Malory Towers - 05 - In the Fifth at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton

Author:Enid Blyton
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Children's Fiction
Published: 1950-02-24T00:00:00+00:00

OUR BLESSED MARTYR, ST. CATHERINE.

Catherine fled away from the shrieks of delighted laughter. ‘She’s got what she wanted!’ said Darrell. ‘Catherine, come back! How do you like being a saint in a stained-glass window?’

13 A PLOT — AND A QUARREL

BEFORE that week had ended Darrell was ready with the whole pantomime, words and all. Most of the music had been written, because Irene almost snatched the words from Darrell as she finished them.

‘Quite a Gilbert and Sullivan,’ said Moira, rather sneeringly, speaking of the famous comic opera pair of the last century. She was feeling rather out of things. Until the pantomime was written, she could not produce it, so she had nothing to do at the moment. And Moira disliked having nothing to do. She liked running things, organizing things and people, dominating everyone, laying down the law.

She was not a popular head-girl. The fifth-formers resented her dictatorial manner. They disliked her lack of humour, and they took as little notice of her as they could.

Moira chafed under all this. ‘Do buck up with this pantomime, Darrell and Sally,’ she said. ‘I wish I’d undertaken to write it myself now, you’re so slow.’

‘You couldn’t write it,’ said Darrell. ‘You know you couldn’t. You hardly ever get good marks for composition.’

Moira flushed. ‘Don’t be cheeky,’ she said.

Catherine spoke up for her, using a sweet and gentle voice. ‘I’m sure Moira only let you and Sally do it to give you a chance,’ she said. ‘I’m sure she could have done it very well herself.’

‘There speaks our blessed martyr, Saint Catherine,’ put in Alicia, maliciously. ‘Dear Saint Catherine. She deserves the halo Belinda gave her, doesn’t she, girls?’

Catherine frowned. Belinda called out at once. ‘Hold it, Catherine, hold it! No, don’t smile in that sickly sweet manner, let me have that frown again!’

Catherine turned away. It was too bad that she should be laughed at when all the time she was trying to be kind and self-sacrificing and really good, poor Catherine thought to herself. She glanced at the wall. Blow! There was yet another picture of her up there, with a bigger halo than ever!

Catherine regularly sneaked into the common-room when it was empty, and took down the pictures that Belinda as regularly drew of her. But always there was a fresh one. It was absolutely maddening. This one showed her sharpening thousands of pencils, and if anyone looked carefully at the big halo they could see that it, too, was made of sharpened pencils set closely together.

‘It’s enough to make anyone furiously angry,’ thought Catherine. ‘I wonder I don’t lose my temper and break out, and call people names. Well — I try to like them all, but it’s very very difficult.’

The fifth form decided they must deal with Maureen as well as with Catherine. ‘Better show them both exactly where they stand before we begin rehearsing,’ said Alicia. ‘We can’t be bothered by interferers and whiners and saints when once we’re on the job. Now — how shall

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