Netta dragged the book from Gwen"s reluctant hands, and sitting on a neighbouring desk, began hastily to skim through the essay, giving grunts of approval as she read.
"First rate! I say, this is immense! Gwen, my hearty, I didn"t think you"d got it in you!"
"Will it do?" demanded Gwen anxiously. She had sat on metaphorical pins to hear Netta"s verdict.
"Do? I should rather think it would! If Lemonade doesn"t mark it A1, First Prize, I shall say she doesn"t know her business, that"s all!
You"re pretty safe for that book of Browning, in my opinion."
"Wish it were cash instead! But I shan"t get it in any case," sighed Gwen. "If I did, I"d trade it for anything I could."
"You mercenary wretch!"
"I"m so hard up. I"m no nearer paying what I owe you, Netta. I literally haven"t a penny in my pocket I wish you"d take it in kind instead of money."
Netta sat silent, drumming with her fingers on the desk.
"I"ve a rather decent locket, if you"d care for that--" continued Gwen.
"Hush! Be quiet! You"ve given me an idea, Gwen Gascoyne."
"Or I"ve a really jolly writing case--almost new--"
"I don"t want your lockets or your writing cases; I"ve heaps of my own. I know one thing I do want, though, and if you like to trade, you can."
"Done! Only name it, and it"s yours with my blessing."
"Well, I want this essay--"
"My essay! What do you mean?"
Gwen s.n.a.t.c.hed back her exercise book as a mother clutches her first-born.
"I mean what I say. If you like to hand over "Thomas Carlyle" to me, I"ll take it instead of the sov., and call us quits. It would be a new experience to win a prize. How amazed everyone would be!"
"You surely wouldn"t pa.s.s it off as your own?"
"Why not?"
"Why, Netta! That would be rather strong, even for you!"
"I told you long ago I was no saint. Besides, what"s the harm? It"s a business arrangement. You offered to pay me in kind, and this happens to be the "pound of flesh", I fancy. It"s perfectly fair."
"Um! Don"t quite see the fairness myself."
"But it is!" protested Netta rather huffily. "I believe lots of popular authors don"t do all their own writing themselves. They engage secretaries to help them. I"ve even heard of clergymen buying their sermons."
"Oh, oh! Father doesn"t!" Gwen"s tone was warm.
"Well, I didn"t say he did, but I believe it"s done all the same. And if a vicar can read somebody else"s sermon in the pulpit as if it were his own, I may hand in somebody else"s essay. _Quod est demonstrandum_, my child."
"Can"t see it!" grunted Gwen.
"Look here, Gwen Gascoyne, you"ve got to see it! I"ve been uncommonly patient with you, but I don"t quite appreciate the joke of being done out of that sov. I must either have it or its equivalent. You can please yourself which."
Netta"s eyes were flashing, and her mouth was twitching ominously. She was a jolly enough fair-weather comrade, but she could be uncommonly nasty if things went wrong.
"I suppose you don"t consider it unfair to keep me waiting all this time?" she added scathingly.
Gwen kicked the desk and groaned.
"Well, it just amounts to this: if you don"t choose to come to terms, I"ll tell Lemonade. Yes, I will! I don"t care a sc.r.a.p if I went into her room as well as you. You broke the china, and you"d get into the worst row. It wouldn"t be pleasant for you. I think you"d better hand over Mr. Thomas Carlyle to me, my dear."
"And what am I to do, I should like to know?"
"Write another on a different author."
"There isn"t time."
"Yes there is, heaps! I don"t want it to be as good as this, naturally. Well, are you going to trade, or are you not? I can"t wait here all day!"
For answer, Gwen held out the exercise book. She was in a desperately tight corner; everything seemed to have conspired against her. She knew Netta and her mad, reckless moods quite well enough to appreciate the fact that her threat to tell Miss Roscoe was no idle one. When her temper was roused, Netta was capable of anything.
"It"s her fault more than mine if it"s not fair. I really can"t help it," thought Gwen, trying to find excuses for herself.
"Oh! Glad you"ve come to your senses at last!" sneered Netta, as she clutched the precious ma.n.u.script and stalked away, slamming the door behind her. There was no one else in the room, so Gwen laid her head down on the desk, and indulged in an altogether early Victorian exhibition of feeling. Her essay--her cherished essay, over which she had taken such superhuman pains, to be torn away from her like this!
It was to have brought her such credit from Miss Roscoe, for even if it did not win the prize, it would surely be highly commended. And she had made herself a party to a fraud, for however much she might try to whitewash her act, she knew she had no right to allow Netta to use her work.
"Dad would despise me! Oh, what an abominable mix and muddle it all is! And I was going to start the New Year so straight!" wailed Gwen.
Netta in the meantime had put the essay away in her locker with the utmost satisfaction. She felt she had decidedly scored. Neither brilliant nor a hard worker, she had no opportunity of distinguishing herself in the Form under ordinary circ.u.mstances: here chance had flung into her hand the very thing she wanted. It would not take long to copy the sixteen pages of rather sprawling writing, then "Thomas Carlyle" would be her own.
"And a surprise for everyone!" she chuckled complacently. "Of course, it"s rather dear--a whole pound! But--yes, most undoubtedly it"s worth it!"
To Gwen, not the lightest part of the business was that she was faced with the horrible necessity of writing another essay. Only two days remained, so time pressed. It was impossible to look up any subject adequately, so she chose d.i.c.kens, as being an author whose books she knew fairly well, and by dint of much brain racking and real hard labour contrived to give some slight sketch of his life and an appreciation of his genius. She was painfully conscious, however, that the result was poor, the style slipshod, and the general composition lacking both in unity and finish. She pulled a long face as she signed her name to it.
"That isn"t going to do much for you, Gwen Gascoyne," she said to herself. "It won"t even get "commended". Bah! I"m sick of the whole thing!"
She felt more sick still on the day when Miss Roscoe returned the essays.
"I had hoped the average standard would be higher," commented the Princ.i.p.al. "Very few girls have treated the subject in any really critical spirit. There is only one paper worthy of notice--that on Thomas Carlyle by Netta Goodwin, and it is so excellent that it stands head and shoulders above all the others. I am very pleased, Netta, very pleased indeed, that you should have done so well. Your essay is carefully thought out and nicely expressed, and is evidently the result of much painstaking work. You thoroughly deserve the prize which I offered, and I have written your name in the book."
The Fifth Form gasped as Netta, with a smile of infinite triumph, marched jauntily up the room to receive her copy of Browning"s Poems.
Each girl looked at her neighbour in almost incredulous astonishment.
Netta Goodwin, of all people in the world, to have won such praise!
Gwen drew her breath hard, and clenched her fists till her nails hurt her palms. At that moment, I am afraid, she hated Netta.
"Who was your author, Gwen? I chose Thackeray," said Louise Mawson afterwards.