The Story Of Louie Part 3

Lovenant-Smith affirmed that students did not do this or that, students as a matter of fact either did not do these things, or else consented to cla.s.s themselves as transgressors when they did.

But Louie's own att.i.tude in the face of a prohibited thing, inherited from her mother and now made inveterate by her upbringing, was invariably that of a wonder what would happen were the prohibition to be disregarded.

It was just a wonder, nothing more.

Then, on the night of her third day at Chesson's, she made up her mind to forfeit her fees and leave in the morning. The reason for her decision was this:

During the vacation certain digging had been allowed by the gardeners to fall into arrears; and Earle's posse, together with another set of six girls, had been set to do it. Now digging was the hardest work the girls were ever called upon to do, and at the beginning of the term at any rate they were spared it as much as possible. But education or output required that this digging should be done, and accordingly the twelve girls had digged for the whole morning, and in the afternoon had varied the labour by carrying heavy pots from House No. 6 to House No. 10--a distance of perhaps sixty yards. The next morning twelve girls (or rather eleven, for Burnett Minor's unset muscles had suffered but little) were half incapacitated by stiffness, and that night there was an outcry for hot baths and arnica. Louie, clad in dressing-gown and slippers and carrying her soap and sponge and towel, hobbled to the bathrooms, and came, in the box-room, upon an indignation-meeting.

This box-room was the common meeting-ground for students who awaited their turns at the baths. It lay over the back courtyard arch, and the four bathrooms adjoined it, two on either side. It was piled almost to the ceiling with trunks and boxes and dress-baskets, the white initials of which glimmered in the shadows cast by a couple of candles on the floor; but there were isolated boxes enough to make seats for the seven or eight girls already a.s.sembled there. They had slippers on their naked feet and single garments on their aching bodies; and on one of Louie's own boxes Burnett Major was peering at the little blue flame of a spirit-kettle and mixing in a row of cups the paste for that beverage of revolt--cocoa. Burnett Minor had traitorously turned the general righteous anger to private account, had "bagged" the hottest bath, and was now carolling at the top of her lungs in the right-hand bathroom.

"----then if Earle won't do it I vote we draw lots!" Macfarlane was exclaiming shrilly as Louie opened the door. "Those lazy louts of gardeners are supposed to have all the digging done before we come up----"

They were not--not if Chesson knew it; but "Of course they are!" cried five voices at once.

"Well, I'm just not going to stand it--there----"

"And I'm not----"

"Nor me----"

"And for two pins I'd tell Priddy so!"

There was a moment's silence, but only because, all having spoken at once, all had to take breath at once.

"It's abominable----"

"Disgusting----"

"Cela m'embete----"

"Here's Causton--what do _you_ vote, Causton?" they cried, turning to her.

"What about?" Louie asked.

"Why, everything, of course--this beastly place--and setting us to dig the first week--and Priddy's beastly cheek----"

Then every tongue was unloosed.

"_And_ a row every time we want an extra blouse washed----"

"_And_ was.h.i.+ng two guineas a term extra----"

"_And_ only the vuggles for dinner that aren't good enough for the market----" ("Vuggles" were vegetables.)

Another pause for breath.

"Let's what-d'-you-call-it--strike----"

Louie laughed as she sat stiffly down by Burnett Major.

"Oh, I'll vote for anything you like; I don't care," she said.

Then they began anew.

"Earle's head of the posse--_she_ ought to do it----"

Richenda Earle's voice broke in in loud complaint.

"How _can_ I? You know I would like a shot if it wasn't for my scholars.h.i.+p. But I should just be told that if I didn't like it I could go. Elwell's head of your lot. Elwell ought to go."

"I don't care who goes, but I will _not_ be told to do things by Priddy."

"Priddy!----"

(Louie smiled again as there came from the bathroom the joyful voice:

"_Early one mo-o-orning--as the su-un was a-rising!_----")

"And those pots hadn't got to be moved--he was only making work----"

"--gros tyran!----"

"--like they kept us three weeks grading and packing tomatoes last autumn, and called it 'study'----"

"--and the bruised ones for us----"

"--not even fit for ketchup----"

"--Dothegirls Hall _this_ establishment ought to be called!----"

Another momentary pause: then:

"--let's all sign a pet.i.tion----"

"--no, a what-d'you-call-it--an ultimatum----"

"--just telling them straight----"

"Your bath, Earle----"

From the bathroom had come the gurgle of escaping water. Boiled pink, turbaned with her towel, smelling of somebody else's scented soap and radiating unrepentance that Earle's bath must be a tepid one, Burnett Minor bounced in.

"Friends, Romans, countrymen, do lend me a dry towel, just to finish with. Oh, Causton, the curtsy, now that I've something loose on!

Crocks! My cocoa, Major, and who said Priddy just now? 'Students do not fall in love with Priddy.' (I sha'n't hush.) Sugar, Mac, and, Causton, I wish you'd do my hair your way, just to see how it looks----"

And, twirling twice in the midst of a corolla of pink cashmere dressing-gown, she sank to the floor and began to nurse a chilblain on her heel.

Louie, her hands behind her head, leaned back and watched the scene with the greatest amus.e.m.e.nt. A master-rebel herself, she knew that here was no rebellion. The meeting, like other meetings, was merely letting off steam, and the girls who "wouldn't stand it" would be standing it exactly the same on the morrow. Well, on the morrow she herself would be off. Her boxes were only half unpacked; half-an-hour would put the other things back again. Already she saw that this Chesson's was an imposition. In the meantime, the indignation meeting was very amusing. She felt almost motherly towards these tractable revolutionaries. Her indulgence became still greater as they spoke out again.