"I suppose you felt you had to do them since Miss Oakley set them," said the mistress, still with that bitter note in her voice. "I have not time to examine them now. I'll look through them presently and let you know if they are tidy enough for me to accept." And she made a gesture of dismissal.
But Gerry still lingered. She did not quite know what she could do, but somehow it seemed impossible to go away and leave the new mistress in trouble behind her. Gerry was a tender-hearted person and she could not bear to see others in distress. She longed to be able to say something comforting, but no words suitable to the occasion came to her, and at last Miss Burton, seeing her still standing near the door, spoke to her in angry exasperation.
"What are you waiting for, child! Didn't you hear me say that I could not look at them until later? Go back to your classroom at once. The bell for preparation rang long ago."
Thus admonished, Gerry was obliged to leave the room, but she went very reluctantly, and her progress back to the Lower Fifth classroom was very slow indeed. A tumult of conflicting emotions was raging within her. All along she had been uneasily aware that the strike against the new mistress was wrong, and now the unmistakable traces of tears on Miss Burton's plain face had borne in upon her how very wrong and mean it was. Something must be done at once to stop it—that was evident—but yet what could she do? What could one girl do against many?—and an insignificant, unpopular new girl at that!
Just as she reached the top of the Upper School corridor she encountered the head girl, who stopped with a friendly smile as she recognised her.
"What are you doing here, kiddie?" said Muriel. "Oughtn't you to be in prep?"
"I'm just going," said Gerry. "I had some lines to take to Miss Burton, and I'm just on my way back."
"What have you been doing to get lines?" said Muriel. Then, without waiting for an answer to her question, she asked another:
"How did you get on at hockey to-day? Did Alice play you forward?"
"Oh yes, thank you. She put me outside right. And I think I got on much better," said Gerry eagerly. "I—I am beginning to think I shall like hockey when I've got a little more used to it," she added shyly.