10 A Day Off!
Three or four weeks went by. The School Certificate girls worked very hard indeed, and some of them began to look rather pale. Miss Williams decided¹ it was time to slack off for a bit.
“Go for an all-day picnic,” she suggested. “Go to Langley Hill and enjoy yourselves.”
Langley Hill was a favourite spot for picnics. It was a lovely walk there, along the cliff, and from the top there was a magnificent view of the countryside and the sea.
“Oh thanks, Miss Williams! That would be super!” said Darrell.
“Smashing!” said Alicia, which was the favourite adjective of all the first-formers at the moment, often ridiculed² by the older girls.
“Langley Hill,” said Clarissa. “Why, that’s where my old nurse lives!”
“Write and ask her if we could go and have tea with her,” said Gwendoline, who didn’t like what she called “waspy picnics” at all. “It would be nice for her to see you.”
“You always think of such kind things, Gwendoline,” said Clarissa. “I certainly will write. She will get us a wizard tea, I know. She’s a marvellous cook.”
So she wrote to her old nurse, who lived at the foot of Langley Hill. (“Thank goodness we shan’t have to walk all the way up the hill with the others!” thought Gwendoline, thankfully. “I really am getting very clever!”)Old Mrs. Lucy wrote back at once. “We’re to go to her for tea,” said Clarissa. “She says she’ll have a real spread. What fun!”
“We’d better ask permission,” said Gwendoline, suddenly thinking that Darrell might prove obstinate³ if the idea was suddenly sprung on her on the day of the picnic. “Go and ask Miss Williams, Clarissa.”
“Oh no—you go,” said Clarissa, who was always scared of asking any mistress anything. But Gwendoline knew better than to ask a favour of Miss Williams. Miss Williams saw right through Gwendoline, and might say “No” just on principle, if Gwen went to ask her a favour! She didn’t trust Gwendoline any farther than she could see her.
So Clarissa had to go—and with many stammerings and stutterings she at last came out with what she wanted to ask—and handed over her old nurse’s invitation.
“Yes. You can go there for tea, so long as you take another girl with you,” said Miss Williams, thinking what an unattractive child Clarissa was, with her thick-lensed glasses and the wire round her teeth. She couldn’t help looking so plain, of course—but that dreadful hang-dog expression she always wore made it worse!

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