Boarding schools -- England -- Juvenile fiction; Girls -- England -- Juvenile fiction
As has been before explained, the members of the Fourth and Fifth
Forms--nineteen girls in all--slept in the huge chamber which occupied
an entire wing of the house, and had been the dormitory of the French
nuns a hundred years ago. The small room at the end, formerly the cell
of the Mother Superior, was now the bower of Miss Gibbs. It had two
doors, one leading into the passage and another into the dormitory, so
that she could keep an eye upon the nineteen inmates. It was a very
unnecessary arrangement to have her so near, the girls considered, for
she would come popping in immediately if they made a noise. They
envied the Sixth, who slept in little bedrooms along the corridor, and
wished Miss Gibbs had possessed a lesser sense of duty and a greater
appreciation of luxury, so that she might have chosen a more
comfortable and spacious bedroom elsewhere.
When sufficient tin-can ammunition had been prepared, Raymonde carried
the baskets upstairs by stealth, and hid them in the lumber cupboard
which she had discovered on the day she had explored the roof. They
were not likely to be disturbed here, for probably no one save herself
knew of the existence of the tiny room. She crept through the small
door on to the tiles, and verified her position by cautious tapping,
to which Morvyth, stationed in the passage below with a hockey stick,
replied. Having thus taken her exact bearings, she felt that the whole
plot was in good training.
"We must choose a moonlight night, or I shouldn't be able to see my
way over the roof," she informed the committee. "Of course Zepps don't
generally come when there's a moon, but there'll be no time for
anybody to think of that. You know your part of the business?"
"Ra--ther!"
The household at the Grange retired early to rest. Miss Gibbs, who was
an ardent advocate of daylight saving, and always rose at six, was
generally in bed by eleven, on the theory that it is impossible to
burn a candle at both ends. As a rule, every occupant of the long
dormitory was wrapt in slumber before that hour, and the mistress,
taking a last peep at the rows of small beds, would hear nothing but
peaceful breathing. On one particular evening, however, when she made
her usual survey of the room, seven of the apparent sleepers were
foxing. They lay with closed eyes and composed faces, but inwardly
they were particularly lively. Each one had solemnly passed her word
to keep awake, and considered herself on sentry duty. To pass the time
they had brought acid drops to bed with them, and sucked them slowly,
so as to make them last as long as possible. They dared not talk, for
fear of disturbing the others, though the temptation was great.
Occasionally a stealthy hand would reach over to the next bed, to make
sure of its occupant's vigilance, and the squeeze would be passed on
down the row of seven.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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