Autumn Term by Antonia Forest

Author:Antonia Forest [Patricia Rubinstein]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, juvenile, school stories
Publisher: Distributed Proofreaders Canada
Published: 1948-02-15T05:00:00+00:00

III

It seemed a great waste, Nicola thought, not to go and see In Which We Serve, which was on at one of the cinemas which didn’t mind showing old films. But one couldn’t expect Giles really to enjoy seeing people hanging on to a raft and probably Lawrie’s thriller was a better idea. Giles, when asked, agreed that this was something he too wanted to see, and they set off after lunch, Giles assuring his mother all the way down the drive that if Lawrie looked over-excited he would bring her out immediately.

‘You wouldn’t, Giles, would you? Not in the middle,’ Lawrie besought him, when they were out of earshot.

‘It all depends on your face,’ said Giles solemnly. ‘If you can keep that from looking over-excited, of course I shan’t need to. Otherwise, I shall have to take you out and dump you all amongst the palms and red plush.’

‘Oh, Giles,’ said Lawrie, in tones of such dire apprehension that Nicola felt moved to assure her that he was only teasing. Giles laughed and asked if they still needed to hold someone’s hand when the hero entered a dark and silent house in order to get shot?

‘Definitely,’ said Lawrie and Nicola together.

‘Just so long as we know,’ said Giles with calm—a calm which did not desert him until the film was over and they were having tea—a mixed tea of lemonade and sandwiches, ice-cream and more ice-cream, and cakes and coffee with cream in it to finish off with.

‘I don’t see how you can help being sick tonight,’ he remarked gloomily, ‘and Mother will say it’s all my fault, which will be true.’

‘I don’t feel at all sick,’ said Lawrie affronted, digging her fork into her fourth éclair. ‘You know, I’d like to be a film star.’

‘You don’t say,’ said Giles. ‘The beautiful heroine, I suppose, who tags round after the hero and nearly dishes them both with her lunacy?’

‘No,’ said Lawrie scornfully. ‘Not that kind at all. I mean like the girl this afternoon who stood at the top of the stairs and shot him as he came up.’

‘Nice, gentle little soul, aren’t you?’ commented Giles.

‘I don’t mean that,’ said Lawrie, waving her fork agitatedly. ‘I don’t mean because she shot him. I mean because—’

‘Then you wouldn’t be a star, you’d only be featured,’ said Nicola helpfully.

‘Some features,’ added Giles candidly.

Lawrie opened her mouth, shut it despairingly, and speared another éclair.

Giles pushed the plate towards Nicola. ‘You’d better have another, too. Just to keep level. Now then. Do you still want to tell me the tale of woe?’

She told him briefly, without overmuch detail, Lawrie listening in silence.

‘But what I don’t see,’ said Giles at the end of it, ‘is why you were so anxious to shine so brightly.’

Nicola sighed. She always seemed to be explaining that. She said patiently: ‘Because the Marlows always are good at things. And the staff jolly well expected us to be. They were always saying things like: “A Marlow who can’t do History!

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