13 Poor Ellen!
“Really!” said Daphne, as Ellen walked out of the room and banged the door. “What awful manners that girl’s got! What’s the matter with her?”
Nobody knew. Nobody guessed that Ellen was getting more and more worried about her work. She knew that the end of term tests were coming along, and she wanted to come out well in them. She must! So she was working hard every minute, and she had begun to feel at last that she would be able to face the tests and do well.
But that evening she did not feel very well. Her throat hurt her. Her eyes hurt her, especially when she moved them about. She coughed.
Surely she wasn’t going to be ill! That would put her terribly behind in her work. It would never do. So Ellen dosed herself with cough lozenges, and gargled secretly in the bathroom, hoping that Matron would not notice anything wrong.
Her eyes were too bright that evening. Her usually pale cheeks were red. She coughed in prep. Miss Potts, who was taking prep, looked at her.
“Do you feel all right, Ellen?” she asked.
“Oh, quite all right, Miss Potts,” said Ellen, untruthfully, and bent¹ her head over her book. She coughed again.
“I don’t like that cough,” said Miss Potts. “I think perhaps you had better go to . . .”
“Oh, Miss Potts, it’s only a tickle² in my throat,” said Ellen, desperately³. “Perhaps I’d better get a drink of water.”
“Well, go then,” said Miss Potts, still not quite satisfied. So Ellen went. She leaned her hot head against the cool wall of the cloakroom and wished miserably⁴ that she had someone she could confide⁵ in. But her snappiness and irritability⁶ had put everyone against her—even Jean. Jean had tried to be nice—and Ellen hadn’t even bothered to go and get the games subscription⁷ for her.
“I don’t know what’s come over me lately,” thought the girl. “I used not to be like this, surely. I had plenty of friends at my other school. I wish I’d never left there. I wish I’d never won a scholarship!”

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