8 The Term Goes On
The affair of the invisible chalk was talked about for days afterwards. Some of the upper school got to hear about it, and secretly wished they too could have seen Mam’zelle’s “OY!” Those in the know grinned at Darrell when they met her, and whispered “OY!” into her ear!
It seemed as if everyone thought that the whole idea was Darrell’s, and Alicia and Betty were annoyed about it. Why should Darrell get all the credit, when all she had done was to make that word appear on Mam’zelle’s skirt, and risk getting the whole of the form into very serious trouble?
The two of them cold-shouldered Darrell, and Darrell retaliated¹ by ignoring them as much as she could. She knew that Alicia was still sore about not being head-girl, and was not being nice to Sally. Darrell was loyal, and she was not going to have that if she could help it!
Alicia’s tongue grew wild and sharp again. Darrell, knowing that Alicia was trying to make her lose her temper, grew red with suppressed rage, but said nothing. She mustn’t lose her temper, she mustn’t! If she did she would begin to shout, she might even throw something at Alicia—and then she would put herself in the wrong immediately. So she looked as if she was going to burst, but didn’t.
And it was very bad for her. Sally tried to calm her down, but that made Darrell worse.
“Don’t you see that it’s because you’re my friend that I get so wild with Alicia?” Darrell would say. “She could say all she liked about me, I wouldn’t care—but it’s hard to sit and listen to things about you, Sally. All because she’s jealous. She just says them because she knows I’ve got a temper and want to stick up for you.”
“Well, for goodness’ sake don’t go and fall into her trap,” said the sensible Sally. “That would be idiotic². She and Betty would have the laugh over you easily.”
So poor Darrell had to grit³ her teeth and say nothing when Alicia and Betty had one of their cross-talk conversations to bait her.
“Dear Sally!” Alicia would say. “Always so good—and yet so dull. The Perfect Head-Girl. Don’t you think so, Betty?”
“Oh, I do so agree with you,” Betty would say, with a smile that infuriated Darrell. “Think what a good example she is to us all—dear,

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