"Blyton, Enid - St Clare's 01 - The Twins At St Clare's" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blyton Enid)

"Janet, do be quiet," said Hilary. "It's not fair to say things like that to new girls. Let them settle in. Comeon, Patricia -- come on, Isabel -- I'll show you the way to the Head's room. You'll have to go and say how-do-you-do to her before supper."
Pat and Isabel were almost boiling over with rage at what dark-haired Janet had said. Hilary pushed the
twins out of the room. "Don't take too much notice of Janet," she said. "She always says exactly what she thinks, which is very nice when she thinks complimentary things about people, but not so good when she doesn't. You'll get used to her."
"I hope we shan't," said Pat stiffly. "I like good manners, something that was taught at our school anyway, even if it's not known here!"
"Oh, don't be stuffy," said Hilary. "Look, that's the Head's room. Knock on the door first -- and try some of your good manners on Miss Theobald!"
The twins knocked on the door. A pleasant, rather deep voice called "Come in!" Pat opened the door and the twins went in.
The Head Mistress was sitting at her desk, writing. She looked up and smiled at the girls.
"I needn't ask who you are," she said. "You are so alike that you must be the O'Sullivan twins!"
"Yes," said the girls, looking at their new Head Mistress. She was grey-haired, with a dignified, serious face that broke into a lovely smile at times. She shook hands with each twin.
"I am very glad to welcome you to St. dare's," she said. "I hope that one day we shall be proud of you. Do your best for us and St. Clare's will be able to do its best for you!"
"We'll try," said Isabel, and then was quite surprised at herself to find that she had said that. She didn't mean to try at all! She looked at Pat. Pat said nothing but stared straight in front of her.
"I know your mother quite well," said Miss Theobald.
"I was glad when she decided to send you here. You must tell her that when you write to her, and give her my kind regards."
"Yes, Miss Theobald," said Pat. The Head Mistress nodded at them with a smile, and turned to her desk again.
"What funny children!" she thought to herself. "Anyone might think they hated to be here! Perhaps they are just shy or homesick."
But they were neither shy nor homesick. They were just two obstinate girls determined to make the worst of things because they hadn't been sent to the school of their choice!


A Bad Beginning

The twins soon found that St. dare's was quite different from their old school. Even the beds were not nearly so comfortable! And instead of being allowed to have their own pretty bedspreads and eiderdowns to match, every girl had to have the same.
"I hate being the same as everyone else!" said Pat. "Goodness - if only we were allowed to have what we liked, wouldn't we make everyone stare!"
"What I hate most is being one of the young ones," said Isabel, dismally. "I hate being spoken to as if I were about six, when the top form or fifth-form girls say anything to me. It's 'Here, you-get out of my way! Hi, you! Fetch me a book from the library!' It's just too bad."
The standard of work was higher at St. Clare's than at most schools, and although the twins had good brains, they found that they were rather behind their form in many ways, and this, too, annoyed them very much. They had so hoped that they would impress the others in so many ways -- and it seemed as if they were even less than nobodies!
They soon got to know the girls in their form. Hilary
Wentworth was one and the sharp-tongued Janet Robins. Then there was a quiet, straight-haired girl called Vera Johns and a rather haughty-looking girl called Sheila Naylor, whose manners were very arrogant. Thetwinsdidn'tlikeheratall.
"I don't know what she's got to be so haughty about!" said Pat to Isabel. "It's true she's got a lovely home because I've seen a photo of it on her dressing-table -- but my goodness, she sometimes talks like our parlourmaid at home. Then she seems to remember she mustn't talk like that and goes all haughty and silly."
Then there was Kathleen Gregory, a frightened looking girl of fifteen, who was the only one who really tried to make friends with the twins the first week. Most of the other girls left them alone, except for being polite, and telling them the ways of the school. They all thought that Pat and Isabel were-very "stuck-up".
"Kathleen is funny," said Isabel. "She seems so eager to make friends with us, and lend us books and shares her sweets. She's been at St. Clare's for a year, and she doesn't seem to have any friends at all. She keeps asking me to walk with her when we go out, and I keep saying I can't because I've got you."
"I feel rather sorry for her somehow," said Pat. "She reminds me of a lost dog trying to find a new master!"
Isabel laughed. "Yes, that's just it! I think of all the girls that I like Hilary the best in our form. She's so natural and jolly -- a real sport."
The twins were very much in awe of the older girls. who seemed very grown-up to them. The top form especially seemed almost as old and even more dignified than the mistresses! The head-girl, Winifred James, spoke a few words to the twins the first week. She was a tall, clever-looking girl with pale blue eyes and pretty
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soft hair. St. Clare's was proud of her, for she had passed many difficult exams. with flying colours.
"You are the new girls, aren't you?" she said. "Settle in and do your best. Come to me if you are in any difficulty. I'm the head-girl and I should like to help you if ever! can."
"Oh, thank you," said the twins, feeling quite overcome at being addressed by the head-girl. Winifred went off with her friends, and the twins stared after her.
"She's rather nice," said Isabel. "In fact, I think most of the top form girls are nice, though they're awfully serious and proper."
They liked their form-mistress, Miss Roberts, too, though she would stand no nonsense at all. Sometimes Pat would try to argue about something, and say, 'Well, that's what was taught at my old school !"
Then Miss Roberts would say, "Really? Well, do it that way if you like -- but you won't get very far up your form! Do remember that what suits one school won't work in another. Still, if you like to be obstinate, that's your own look out!"
Then Pat would stick out her lower lip, and Isabel would go red, and the rest of the form would smile to itself. Those "stuck-up" girls were having to learn a lesson!
The art-mistress, Miss Walker, was a merry soul, young and jolly, and very good at her work. She was pleased to find that both twins could draw and paint well. Pat and Isabel loved Miss Walker's classes. They were very go-as-you-please, much more like their old school. The girls were allowed to chatter and laugh as they worked, and it was often a very noisy class indeed.
Mam'zelle was not so easy-going. She was very strict, elderly, conscientious and fierce. She wore pince-nez glasses on her nose, and these were always slipping off when she was cross, which was fairly often. She had enormous feet, and a rather harsh voice that the twins hated at first. But Mam'zelle bad also a great sense of fun, and if anything tickled her she would go off into enormous roars of laughter that set the whole class laughing too.
Pat and Isabel came up against Mam'zelle very much at first, for although they could speak and understand French quite well, they had never bothered very much about French grammar and rules. And Mam'zelle bothered a great deal about those!
"You girls, Patricia and Isabel!" she cried. "It is not enough to speak my language! You write it abominably! See this essay -- it is abominable, abominable!"
"Abominable" was Mam'zelle's favourite adjective. She used it for everything - the weather, a broken pencil, the girls, and her own eye-glasses when they slipped off her big nose! Pat and Isabel called her "Mam'zelle Abominable" between themselves, and were secretly more than a little afraid of the loud-voiced, good-hearted big French-woman.
History was taken throughout the school by Miss Kennedy, and her classes were a riot. Poor Miss Kennedy was a frump, and could not manage any class of girls for more than five minutes. She was nervous and serious, always tremendously polite, listened to every question that was put to her no matter how silly, and explained every difficulty at great length. She never seemed to see that half the time the girls were pulling her leg.
"Before Miss Kennedy came we had her friend Miss Lewis," said Hilary to the twins. "She was marvellous. Then she fell ill in the middle of last term, and asked the Head to have her friend, Miss Kennedy, until she was well enough to come back. Old Kenny has got umpteen degrees, and is supposed to be even cleverer than the Head -- but my word, she's a goose!"
Bit by bit the twins sorted out the various girls andmistresses, grew to know the classes and the customs of the school, and settled in. But even when two weeks had gone by they had not got used to being "nobodies in-stead of somebodies" as Pat complained.