"Blyton, Enid - St Clare's 03 - Summer Term at St Clare's" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blyton Enid)

'And spoilt your fun, I suppose,' said Miss Roberts in the sarcastic voice that the class hated. 'A very entertaining French lesson, I must say. You appear to have begun it all, Bobby-Carlotta certainly had a hand in it-and the rest of the tale appears to be composed of bad tempers on the part of several people. I imagine that every one was simply delighted, and watched with bated breath. I'm disgusted and ashamed. Bobby, come to me at the end of the morning.'
'Yes, Miss Roberts,' said Bobby, dismally. Prudence' looked round at Bobby with a pleased expression, delighted that the girl had a punishment coming to her. Miss Roberts caught sight of the look. She could not bear Prudence's meanness, nor her habit of tale-bearing and gloating over others' misfortunes. She snapped at her so suddenly that Prudence jumped.
'Prudence! You are not without blame, either! If you can make trouble for others, you invariably do. If you had not made such a stupid fuss none of this would have happened."
Prudence was deeply hurt. 'Oh, Miss Roberts!' she said, in an injured tone, 'that's not fair. Really I . . .'
'Since when have I allowed you to tell me what is fair and what is not?' inquired Miss Roberts. 'Hold your tongue and sit down. And while I think of it- your last essay was so bad that I cannot pass it. You will do it again this evening.'
Prudence flushed. She knew that Miss Roberts definitely meant to be unkind at that moment, and she felt that all the girls, except perhaps Pam, silently approved of Miss Roberts's sharp tongue, and were pleased at her 'ticking-off.' Her thoughts turned to Carlotta, and she brooded with bitterness over the fiery girl and what she had said. Miss Roberts had said nothing about punishing that beast Carlotta! Surely she wasn't going to let her go scot-free! Think of the things she had said to Mam'zelle! Carlotta was queer and bad-see how she broke the rules of the school and went off riding other people's horses!
The class was in a subdued mood for the rest of that morning. Bobby went to Miss Roberts and received such a scolding that she almost burst into tears-a thing that Bobby had not done for years! She also received a punishment that kept her busy for a whole week-a punishment consisting of writing out and learning all the things that Miss Roberts unaccountably appeared to think that Bobby didn't know. It is safe to say that at the end of that week Bobby knew a good deal more than at the beginning!
Carlotta appeared to receive no punishment at all, which caused Prudence much anger and annoyance. Actually, as Pat and Isabel knew, Carlotta had been sent to the head, Miss Theobald, and had come out of that dread drawing-room in tears, looking very subdued and unlike herself. She told no one what had passed there, and nobody dared to inquire.
Mam'zelle received a written apology from Bobby and from Carlotta-and, much to Prudence's anger, one from Prudence herself too! Miss Roberts had demanded it, and would not listen to any objections on Prudence's part. So the girl had not dared to disobey but bad written out her apology too.
'I'll pay Carlotta out for this!' she thought. 'I'll go and find that man she was talking to -- and ask him all about that horrid beast of a Carlotta I I'm sure there's something funny about that.'


11 CARLOTTA'S SECRET

THE first chance that Prudence had of going for a walk over to the circus-camp was two days later. She sought out Pam and asked her to go with her
'Oh Prudence! I did so badly want to finish reading this book,' said Pam, who was in the middle of a historical novel dealing with the class's period of history It was quite a joke with the first form that Pam never read any book unless it had to do with some of the classwork.
'Pam, do come,' begged Prudence, slipping her hand under Pam's arm. Pam had had very little affection shown to her in her life and she was always easily moved by any gesture on Prudence's part. She got up at once, her short-sighted eyes beaming behind their big glasses. She put away her book and got her hat. The two girls set off, going the same way as before.
In half an hour's time they reached the camp. 'Why, we've come the same way that we came last week!' said Pam.
'Yes,' said Prudence, pretending to be astonished too. 'And look-the circus camp is still there-and those lovely horses are still in the field. Let's go down to the camp and see if we can see any elephants or exciting things like that.'
Pam wasn't at all sure that she wanted to find elephants, for she was nervous of animals, but she obediently followed Prudence. They went into the field, where the caravans and cages were arranged. No one took any notice of them.
After a while Prudence's sharp eyes found the untidy-haired man that she had seen Carlotta talking to. She went up to him.
'Does it matter us looking round the camp a bit?' she asked, with her sweetest smile.
'No, you go where you like, missy,' said the man.
'Are those the circus-horses in that field over there?' asked Prudence, pointing to the field where she had seen Carlotta riding.
'They are,' said the man, and he went on polishing the harness that lay across his knees.
'I wish we could ride them like Carlotta,' said Prudence, gazing at the horses with an innocent expression. The man looked at her sharply.
'Ay, she's a fine rider,' he said. 'Fine girl altogether, I say.'
'Have you known her long then?' said Prudence, still looking very innocent indeed.
'Since she was a baby,' said the man.
'She's had an awfully interesting life, hasn't she?' said Prudence, pretending that she knew far more than she did. 'I love to hear all her stories.'
Pam stared at Prudence open-mouthed. This was news to her! She wondered uncomfortably if Prudence was telling one of her fibs-but why should she do that?
'Oh, she's told you about her life, has she?' said the man, looking rather surprised. 'I thought she wasn't. . .'
He stopped short. Prudence felt excited. She really was discovering something now. She looked at the untidy man, her eyes wide open with a most honest expression in them. No one could beat Prudence at looking innocent when she wasn't!
"Yes, I'm her best friend,' said Prudence. 'She told me to come over here and look round the camp. She said you wouldn't mind.'
Pam was now quite certain that Prudence was telling dreadful untruths. In great discomfort the girl went off to look at a nearby caravan. She felt that she could not listen any more. She could not imagine what Prudence was acting like this for. She had so little spite in her own nature that it did not occur to her to think that Prudence was trying to find out something that might damage Carlotta.
Prudence was pleased to see Pam go off. Now she could get on more quickly I She felt certain somehow that Carlotta really had been connected with circus life in some way, so she took the plunge and asked the man the question.
'I expect Carlotta loved circus-life, didn't she?'
The man apparently saw nothing queer about the question. He plainly thought that Carlotta had told Prudence a great deal about herself. He' nodded his head.
'She oughtn't to have left it,' he said. 'My brother, who was in the same show as Carlotta was, said it would break her heart. That girl knew how to handle horses better than a man. I was glad to let her have a gallop when she came over here the other day. We move tomorrow-so you tell her when you get back that if she wants another gallop, she'll have to come along pretty early to-morrow morning, like she did two weeks ago' Prudence was almost trembling with excitement. She had found out all she wanted to know. That nasty little Carlotta was a circus-girl-a horrid, common, low-down little circus-girl! How dare Miss Theobald accept a girl like that for her school! Did she really expect girls like Prudence, daughter of a good family, to mix with circus girls?
She called Pam and the two set off to go back to' the school. Both were silent. Pam was still feeling very uncomfortable about Prudence's untruths to the man in the camp-and Prudence was thinking how clever she had been. She did not realize that it was not real cleverness -only shameful cunning.
She wondered how she could get the news round among the girls. Should she drop a hint here and there? If she could get hold of that foolish Alison, she would soon' bleat it out everywhere! She went to find Alison that evening in the common room. The girl was sitting doing a complicated jigsaw. She loved jigsaws, although she was very bad at them, and usually ended in losing half the pieces on the floor.
It was an interesting jigsaw. Four or five girls came to see how Alison was getting on. Bobby picked up a piece.
'Doesn't that go there?' she said, and tried it. Then Hilary picked up another piece, and in trying to make it fit, pushed the half-finished picture crooked.
'Oh!' cried Alison, exasperated. 'If there's one thing I hate more than anything else it's having people help me with a jigsaw puzzle. First it's Bobby, then it's Hilary, then it's somebody else. I could finish it much more quickly if only people didn't help me!'
'I've never seen you finish a jigsaw puzzle yet, Alison,' said Pat, teasingly.
'Why don't you do it properly?' said Doris, who however poor she was at lessons, was astonishingly quick at jigsaws. 'You always begin by putting little bits together here and there. What you should do is to begin with the outside pieces. You see, they've got a straight edge, and ...'
'I know all that,' said Alison, impatiently, 'but Sadie says...'
Immediately the chorus was taken up in the greatest delight by the girls around.
'Sadie says-oh Sadie says-Sadie, Sadie, Sadie SAYS!'
The girls at the back of the room took up the chorus too, and Sadie good-naturedly lifted her pretty head. 'Don't you mind them, Alison,' she said. But Alison did. She never could take teasing well. She muddled up her half-made jigsaw in peevishness, piled it into its box, dropped two or three pieces on the floor and went out of the room.