Part 13 (1/2)

here goes again--”Bacteriollodgy.” Then Auntie Anna winked at Jill, and we went upstairs and left the Beast with the Rector, which was a punishment he more than deserved, as I told Jill. She said she was afraid we boys were spoiling her manners, and Auntie said, ”Of course they are!”

as if it was a good thing, which of course _we_ know it is. I had to go to bed then, and Jill said it was awful desolation and despair when I'd gone, because Auntie Anna began her conversation all over again with old Barnaby, and the Beast instead of having the sense to join in it went and sat with Jill all the evening. Which shows his puerrility and blightedness. She sang to him too, and he got up to go the moment she had finished which was beastly rude, I think. If he did think she sang badly he might have played up better. But he's a beast, and you can't get over that. He's very ugly and sulky looking, and he's about fifty I should think, but Jill says not so old. That's her grown-up charitableness which she can't get over. Anyhow----'

The mist in Barbara's eyes threatened to become so serious at this point that she put down Kit's letter hastily and returned to her own. Whatever happened, she was not going to cry before all these girls, who never understood anything she did. She was hard at work again by the time Ruth Oliver pushed aside the curtain and looked in from the next room.

'Barbara Berkeley!' she called. 'Has any one seen Barbara Berkeley?'

One or two of the girls looked round casually at the slim figure on the floor, but n.o.body roused her. Ruth Oliver was too good-natured a person to inspire much authority in the junior playroom, and the children would sooner risk her displeasure any day than Jean Murray's. If it had been any other girl in the First, half a dozen of them would have hastened to do her bidding at once.

'Angela!' called Ruth, impatiently, coming into the room as she spoke; 'don't you know where the Babe is? She has got to go and see the doctor at once.'

On the other side of the curtain, both Barbara and her nickname met with the popularity that was denied to them in the junior playroom; and the note of familiarity in the elder girl's words sent Angela's impudent chin up in the air.

'We don't know anybody of that name in here,' she said, and went on talking flippantly to the girl beside her.

Ruth Oliver was not born to be a leader, and she was horribly afraid of some of the younger ones, who had been quick enough to detect this long ago, and naturally presumed upon it. But there were limits even to her endurance, and she laid a stern hand on Angela's shoulder.

'If you don't want to be reported to Margaret Hulme, you'd better fetch Barbara to me at once,' she commanded, with a firmness she certainly did not feel.

Angela rose with a very bad grace, and strolled as slowly as she dared to the other end of the room. 'If you'd only said that at first, it would have saved all this fuss!' she muttered, as soon as she was at a safe distance.

Babs still lay face downwards on the floor, with her heels in the air and her whole attention fixed on the paper she was covering with her large round handwriting. If she did not finish her letter before the prayer-bell rang, it would have to wait until next Wednesday. So she did not take any notice when some one came and said something or another in her ear. She was always in somebody's way, and if she moved, she would only be in somebody else's way. So she stayed where she was.

'Don't you hear? You've got to go and see the doctor,' repeated Angela, loudly and with impatience. Thoughtless and empty-headed as she was, even Angela Wilkins had the sense to see how absurd it was that the new girl should turn on her persecutors by ignoring them.

Barbara rolled over on her side and glanced up at her.

'Oh, all right! I know how much of that to believe,' she answered; and she rolled back again into her old position and continued her letter to Kit.

'She says she doesn't want to see the stupid doctor, and nothing will induce her to come, and she doesn't care what you say or anybody else either,' was Angela's version, on her return to Ruth Oliver, of the way in which Barbara had received her message.

The elder girl looked down at her suspiciously. 'Did she really say that?'

she inquired.

'Go and ask her, that's all,' cried Angela, full of righteous indignation at having her word doubted. For she was really under the impression that she had correctly described the att.i.tude of the new girl towards the doctor and Ruth Oliver.

'Well, I will,' answered Ruth, and she threaded her way among the girls until she too stood over the prostrate figure of the offender.

'Babs,' she called, bending down.

Barbara flourished her black legs in the air with an impatient movement.

'How you do bother!' she complained, stifling a sigh. 'That's the second in five minutes. Why can't you leave me alone?'

There was a start of surprise in the group that surrounded her. It is probable that few of her listeners saw the ridiculous side of the new girl's request to be left alone, when that was the punishment that had been meted out to her ever since her second day at school; but any one of them could have told her that that was not the way to speak to a girl in the First.

Ruth turned a little red from sheer nervousness; and the girls immediately decided that she was afraid of the youngest child in the school, and began to giggle with one accord. Barbara sighed again at this new interruption; and raising herself on her knees, she sat back on her heels.

'Oh, it's you!' she observed, shaking the hair out of her eyes. 'Why didn't you say so? I thought it was just some one who wanted to bother.'

'You've got to go and see the doctor in Finny's study. Make haste, Babe,'