22 Things Get Straightened Out
Mam’zelle soon recovered from her fit of “snizzes”, and returned to her teaching the next day. At first she had felt very angry when Miss Potts had explained to her that it was all because of some trick the girls had played.
But gradually her sense of humour came back to her and she found herself chuckling¹ when she thought of Miss Potts and Matron also being caught by the trick and sneezing violently too.
“But I, I snizzed the greatest snizzes,” said Mam’zelle to herself. “Aha—here is Mam’zelle Rougier. I will tell her of this trick.”
She told the prim², rather sour-faced Mam’zelle Rougier who did not approve of tricks in any shape or form. She was horrified³.
“These English girls! Have you told Miss Grayling? They should all be punished, every one.”
“Oh no—I haven’t reported them to the Head,” said Mam’zelle Dupont. “I only do that for serious matters.”
“And you do not call this a serious matter!” cried Mam’zelle Rougier. “You will overlook it, and not have the girls punished at all! That Alicia—and the mad Irene and the bad Belinda—it would do them good to have a hard punishment.”
“Oh, they are all being punished,” said Mam’zelle, hastily. “They are to give up their half-holiday, and work instead.”
“That is no real punishment!” said Mam’zelle Rougier. “You are poor at discipline, Mam’zelle Dupont. I have always said so.”
“Indeed, I am not!” cried Mam’zelle Dupont, annoyed. “Have you no sense of humour? Do you not see the funny side?”
“No, I do not,” said Mam’zelle Rougier, firmly. “What is this ‘funny side’ that the English speak of so much? It is not funny. You too know that it is not, Mam’zelle.”
The more that Mam’zelle Rougier talked like this the more certain Mam’zelle Dupont was that the joke had been funny. In the end she quite persuaded herself that she had really entered into it and laughed with the girls.
She almost felt that she would like to remove the punishment Miss Potts had imposed. But Miss Potts would not hear of it. “Certainly not! Don’t be weak, Mam’zelle. We can’t possibly let things like that pass.”
“Perhaps not,” said Mam’zelle, a sudden idea coming into her head. “The bad girls! They shall come to me for the whole of Thursday afternoon, Miss Potts, and I will make them WORK.”

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