Monitress Merle

Monitress Merle

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Monitress Merle, by Angela Brazil
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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