"Blyton, Enid - St Clare's 04 - The Second Form At St Clare's (b)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blyton Enid)

she turned it over the right way, she stared at it in horror. It was
covered with ink-spots! ' Just as I've made up my mind to turn over a
new leaf, all these things happen!' thought Mirabel in dismay. ' I can't
imagine how I got that ink on my paper. Miss Jenks will never believe I
didn't know it was there.' Mirabel was right-Miss Jenks didn't believe
it! She looked in disgust at the untidy paper. She would not even
correct it. ' Another of your nice little ways, I suppose/ she said. *
Do it again, please.' ' Miss Jenks, I really didn't make all those
ink-spots/ said Mirabel. But she had given in too many badly-done papers
before, on purpose, for Miss Jenks suddenly to believe her now. ' I
don't want to discuss the matter,' said Miss Jenks. ' Do it all again,
and let me have it this evening, without any mess on it at all.' Mirabel
went back to her desk. She caught Elsie's spiteful smile, but she did
not guess yet that there was a campaign against her. She sat down, angry
and puzzled. The French class came next, and Mirabel discovered, to her
dismay, that not only her French books, but also the French paper she
had written out the day before as homework, had disappeared. She hunted
through her desk again and again, and Mam'zelle grew sarcastic. '
Mirabel, is it possible for you to come out of your desk before the
lesson is ended? Soon I shall forget what your face is like.' '
Mam'zelle, I'm sorry, but I can't seem to find the French paper I did
yesterday,' said Mirabel, emerging from her desk flushed and worried.
If there was one thing that Mam'zelle could not stand, it was the
non-appearance of any work she had set the class to do. She frowned, and
her glasses slid down her big nose. The girls watched gleefully. The
knew the signs of gathering wrath. Mam'zelle replaced her glasses on the
bridge of her nose. ' Ah, Mirabel! You cannot seem to find the work you
4id, you say? How many tunes have I heard that excuse since I have been
here at St. Clare's? A thousand times, ten thousand times I You have not
done the work. Do not deny it, I know. You are a tiresome girl-you have
been tiresome ever since the first day you came. You will always be
tiresome. You will give me that work before the end of the morning or
you will not play lacrosse this afternoon.' ' But, Mam'zelle, I really
did do it!' protested Mirabel, almost in tears. ' I can't find my
ordinary French books, either. They're gone.' ' Always this Mirabel
holds up my class!' cried Mam'zelle, raising her hands to the ceiling
and wagging them in a way that made Doris long to imitate her at once. '
She loses things-she looks for them-she makes excuses-I cannot bear this
girl.' ' Nor can anybody,' said Alison, delighted at the success of the
trick. Mirabel flashed an angry glance at her. She was beginning to
wonder if the girls had had anything to do with the mysterious
disappearance of her things. ' It's too bad all this happening now/ she
thought. * Mam'zelle might believe me. I really am speaking the truth.'
But Mirabel had so often been silly and untruthful that she had only
herself to blame now if no one believed her when she did actually tell
the truth. She tried once more with Mam'zelle. o jf lease do believe me,
Mam'zelle/ she begged. ' Elsie saw me doing the paper last night. Didn't
you, Elsie? ' ' Indeed I didn't,' said Elsie, maliciously. ' Ah, this
untruthful Mirabel!' cried Mam'zelle. ' You will do me the paper once
because you have not done it- and again you will do it for me because