Monitress Merle

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Monitress Merle

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Title: Monitress Merle
Author: Angela Brazil
Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7820] [This file was first posted on May 19, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO Latin-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, MONITRESS MERLE ***

Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

MONITRESS MERLE
BY
ANGELA BRAZIL
Author of "A Fortunate Term"
"The Princess of the School" &c.

Illustrated by Treyer Evans
DEDICATED TO THOSE READERS WHO ASKED ME TO WRITE THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF MAVIS AND MERLE
* * * * *
CONTENTS
I. A LAST BATHE
II. A SCHOOL BALLOT
III. THE NEW MONITRESS
IV. CHAGMOUTH FOLK
V. MISS MITCHELL, B.A.
VI. FISHERMAIDENS
VII. MUSICAL STARS
VIII. YULE-TIDE
IX. FACING THE FOOTLIGHTS
X. THE MUMPS
XI. BAMBERTON FERRY
XII. FIFTH FORM JUSTICE
XIII. "THE KITTIWAKE"
XIV. THE HAUNTED TREE
XV. LEAVE-TAKINGS
XVI. THE TADPOLE CLUB
XVII. THE FOURTH OF JULY
XVIII. LOVE-IN-A-MIST
* * * * *
Illustrations
"WHY DIDN'T 'EE FASTEN UP THE CHAIN?"
"WE'RE JUST READY! YOU CAN COME IN IF YOU LIKE!"
MR. CASTLETON DID NOT LOOK AT ALL PLEASED
SHE HAD BROUGHT HER WONDERFUL STRADIVARIUS VIOLIN
HE KEPT THEM DAWDLING
THE FOURTH OF JULY PARADE
* * * * *
CHAPTER I
A Last Bathe
The warm, mellow September sunshine was streaming over the irregular roofs and twisted chimneys of the little town of Chagmouth, and was glinting on the water in the harbour, and sending gleaming, straggling, silver lines over the deep reflections of the shipping moored by the side of the jetty. The rising tide, lapping slowly and gently in from the ocean, was floating the boats beached on the shingle, and was gradually driving back the crowd of barefooted children who had ventured out in search of mussels, and was sending them, shrieking with mirth, scampering up the seaweed-covered steps that led to the fish market. On the crag-top above the town the corn had been cut, and harvesters were busy laying the sheaves together in stooks. The yellow fields shone in the afternoon light as if the hill were crowned with gold.
Walking along the narrow cobbled path that led past the harbour and up on to the cliff. Mavis and Merle looked at the scene around with that sense of rejoicing proprietorship with which we are wont to revisit the pet place of our adoption. It was two whole months since they had been in Chagmouth, and as they both considered the little town to be the absolute hub of the universe it was really a great event to find themselves once more in its familiar streets. They had spent the summer holidays with their father and mother in the north, and had come back to Durracombe just in time for the reopening of school. On this first Saturday after their return to Devonshire they had motored with Uncle David to his branch surgery at Chagmouth, and were looking forward to several hours of amusement while he visited his patients at the sanatorium.
Readers who have followed the adventures of Mavis and Merle Ramsay in A Fortunate Term will remember that the sisters, on account of Mavis's health, had come to live with their great-uncle Dr. Tremayne at Durracombe, where they attended school daily at 'The Moorings.' Dr. Ramsay, their father, had decided shortly to leave his practice at Whinburn and go into partnership with Dr. Tremayne, but the removal to Devonshire could not take place till nearly Christmas, so the girls were to spend another term in sole charge of Uncle David, Aunt Nellie, and Jessop the elderly housekeeper, an arrangement which, though they were sorry to be parted from their parents, pleased them uncommonly well. It was a favourite excursion of theirs to accompany their uncle on Saturdays when he motored to visit patients at Chagmouth. On these occasions they would have lunch and tea with him at Grimbal's Farm, where he had his surgery, and would spend the intervening time on the seashore or wandering along the cliffs. To-day, tempted by the brilliant sunshine, they had brought their bathing costumes, towels, and tea-basket, and meant to secure the last dip of the holidays in case the weather should