“Is he in Australia still?” inquired Gretta, with interest.
“Oh, yes, but he’s coming home when he’s got a certain sum of money. I forget how much, but he said he wouldn’t come home with less. He’s got something he has to do in England, he said. I’ll show him to you, Gretta, for, of course, he’ll come to see me. It’s really because of him that I’m up in your form, isn’t it? He taught me Latin and arithmetic very well; though I must say he wasn’t much good at history and geography. Miss Tate says I’m awfully bad at those. When he comes perhaps he’ll tell us some stories of the things he’s done, and we might get ideas for the bravery prize. Have you thought of anything yet?”
It was Friday afternoon and the usual walk was in progress; Gretta thought for a minute before she answered. “I know I haven’t any chance of it, Margot; I’m not like you. You were born brave, I believe, and Josy’s the same kind. Now, I’m almost afraid of anything happening that people have to be brave about, like mad bulls and rescuing, and things of that kind. If they came along I’d have to try to do them, of course, but it somehow seems to me that if I look out for big brave things to do all the time, then I shan’t do my music properly, and I shall forget the rules, and I shall make a muddle of everything. I’m not clever, you see. So I’m just going to go on and do my best at lessons; it’s my first term and I’m so backward, and I’m not going to think much about winning the prize, because I know I couldn’t.”
“Well, I don’t know,” said Margot, who had listened patiently through the long speech; “I’d just love to capture burglars, or discover—— Oh, Gretta,” she broke off, “I meant to tell you. Has Sybil been telling you what she means to do?”
“Sybil! No. What?” inquired Gretta uneasily.
“Well, it’s the prize, I think, that she’s after, and I believe we ought to stop her. She wants to do something brave, and she said——”
“Well?” inquired Gretta apprehensively.
“Well, I suppose it’s not telling tales to tell you! She was talking quite loud to Adela about it, and she said that I had said—and I did, you know—that it would be a brave thing to go and find out about that little house with no windows on the cliff, and she said that she meant to go.”
CHAPTER IX
MAINLY ABOUT HOCKEY
“WHAT, Sybil!” Gretta laughed outright. “She’d be far too frightened; she’s even terrified of the dark; and think what Stella told us about it! I’d be afraid to go there, myself.”