Monica had made no attempt to interrupt her, nor did she speak when Nat finished. She merely went slowly to the bookshelf and, taking down several books and a bottle of ink, placed them on the table. Her small, delicately-cut features were set in a hard, frozen look. Nat's temper flared up in a final spurt.
"And I'm not going to hear you say your Latin verbs nor your Dick II, so you needn't waste your breath asking me. I'm going to finish my prep in Ida's study," and collecting the books she required, she stumped out of the room with the air of one shaking its dust off her feet. Left alone, Monica stared immovably at her lesson books for quite five minutes; then, pushing them on one side, she returned to her easy-chair.
CHAPTER VIII
THRILLS FOR THE FIFTH
The Fifth did not quite know whether they were enjoying themselves or not. Last year's Fifth Form would have had no doubts at all about the matter, but the present Fifth were on the whole a law-abiding set. Thrilled, however, they certainly were.
The morning had commenced with Latin. The girls appeared tired and little inclined to rouse themselves to great efforts; probably they were still feeling the effects of the recent strenuous match and the celebrations which followed the victory. Glenda, who had no great love for Latin in her best moments, was frequently occupied in tenderly rubbing a painful bruise on her left leg and consequently missed a good deal of Miss Andrews' exposition on semi-deponent verbs. Miss Andrews had no sympathy whatever with hockey and its after effects; but her gentle, dreamy temperament often found it difficult to be as severe and strict as she thought necessary.
"Really, girls," she remonstrated, as one after another failed to grapple successfully with the examples and exercises in their books. "You seem to have left your brains still asleep on your pillow when you got up this morning. Monica," calling upon her favourite Latin pupil, "show the rest of the class what can be done by means of a little concentration."
Monica picked up her book and with the most careless air imaginable made an even worse attempt than any of the previous ones. Poor Miss Andrews stared in bewilderment as her model pupil stammered and hesitated, making the wildest and most ludicrous guesses.
"That will do, Monica," she said stiffly. "I do not think you are trying in the least. This exercise must be done again by the class to-night, as returned work."
The Fifth sighed with relief when the bell announced the end of the period. They aroused themselves to pay better attention to Miss Moore's English lesson, which came next and which luckily presented no great difficulties. When the last period arrived Miss Bennett, the energetic, announced that she would give them an impromptu test on their history preparation and the Fifth, with rough note-books and pencils in front of them, settled down to write brief answers to the questions hurled at them in quick succession. Then books were exchanged and the girls corrected each other's answers, afterwards handing back the books to their owners. In order of form, the girls then called out the results of their work. These proved to be fairly satisfactory till it was the last girl's turn, and the Fifth held their breath as Monica said calmly: "None, Miss Bennett."