04 The Head Girl of the Chalet School Read Online Free

woman,” retorted the infuriated lady, “I should not have needed to get up and shut that window, and then the accident, as you call it, would most certainly not have occurred!
    I insist on having that window shut!”
    The light of battle came into Miss Maynard’s eyes, and it is to be feared that she forgot her position as a mistress as she replied, “Pardon me, but that window shall not remain shut tightly. It is exceedingly bad for anyone to sleep with closed windows; and in a small place as this compartment is, I will not permit the children to sleep without fresh air coming in.” She got up, made her way to the window, and opened it again to its former width. Then she went carefully back to her seat and sat down.
    At once “the Stuffer,” as naughty Jo christened her, bounced up and pulled the window up again. “I shall complain to the company!” she thundered.

    The noise woke the Robin, who began to cry, partly from fright, partly because her head was aching from the unaccustomed close atmosphere in which she had been sleeping, and a big hairy professor from next door came to request that they would hush the child and cease their conversations and Kaffeeklatschen , as he and his comrades wished to sleep.
    In a few words Jo explained the situation – Miss Maynard was too busy hushing the wailing Robin. The professor heard her to the end; then he made his way into their compartment, banged down the window to its fullest extent, with various objurgations about “women fools” who lived in an oven-like atmosphere, and retired to his own place, leaving the two ladies gasping and breathless, Miss Maynard on the verge of wild laughter, and Jo – Grizel slept through all this! – staring with round black eyes.
    “Joey, do you know who that was?” asked Miss Maynard, when finally she had recovered her self-control.
    “Not an earthly,” replied Jo. “He hasn’t much opinion of women, has he?”
    “He was like Fazere Christmas,” observed the Robin, now calmed and happy.
    “It was Professor Christian von der Witt of Wien,” said Miss Maynard. “He is a fresh-air fiend – sleeps in his garden all the year round, I believe. Now, Robin, I am going to tuck you in again, and you must go off to sleep like a good Madchen .”
    “Yes,” responded the Robin drowsily; “it is so nice – now – the air – is – com-ing-”
    She dropped off with the last word, and Miss Maynard left her after a final tucking in of the big rug that was wrapped round her. She went back to her own seat after making sure that the soundly sleeping Grizel was warm enough, and settled Joey. Then she turned to the other two. “I regret that I must ask you to leave this other window alone,” she said. “If you will roll your rugs round you as the girls and I do, I am sure you will find that you are quite warm enough.”
    “Maria,” who seemed to be a peaceable enough soul if left to herself, promptly got up, and proceeded to make a woolly cocoon of herself with two rugs. “The Stuffer” snorted, and pulled up her rugs to her chin.
    Then silence settled down over them all, and Miss Maynard presently fell asleep.
    She was awakened two hours later by the most extraordinary grunting. She opened her eyes and found that
    “the Stuffer” was struggling with the window once more. Her efforts were vain, for when Professor von der Witt had banged that window down, he had done it with such force that it required more than the strength of an elderly lady to loosen it and pull it up again. The young mistress had realised this, which was why she had left it alone. Otherwise, she would have preferred it not to be quite so far open.
    Her movement as she sat up made “the Stuffer” realise that she was caught, and she turned round, saying with what dignity she could, “I am trying to close this window a little. It is very cold indeed, and I am sure the little girl – she cast a glance at the Robin’s lovely little face, flushed with sleep-