Part 12 (1/2)
”I'd just adore to drive him!” she sometimes hinted; but Miss Ormrod always ignored the hint, and, instead of offering her the reins, never even invited her into the cart. Diana would stand watching wistfully when Baron was harnessed, and the governess car would start out on a pilgrimage to the town. She considered that a practical part of her education was being obviously neglected.
”If we could each keep a pony and go for rides on the hills, it would be ripping!” she sighed.
”Goody! What a circus we'd look!” said Vi, who did not take so kindly to horsemans.h.i.+p, and preferred a car.
Early in November, Miss Todd, having some urgent business to transact, went up to London for a few days, leaving Pendlemere in the hands of Miss Beverley. The school jogged along without any mishaps during her absence. She was expected home upon the Thursday. On Wednesday afternoon, which was a holiday, Miss Chadwick, Miss Carr, Miss Ormrod, and Miss Hampson mounted bicycles, and rode away with a party of seniors to Glenbury. The juniors, by special invitation from Mrs. Fleming, went to tea at the Vicarage. Two intermediates were in bed with a mild form of ”flu”, and the remainder amused themselves as they liked best. Peggy sat indoors, doing pen-painting; Vi brought stones for a rockery; Sadie and Magsie played a set of tennis on the cinder court; Diana and Wendy, who had asked to join the cycle party, and had in consequence received a severe snub from Geraldine, wandered about the garden like unquiet spirits.
”It's the limit to be an intermediate!” groused Wendy gloomily. ”Seniors and juniors get all the fun! Did you ever hear of _our_ form being taken to do anything special while the others stopped at school? Of course you didn't, because we never are! The seniors get first innings, and we only have the crumbs that are left, and those juniors are treated like babies though they're nearly as tall as we are. I'm fed up with it!”
”We'd better have a demonstration--parade the corridor with a placard: 'Fair play for Intermediates! Equal treats for all!'” suggested Diana, who was always ready with ideas.
”Much good it would do us! We should only get sat upon by everybody.
Hullo! Here's Peggy wandering down. What's the matter with you, chucky?
You look disturbed.”
”I hate coming out in a wind,” said Peggy, holding her hands over her rumpled hair. ”I say, did you, or did you not see Miss Chadwick, Miss Ormrod, _and_ Miss Carr bike off to Glenbury? Are they all three gone?”
”Of course they're gone!”
”You saw them with your own eyes?”
”Helped to blow up their tyres, which we thought was really saintly, when we weren't asked to go with them,” said the still injured Wendy.
”Well, it's a pretty go they're all off! Bunty's just had a telegram from Toddlekins. She's coming back this afternoon, and wants the trap to meet the four-thirty train.”
”She should! She's in a precious hurry to leave her beloved London.
Whence this thusness?”
”I don't know. She's coming, at any rate,” said Peggy, rather crossly.
”Bunty sent me to find out if everybody had really gone. Toddlekins will have to get a taxi, that's all. Whew! I'm being blown to bits! I want to get back to my pen-painting. I'm making a birthday present for my cousin. Ta-ta!”
Diana stood watching Peggy's retreating figure as the latter raced up the garden and into the house.
”Toddlekins will be rather savage not to be met,” she commented.
”Yes; she's so keen on the trap, and the amount it saves in taxis and carriers.”
”It does seem rough on her, especially when she's sent a telegram. Look here, old thing, let's take it to meet her ourselves!”
”What? You and me?”
”Why not? I can drive, and I know how to harness Baron. I have helped to put him in the trap heaps of times. Bunty? Best not tell her anything about it; she's always such a scared rabbit, and she'd only have fits!”
Wendy's eyes shone like stars.
”It _would_ be a stunt! Fancy driving in state to the station and fetching Toddlekins! She'd be pleased to save a taxi.”
”Bless her, she shall! We'll show her that her girls have some spirit and self-reliance at a crisis. It's only making a practical demonstration of our new agricultural course! What's the use of learning if you can't apply it at the right moment? Run and fetch our coats and hats and gloves, that's a cherub, while I go and tell Baron all about it.”
Wendy, much thrilled, and fired with the excellence of Diana's notion, went indoors, and, taking elaborate precautions not to meet anybody, secured outdoor garments worthy of the occasion. She rolled them in a Union Jack for camouflage, and bore them off to the stable.