I want to enjoy this afternoon thoroughly. I feel as if I'd been away
from Chagmouth for years and years. Isn't it priceless to see it again?
Have a chocolate! Or would you rather take a piece of toffee?"

The two girls had been mounting steadily as they talked, and were now
walking along a narrow track which led along the top of the cliffs. Below
them lay the gorgeous-hued crags of the rugged coast and a great expanse
of sea, silver at the horizon, blue at mid-distance, and deep metallic
green where it touched the shore. Innumerable sea-birds wheeled and
screamed below, and the incoming tide lapped with little white waves over
the reefs of rocks, and submerged the pools where gobies were darting
about, and sea-anemones were stretching out crimson or green tentacles,
and scurrying crabs were hiding among masses of brown oar-weed. Above and
beyond was a network of brambles, where ripe blackberries hung in such
tempting clusters that it was hardly in human nature to resist them, and
Merle, with purple-stained fingers, loitered and lingered to enjoy the
feast.

"If you're not quick the tide will have turned and it won't be half so
nice to bathe!" urged Mavis impatiently. "Do hurry up now, and you can
absolutely gorge on blackberries as we come back, if you want to. I'll
promise to wait for you then."

"Right-o! I'm coming! Though I must just get that one big beauty! There!
I won't eat a single one more till I've had my dip. We must be close to
the cove now. I'll run if you like!"

The bathing-place for which the girls were bound was a sandy creek among
the rocks. A hundred years ago it had been a favourite spot for smugglers
to land contraband goods, and a series of steps cut in the cliff
testified to its former use. Nowadays it was commonly deserted, and in
the early part of the summer, when Mavis and Merle had been wont to visit
it, they had had it all to themselves. They had gone there so often and
found it untenanted that they had come to regard it as their private
property, and, in consequence, they were most unreasonably annoyed, when
climbing down the steps, to hear sounds of laughter rising up from below.

"Who's in _our_ cove?" demanded Merle sharply, somewhat as Father
Bruin asked the immortal question, "Who's sleeping on _my_ bed?"

"All the world, I should say!" replied the aggrieved voice of Mavis, who
was in front and had first view of the scene beneath. "The place is an
absolute 'seaside resort.' Never saw so many people in my life before!
Where do they all come from?"

The little cove, _their_ cove, which in June had been so
delightfully secluded and retired, was undoubtedly invaded by quite a
number of visitors. Children were paddling or scampering along the sands,
wet heads were bobbing in and out of the water, every rocky crevice was
in use as a dressing-room, picnic parties were taking tea on the rocks,
and a circle of boys and girls were playing a noisy game at the brink of
the waves. Very ruefully Mavis and Merle descended to swell the throng.
It was not at all the sort of bathe which they had anticipated, and, had
there been another available spot within reach, they would have utterly
disdained it.

"Shall we go on to Yellow Head?" ventured Merle hesitatingly.

"There isn't time. The tide would be out before we got there, and it's a
perfect tangle of oar-weed unless the water's high. Never mind! There'll
be elbow-room in the sea at any rate. There's a corner here where we can
undress. Come along! O-o-h! There's some one else inside!"

[Illustration: "WE'RE JUST READY! YOU CAN COME IN IF YOU LIKE!"]

"We're just ready! You can come in if you like!" proclaimed a voice, as
two girls in navy bathing costumes and rubber caps issued from behind a
rock, and running swiftly down the sand plunged into the water.

Availing themselves of the opportunity Mavis and Merle took temporary
possession of the naiads' dressing-room, and in the course of a few
minutes more were revelling in a swim. The red rubber caps of the girls
who preceded them were plainly to be seen some distance from the shore,
where their owners were apparently having a race towards a rock that
jutted from the waves.

"Oh, they _mustn't_ go out there! There's an awful current! Bevis
warned us about it!" gasped Mavis, swimming securely with one foot on the
ground. "Can't we stop them? Shout, Merle!"

"Hello, there! Ahoy! Come back!" yelled Merle, who possessed stronger
lungs than her sister. "They don't hear me! Coo-oo-ee! That's done it,
thank goodness! Come--back--you're--going--to--get--into--a--current!"

The two red caps, warned in time of their danger, turned and swam into
safer waters. They did not venture so far again from the shore, but
frolicked with some companions, trying to make wheels and to perform
various other feats of agility, which were generally failures and ended
in a splash. They were so long about it that Mavis and Merle went from
the water first and had time to dress quite leisurely before the others,
shaking out wet fair hair, followed to the crevice among the rocks.

The Ramsays took their picnic basket, and, climbing a short way up the
steps, settled themselves upon a grassy platform which afforded a good
view of the cove below. They liked this vantage-ground better than the
sands, and began to spread out the cups and saucers and parcels of cakes
which Jessop had packed for them, congratulating themselves upon having a
spot at least fairly apart. But they were not destined to spend that
afternoon in solitary state. They had scarcely opened their basket when
three heads came bobbing up the steps, shamelessly invaded their
platform, and also began to unpack tea-cups.

Merle, who did not like other people to trespass upon her rights, frowned
and turned her back upon them, and probably each little party would have
taken its meal separately had not an unforeseen and utterly untoward
accident happened. Mavis knocked their thermos flask with her elbow and
sent it spinning over the cliff. Here was a pretty business! Their tea
was gone, and the flask, if they found it, would be utterly smashed.

"It's not worth climbing down to pick it up!" lamented Mavis contritely.
"I'm so sorry, Merle! It was horribly clumsy of me!"

"Do have some of ours!" suggested one of the strangers sympathetically.
"We've heaps! Two flasks; and that's more than we shall drink ourselves.
You might just as well!"

"I say, it was awfully decent of you to call to us not to go on to those
rocks!" put in another. "We didn't know about the current."

The third girl made no remark, but she smiled invitingly and held out one
of their flasks.

So it came about that Mavis and Merle moved nearer and joined the others,
so that they formed one party. For a few minutes they sat in polite
silence, taking in the items of their neighbours' appearance. When the
Ramsays compared notes afterwards they decided that they had never before
seen three such pretty girls. The two who had worn the red bathing caps
were evidently sisters, for they had the same clear-cut features, fair
complexions, cupid mouths, and beautiful dark-fringed eyes. Their
companion, whose brown hair was drying in the breeze, was a complete
contrast, with her warm brunette colouring and quick vivacious manner,
"like an orchid between two roses," as Mavis described her later. It was
she who spoke first--quite a conventional inquiry but decidedly to the
point.

"Are you staying in Chagmouth?" she asked.

"We've only come over for the day from Durracombe," answered Merle.

The three strangers looked immediately interested.

"Durracombe! Why, we're going to start school there next week!"

"Never at 'The Moorings'!" gasped Merle excitedly.

"That's the place! Do you go there too? Oh! I say! Do tell us all about
it! We've been just crazy to know what it's like. You two look sports!
What are your names? Are the rest of the school jolly, and is Miss
Pollard nice?"

With such a common interest as 'The Moorings' to talk about, the ice was
completely broken, and the five girls were soon chatting in friendly
fashion.

Mavis and Merle, having given a few details about themselves and how they
often motored over to Chagmouth with Dr. Tremayne, drew in turn some
information from their new acquaintances. The two fair-haired girls, aged
respectively fourteen and thirteen, were Beata and Romola Castleton, and
their father, an artist, had lately removed from Porthkeverne in
Cornwall, and had taken a house at Chagmouth. Their friend Fay Macleod, a
year older than Beata, was an American, whose father had come to Europe
in search of health, and being attracted to Chagmouth by his love of
sketching, had settled there temporarily for a rest-cure, and was
enjoying the quiet and beauty of the quaint place and its surrounding
scenery.

"I suppose you'll all be weekly boarders?" ventured Mavis, when Fay had
finished her communications.

"No, we're to be day-girls. Six of us from Chagmouth are joining in a car
and motoring every morning and being fetched back at four--ourselves, Nan
and Lizzie Colville, and Tattie Carew. It will be rather a squash to cram
six of us into Vicary's car! We've named it 'the sardine-tin' already. I
hope nobody else will want to join us!"

"Babbie Williams is to be a day-girl this term. She lives over there at
The Warren."

"We haven't room for her."

"She's going in their own car."

"That's good news for the sardines! I was thinking some of us would have
to ride on the footboard or the luggage-carrier. Is Babbie fair, with
bobbed hair? Then I've seen her in church. Seven of us from Chagmouth! We
ought to make quite a clique in the school!"

"Oh, we don't want any cliques," said Merle quickly. "We had enough of
that sort of thing when Opal was there. Miss Pollard told mother that the
new mistress, Miss Mitchell, is going to reorganise everything, and bring
it up to date, so I expect we shall find a great many changes when we
start again. Have you been at school before?"

"Romola and I went to The Gables at Porthkeverne," replied Beata. "We
loved it, and we were dreadfully sorry to leave. Fay, of course, has been
at school in America."

"And we used to go to a big High school in the north until we came to
Durracombe. 'The Moorings' seemed a tiny place at first, and then we grew
to love it. We adore Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny. I hope you'll like them
too! I'm so glad we've met you, because we'll know you when you arrive at
school, and we can show you round. I'm afraid we shall have to be going
now, because Uncle David will be back from the sanatorium and waiting for
us. Thanks most immensely for the tea. We'll look out for you on Tuesday.
Good-bye!"

As Mavis and Merle walked back along the cliffs to Chagmouth their
tongues wagged fast in discussion of their new acquaintances. Mavis was
charmed with Beata and Romola, and Merle had utterly lost her heart to
Fay.

"I feel as if I could like her!" she declared. "She's a sport, and really
we want somebody to wake us up a little at 'The Moorings.' I believe this
term is going to be jolly. My spirits are rising and I see fun ahead. I
only wish Daddy could go and live at Chagmouth and _we_ could go to
school every day in 'the sardine-tin.' They'll have the time of their
lives, the luckers! Don't I envy them, just!"

"I don't think I'd like to be packed quite so tight, thanks!" objected
Mavis. "On the whole, I much prefer going backwards and forwards to
Chagmouth in Uncle David's car. Merle! Do you know it's after five! We
must simply scoot--oh, I daresay I did promise you might eat
blackberries, but you haven't time now. You shouldn't have stayed so long
at the cove if you wanted a blackberry feed! If you don't hurry up I
shall run off and leave you and go home with Uncle David by myself!
There! Oh, you're coming! Good! I thought you'd hardly care to spend the
night upon the cliffs with the sea-gulls!"

CHAPTER II

A School Ballot

Mavis and Merle started for school on Tuesday morning confident of
finding many changes. Hitherto 'The Moorings' had been a modest
establishment where about twenty-four children had been educated by Miss
Pollard and her sister Miss Fanny, who were the daughters of the late
Vicar of the parish. They were neither of them particularly learned or up
to date, but they had a happy knack with girls, and had been especially
successful in the care of delicate pupils. The remarkably mild climate of
Durracombe made the place peculiarly suitable for those who had been born
in India or other hot countries, and so many more boarders had been
entered for this term that the school was practically doubled.
Recognising the fact that this sudden enlargement in numbers ought also
to mean a march forward in other ways, the sisters were wise enough to
seize their golden opportunity and completely reorganise their methods.
They were fortunate in being able to get hold of the house next to their
own, and, turning that into a hostel for boarders, they devoted the whole
of 'The Moorings' to classrooms. They engaged a thoroughly competent and
reliable mistress, with a university degree and High School experience,
and gave her _carte blanche_ to revise the curriculum and institute
what innovations she thought fit. They allowed her to choose her own
assistant mistress, and made fresh arrangements for visiting teachers,
reserving for themselves only a very few of the classes, and
concentrating most of their energies on the management of the hostel.
These new plans gave great satisfaction to both parents and pupils.

"It will be rather nice to have somebody modern at the head of things, so
long as Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny aren't entirely shelved," declared
Merle.

"They're perfect dears! We couldn't do without them," agreed Mavis.

"But they're not clever!"

"Um--I don't know! It depends what you call clever! They mayn't be B.A.'s
and all the rest of it, but they're well read, and they can sketch and
sing and play and do a hundred things that a great many graduates can't.
I call them 'cultured,' that's the right name for them. They're such
absolute and perfect ladies. It's a style you really don't meet every
day. And they're so pretty with their pink cheeks and their silver hair,
like the sweet old-fashioned pictures of eighteenth-century beauties in
powder and patches. I love to look at them, and to listen to the gentle
refined way they talk--I think they're adorable!"

"So they are--but you want something more in a school. I hope the fresh
teacher will be a regular sport, and that she'll use slang sometimes, and
play hockey. That's my ideal of a head mistress."

Miss Mitchell, the new peg upon which so much was now to depend at 'The
Moorings,' might not have been blamed for regarding Tuesday morning as
somewhat of an ordeal. If she was nervous, however, she managed to
conceal her feelings, and bore the introduction to her prospective pupils
with cheerful calm.

Forty-six girls, taking mental stock of her, decided instantly that she
was 'the right sort.' She was tall, in her middle twenties, had a fresh
complexion, light brown hair, a brisk decisive manner, and a pleasant
twinkle in her hazel eyes. She was evidently not in the least afraid of
her audience, a fact which at once gave her the right handle. She faced
their united stare smilingly.

"I'm very pleased to meet you all!" she began. "I hope we shall work
together splendidly and have an extremely happy term. As Miss Pollard has
just told you, there have been so many changes at 'The Moorings' that it
is practically a new school. It's a tremendous opportunity to be able to
make a fresh start like this. We can make our own traditions and our own
rules. Some of you have been at the school before and some have been at
other schools, but I want you all to forget past traditions and unite
together to make 'The Moorings' the biggest success that can possibly be.
We're all going to love it and to be very loyal to it. We hope to do well
with our work, and well with our games. I must explain to you later about
all the various societies which we mean to start, but I want to tell you
that though there is plenty of work in front of you there's also plenty
of fun, and that if every girl makes up her mind to do her very best all
round we shall get on grandly. Now I am going to read out the lists of
the various forms, and then you can march away in turn to your own
classrooms."

In making her arrangements for the reorganisation of the school Miss
Mitchell had decided to have no Sixth form as yet. The girls were all
under seventeen, and she did not consider any of them sufficiently
advanced to be placed in so high a position. The Fifth was at present to
be the top form, and consisted of eleven girls, all of whom she intended
should work their uttermost and fit themselves for the honour of becoming
the Sixth a year later.

Mavis and Merle, both of whom were included in this elect eleven, walked
demurely away to their new classroom. Five of their old companions were
with them, Iva Westwood, Nesta Pitman, Aubrey Simpson, Muriel Burnitt,
and Edith Carey, and the remaining four consisted of Beata Castleton, Fay
Macleod, and two strangers, Sybil Vernon and Kitty Trefyre. Romola
Castleton had been placed in the Fourth, together with Maude Carey,
Babbie Williams, Nan Colville, Tattie Carew, and several other new girls.

The Fifth, as the top form, was to be mainly Miss Mitchell's; Miss
Barnes, the fresh assistant mistress, was to take the Fourth; and the
teaching of the three lower forms would be shared by Miss Hopkins,
Mademoiselle, and Miss Fanny Pollard. Lessons, on a first morning, are
usually more or less haphazard, but at any rate a beginning was made, the
pupils were entered on their class registers, their capacities were
tested, and they began in some slight degree to know their teachers.
Before the school separated at 12.30 for dinner Miss Pollard had an
announcement to make.

"Miss Mitchell and I have decided that for the general good of the school
it will be wise to appoint four monitresses. Two of these must be
boarders and will be chosen by us, but the other two may be elected by
yourselves. We will have a ballot this afternoon. You may nominate any
girls you like by writing their names upon slips of paper and handing
them in to me before 2.30. All candidates, however, must be over the age
of fifteen and must have spent at least two previous terms at 'The
Moorings.' The voting will take place in the big schoolroom immediately
after four o'clock."

Mavis and Merle, walking home to lunch at Bridge House, discussed the
project eagerly as they went.

"Good for Miss Pollard! Or I expect it's really Miss Mitchell who
suggested it! I call it a ripping idea. It's just exactly what's wanted.
The monitresses will lead the games and all the various societies. Run
the school, in fact. What sport!" rejoiced Merle, with shining eyes. "The
old 'Moorings' will really wake up at last."

"Only four monitresses, and two of them are to be boarders and chosen by
the powers that be!" mused Mavis. "That means Iva and Nesta, if I know
anything of Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny! Now the question is who are to
be the other two lucky ones?"

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