The Leader of the Lower School: A Tale of School Life

by Angela Brazil

  CHAPTER XIII

  A Leader of the Opposition

  GIPSY had called the General Meeting of the Magazine department of theGuild because she honestly wished her journal to be a representativeorgan for the whole of the Lower School. A member of each Form was onthe Committee, but she thought suggestions would probably be offered byothers, and could then be discussed and settled by popular vote. At fouro'clock on the Friday afternoon all the Juniors flocked to thedressing-room, for there was a whisper abroad that changes were in thewind, and that it behoved everybody who had an interest in the subjectto be present and take sides. Dilys Fenton, as President of the Guild,opened the proceedings with a few introductory remarks; then Gipsy, aseditress, read her report on the Magazine.

  "Members are invited to suggest any fresh features that they considerwould be advantageous for the forthcoming summer term, and to offer anycriticisms on the past number." So she concluded.

  "I think we may all declare ourselves perfectly satisfied with thisreport," commented Dilys. "Our editress has worked hard, and the_Journal_ is a unique success, which speaks for itself. Personally Ican suggest no improvements, but members are of course invited to givetheir opinions."

  There was a moment's pause, then Maude Helm stood up.

  "Our lady chairman and fellow members!" she began airily, "I am glad tohave this opportunity of raising a protest against an abuse which Iconsider is beginning to creep into our Guild, and which, unchecked, maybe liable to lead to very serious results. You will remember that thisGuild was founded in consequence of the very unjust and unfair treatmentof the Lower School by the Seniors. This tyrannical attitude of themonitresses had been long resented by the Juniors, and though one newgirl happened to seize upon the matter and voice the discontent, it wasfelt in many quarters that her action had been given undue prominence,and that the real credit belonged to those who had slowly and surelyinfluenced the general opinion. These members, though they stood asideand waived their claims to gratitude, anxious only for the welfare ofthe Lower School, feel strongly that the whole conduct of the Magazineshould be now revised and placed upon a more representative basis. I amnot wishful to disparage the work of one who has no doubt done her bestfor the _Journal_, but I should like to suggest that there are othersamong us equally capable of undertaking office, and, if they had thechance, of running the affair with possibly even greater success. Itseems to me undesirable for one person to take everything upon hershoulders, and as a question of fair play I beg to propose that theeditorship should be changed for each issue of the Magazine, with astanding provision that nobody be elected more than once in twelvemonths."

  If a bombshell had suddenly exploded, some of the girls could not havebeen more surprised. Dilys Fenton stared at Maude as if marvelling ather amazing impudence, Hetty Hancock flushed pink with annoyance, andMeg Gordon's eyes sought the face of her idol. A few of Maude'sfollowing clapped vigorously, notably Leonora, and there was an echo ofsupport among some of the younger ones. Gipsy, though she had been quiteunprepared for such a mutiny in camp, bore the attack with admirablecoolness and self-possession.

  "I may perhaps be allowed to state," she remarked calmly, "that anyoffice which I hold at present was not self-sought, but was given me asthe result of the general vote. To the members themselves, therefore, Iappeal, if they consider they've anything against me."

  "Maude's perfectly right!" interposed Gladys Merriman, rising hastily."This Magazine business has been a 'one man show' all along. Nobody elsehas had even a look-in. It's been 'Gipsy Latimer' from beginning toend."

  "Oh! Oh! Who's had a story in every number?" cried a voice from theback.

  "The editress oughtn't to be allowed to monopolize the chief parts!"called out Alice O'Connor.

  "She didn't!"

  "How can you say so!"

  "Go it, Alice! Pitch it strong! I'm with you!"

  "Order! Order!" commanded Dilys. "This question must be discussed fromboth sides. We'll take one at a time, please."

  "Maude! Let Maude speak, then!" shouted a band of sympathizers from theopposition.

  Maude, who had waxed warm, was only too ready to speak, and seized uponthe opportunity.

  "I want to know," she demanded aggressively, "why one girl expects totake the top seat in this school, and dictate what's to be done allround? Newcomers used to be kept in the background, but it seems allthat's changed now. However, if new girls are the fashion, LeonoraParker's newer still, and why shouldn't she be editress?"

  "Because she couldn't!" piped somebody.

  "Who's that says she couldn't?" shouted Gladys.

  "Give her a chance to try!" called out Alice O'Connor.

  "Likely!"

  "You want to try yourself, I suppose!"

  "Look here, we don't want everything turned topsy-turvy to suit a fewlike you."

  "Order! Order!" cried Dilys again--a very necessary command, for themembers were growing excited, and instead of stating their proposals inthe orthodox, conventional language which they prided themselves uponalways using at meetings, were descending to personalities.

  "Oh, do let me speak! I'll give it them hot!" begged Hetty. But MegGordon had already caught the President's eye, and began:

  "If this is to be a representative meeting, it's time some reply wasmade to Maude Helm's insinuations. The main object of Maude's remarksseems to be to cast a slur upon Gipsy Latimer, and to imply that she'staken an unfair advantage in coming to the fore. Every girl in this roomknows that Gipsy Latimer refused the Presidency of the Guild, and onlyaccepted the editorship because it was forced upon her. Did any one ofthose who are so ready to run the Magazine now it's started think oforiginating it? Of course they didn't! It was Gipsy, and Gipsy alone,who suggested the idea, drew up the plan, asked for contributions, andmade the thing the success it is. There isn't another girl at Briarcroftwho could have done it, or if there is, why didn't she? Where's yourgratitude? Gipsy got us our own Guild, and the _Journal's_ the organ ofthe Guild. She's the only one who's really qualified to be editress. Iask you, do you think anyone else could do it equally well? No, you knowvery well they couldn't, and wouldn't take the trouble either!"

  "Hear, hear!" shouted a number of voices, as Meg stopped from sheer lackof breath.

  "I thought this meeting was to be conducted in strict order!" sneeredMaude. "I made a proposal a while ago, and instead of its being allowedto be seconded and put to the vote, everybody began to talk separately.I beg to propose again that the editorship of the Magazine be changedeach time, and nobody be eligible for office again within twelvemonths."

  "And I beg to second the proposal," cried Gladys.

  "Those in favour, kindly signify!" said the President.

  "Put it to the ballot!" suggested Alice O'Connor eagerly.

  "No, we'll have a show of hands," returned Hetty grimly. "We want toknow which among you are answerable for this business. In all commonsense, how do you suppose a magazine can be run properly with adifferent editress each time? But it's evidently a question of GipsyLatimer versus Maude Helm as leader of the Lower School. Which will youchoose, girls?"

  Several hands that were on the point of going up wavered at that, andwent down again. Maude was not a general favourite, and though she hadcontrived to raise a spirit of envy against Gipsy, nobody was anxious toclaim her as a leader.

  "I suggested Leonora as editress," corrected Maude, rising angrily."Miss Poppleton herself proposed it!"

  But at that there was a scornful laugh. Maude had made a fatal mistake.Miss Poppleton's championship, far from being a recommendation, wasexactly the reverse. The girls resented her interference in theirprivate concerns, and did not intend to allow her the least voice intheir councils.

  "We don't want Poppie's pet, thanks!"

  "She's not going to manage our Guild for us!"

  "We can make our own choice!"

  So few hands went up in favour of Maude's proposal that its rejectionwas obvious at once. Meg Gordon started up immediately with
a countermotion.

  "I beg to propose that Gipsy Latimer continue to be editress until theend of the summer term."

  "And I beg to second that motion," agreed Lennie Chapman heartily.

  This time the hands went up in earnest, and there was no doubt about themajority.

  "Hurrah! Hurrah!" shouted Gipsy's supporters, turning in much triumphupon the opposition as the meeting broke up. Maude and her friends,finding the point carried, had no more to say, and were obliged to dropthe subject. Leonora affected a sublime indifference.

  "I'm sure I didn't want to be editress. I can't think why they suggestedit," she said, in her stolid, bored fashion.

  "To carry favour with Poppie, and spite Gipsy!" declared Lennie Chapman."I don't blame you: they made you a cat's-paw, that's all."

  "It's a victory for Gipsy, but I'm sorry it's happened at all," frettedHetty. "It's annoyed her dreadfully, and I believe she's ready to throwthe whole thing up and resign office."

  "That she can't and shan't and mustn't do! We won't allow her!"

  The struggle made a great sensation in the Upper Fourth. Some of thegirls openly twitted Maude with her defeat, an unwise and ungenerousproceeding which bore ill fruit. Maude was not a girl to let bygones bebygones; she turned sulky, brooded over her grievances, and bore Gipsya deeper grudge than ever. She was determined that she would not let thelatter go entirely unscathed, and looked about for some furtheropportunity of flinging a dart.

  "I'll pay her out somehow--see if I don't!" she grumbled to her chumGladys. "Wish I could think of some really good way!"

  "I know!" cackled Gladys suddenly. "It's only struck me this second. Oh!It's an inspiration! No, I daren't tell you here, with all those kidsabout eavesdropping. Come outside into the playground, and I'll explain.Have you any used South African stamps in your collection? Good! Thenit's as simple as ABC."

  "What are the Triumvirate up to?" asked Lennie Chapman a few days later."I'm absolutely certain they've some mischief brewing."

  "Do you mean Maude, Gladys, and Alice? I call them Korah, Dathan, andAbiram," said Dilys. "They're always hatching plots of some kind. Isuppose they've a fresh grievance against the Guild."

  "I believe they'd like to start a rival magazine of their own."

  "Let them, then! There's no reason why they shouldn't. We should have achance to prove who's the best editress. But I don't believe they'd takethe trouble when it came to the point. They only make a fuss becausethey enjoy growling."

  "I can stand growls, but Maude's apt to stick in pins as well. I shouldlike to find out what she's evolving just at present."

  Maude kept her secret well, however, and even Lennie's watchful eyescould discover nothing beyond the ordinary schoolgirl nonsense thatgenerally went on among the three chums. She decided that she must havebeen mistaken after all.

  March, with its boisterous winds, was passing fast away, and an earlyspring was bringing on green buds, and opening out venturous blossom onpear and plum trees. It was the first time Gipsy had seen an Englishspring, and she enjoyed the experience. The thrushes and blackbirdswhich carolled all day in the Briarcroft garden especially appealed toher.

  "They're little plain birds to look at, but they just sing their heartsout," she said. "I learnt Browning's piece about the thrush when I wasat school in Australia, and I always wanted to hear a real English one.I don't wonder he was enthusiastic about it."

  March had arrived like the traditional lion, but went out like theorthodox lamb, and the 1st of April was ushered in by most appropriateshowers. The time-honoured festival was kept up in rather a languidfashion at Briarcroft. The Upper School discountenanced it as childishand foolish, but a few of the Juniors indulged in jokes at one another'sexpense. These were mostly confined to the First and Second Forms, andthe Upper Fourth as a rule scorned them equally with the Seniors.

  On this particular morning the girls had just taken their places intheir classroom, and were waiting for Miss White, when Maude handedGipsy a letter, with the casual enquiry: "I say, Yankee Doodle, is thismeant for you?" It was a thin foreign envelope, and bore a SouthAfrican stamp, and it was addressed to "Miss Latimer, Briarcroft Hall,Greyfield, England". Gipsy glanced at it at first idly, then seized uponit as a starving man clutches at food. Her heart was beating andthrobbing wildly, and her shaking, trembling fingers could scarcely tearit open. Was it at last the news for which she had been yearning,craving, sickening for so many weary, weary months? It was not herfather's writing, but it might possibly contain tidings of him. Shecould scarcely control her violent excitement; her cheeks were white,her lips were quivering, and she drew her breath with little, short,painful jerks. In frantic anticipation she dragged the letter from itsenvelope, and unfolded it. It was only a single sheet of foreign paper,and it bore but one sentence:

  "First of April; nicely sold!"

  For a moment Gipsy gazed at the words without really comprehending theirmeaning. Then it dawned upon her that she was the victim of a most cruelhoax. The revulsion of feeling was so great, and the disappointment sointense, that she gave a little, sharp, bitter cry, and, leaning forwardover her desk, buried her head in her arms, and sobbed audibly.

  "What is it, Gipsy? What's the matter?" enquired her neighbours.

  "Read it! Oh, how could anybody?" choked Gipsy.

  Hetty Hancock seized upon the sheet, which had fallen to the floor, andafter one brief glance at its contents turned upon Maude with blazingeyes.

  "I never thought much of you, Maude Helm, but I didn't believe even youcould have invented such a detestably mean, dastardly trick as this. Youdeserve to be boycotted by every decent girl in the school."

  "It was only a joke," blustered Maude. "Everyone expects to be taken into-day."

  "It's a wicked, heartless joke--the cruellest thing you could havethought of--and you knew it, and did it on purpose!"

  "How could you, Maude? It's hateful!" came in a chorus from the othergirls. "We'll tell Miss White!"

  "Well, I'm sure it's not so dreadful, and it was Gladys who thought ofit, too!" protested Maude, finding popular opinion against her.

  "Don't try and put it off on Gladys, though one of you is as bad as theother. Girls, I'm not going to speak to Maude Helm or Gladys Merrimanfor a week, and I hope nobody else will either!" thundered Hetty.

  Lennie Chapman and Meg Gordon were trying to comfort Gipsy, and make hertake heart of grace again, but she had suffered a severe shock, andcontrolled herself with difficulty. She sat up, however, as Miss Whitecame into the room.

  "Don't tell her!" she whispered huskily. "What's the use? It would onlymake a fuss, and I hate fusses. The thing's over now, and I'd rather tryand forget it. Maude needn't be proud of such a poor joke!"

  "What a stoic you are!" returned Meg admiringly.