“Well, you’ve got your fiddle; that’s your sort of thing, I suppose. No, I dare say it wouldn’t do, Gretta, to go to the ‘Little House’; I’ll tell Sybil I can’t go, and she’s not to, either. Just for a minute I thought what fun it would be, as well as being a most ripping way of trying for that prize. But I suppose we can’t; I’d forgotten we were at school. There she is. I’ll tell her now. Sybil! Sybil!”
The damsel addressed, who was emerging from the cloak-room door that opened on to the playground, came running up.
“Have you seen Adela?” she inquired in rather a fretful voice. “She’s simply got to tell me what the French preparation is; I didn’t write it down.”
“No, I haven’t. Why didn’t you take it down yourself?” replied her cousin, who had no sympathy with Sybil’s lazy ways. “And look here, why aren’t you at hockey? Helen’s coaching all the little ones, and Adela’s sure to be there. Hurry up; you’ll be late.”
“I hate hockey,” said the child, shrugging her shoulders; “it’s a most stupid game!”
“Stupid! Well, I like that,” rejoined Margot; “if there’s anything it’s not, it’s that! It’s just the most ripping fun.”
“Well, perhaps at first. When I hit the ball the first day Miss Carter said ‘Bravo!’ and Helen said I’d be in the team some day, and now—why, they don’t even smile at me!”
“You juggins!” laughed Margot. “Why, you couldn’t see them if they did.”
“I could, because I look to see—always,” complained Sybil, “and everybody’s always looking at the ball; and once, yesterday, when I’d nearly got a goal, Helen said I oughtn’t to have hit the ball so hard, but that I ought to have passed it to someone else. They can just hit their old ball themselves; I’m tired of hockey!”
“That’s because you always want to be top,” said Margot sagely; “and you can’t in hockey; you have to play for your side. And look here, Sybil, I’ve talked to Gretta about the ‘Little House,’ and I’m not going; it’s not allowed, you know, and I’d somehow forgotten it was term-time. We’ll do something else instead; and I’m not sure that it would be exactly brave after all, as it’s against the rules, you see.”