5 In Miss Oakes’s Class
Darrell went out of the room, feeling so proud and pleased that she could have sung out loud. She was one of the successes! She had always longed to be—but she had made mistakes, been unkind sometimes, lost her temper more times than she liked to remember—and had ruefully come to the conclusion that although she wasn’t a failure, she wasn’t a howling success either.
But Miss Grayling seemed to think she was, so she must be. Darrell held her head high, and went swinging along to the sixth-form classroom. She opened the door and went in quietly.
“I’m sorry I’m late, Miss Oakes,” she said. “I took the new girls to Miss Grayling.”
“Yes, Mary-Lou told me,” said Miss Oakes. “We were just talking about the work this term, Darrell. Those of you who are taking Higher Certificates are to work in one group, taking only a few odd lessons with the rest of the form. You have been working hard for the last two terms, so you should not find this term unduly² hard—but you will have to keep at it!” Darrell nodded. She badly wanted to pass the Higher well. She felt sure Sally would. As for Alicia and Betty, their quick brains and excellent memories would make success certain. She glanced round at the other girls from the other Towers, who would also be taking Higher. Yes—they would probably all pass. They were a keen, hard-working lot.
“I’m glad I’m not taking Higher,” said Gwen. “Anyway, I suppose I could always take it at my school in Switzerland, couldn’t I, Miss Oakes?”
Miss Oakes was not interested in Gwen’s future school, any more than she was interested in Gwen.
“You are not up to Higher standard, whatever school you happen to be in,” she said coldly. “I can only hope that you will work a little better this term than you have worked for the last two terms, Gwendoline. Would it be too difficult to leave me with a little better impression of your capabilities³ than I have at present?”
Gwen squirmed. She looked round at Maureen for sympathy. She got none, for Maureen always delighted in seeing Gwen made uncomfortable. The others looked studiously into the distance, determined⁴ not to catch Gwen’s eye or give her any chance of speaking about her future school. They felt certain they were going to get very very tired of hearing about it.
“Amanda, I understand that you were going to work for Higher, if your old school had not been destroyed,” said Miss Oakes, turning to the hefty, solid new girl. “Do you wish to do so here? I hear that it has been left to you to decide, as you can take it next year if you want to?”

分享到：