The Dragonfly Pool

Rich Cousins

For two nights Tally cried herself to sleep. Then she pulled herself together. What was done was done abd she would have to make the best if it. It was her father who had taught her that knowledge is power that if one could find out about something one is afraid of, it made the fear less. So now, when she wanted to know what to expect when she went away to boading school, she decided to consult her cousin Margaret.
James Hamilton had a brother called Thomas, who was also a doctor but a very different kind of doctor. He only saw patients in special elegant rooms in Harley Street and he charged them about ten times as much as James charged his patients, so that his family was as rich as his brothers family was poor. The house he lived in was in one of the smartest streets in the West End, with gleaming brass plate on the door giving a list of all his degrees and qualifications and his two children, Margret and Roderick, went to the most expensive boarding schools in the country.
Margaret and Roderick were obiedent , tidy children. Their manners were good but inside they were chilly creatures, thinking of themselves the while time and they looked down on Tally, who lived in a shabby Street and wore old clothes and played with the children of greengrocer's and butcher's.
But when they heard that Tally was going to go to boarding school and wanted some advice they were ready to be helpful, and their mother, Aunt Virginia, asked Tally to tea.
So now Tally rang the bell and followed a maid in uniform up the thickly carpeted stairs to Margrets room, which looked like a room in a furniture catalogue, with looped curtains and a kidney shaped dressing table and fluffy white rugs.
'I was wondering about oh you know... well, everything really 'said Tally. 'I mean, it is true you have prefect and feasts in the dorm and pashes on the head girl and all that? And...do you like being away? Asked Tally, longing to be ressured. 'Do you like your school?' 'Oh yes,' said Margaret, 'i like it very much. I couldn't bear to stay at home' And Tally sighed, thinking how very much she could have borne just that. 'It's strict of course, but all boarding schools are strict, and St Barbaras has everthing. We have four titled girls there and a millionaires daughter and the head girl is related to one of the queens ladies in waiting. She's absolutely super; we all want to do things for her. And we have such fun. Last term we had a midnight feast in the dorm and one of the girls stepped on a tin of sardines, and she shieked like mad the tin was open and that brought Matron rushing in. Only they couldn't do much to us because the girl who was the ringleader had a terribly rich father who'd just given the school a new sports hall. And we're always making apple pie for people we don't like and puting spiders in Matrons slippers.'
'Yes, I see.' Tally was trying to not think about the poor spiders, squashed to death by unexpected feet. But Margaret was in full cry now, explaining the rules.
' You have to curtsy when you meet the headmistress and call her Ma'am and always walk on the left side of the corridor,but you soon get the hang of it. And of course you have to have exactly the right clothes. We've just finished buying my uniform for next term and you wouldn't believe how expensive it was. Mummy nearly died when she go the bill from Harrods!'
She went to her wardrobe and took out, one by one, the clothes she would need for St Barbaras and laid them on her bed. There were two bottle green glymslips with pleated skirts and a matching sash, a straw hat for later in the term and a blazer edged in braid. The blazer, like the tie and the hat ribbon, was striped in the St Barbaras colours of green bottle and blue, and the motto on the pocket said: 'BE THE BEST.
'The best at what? Asked Tally. 'Oh everything,' said Margaret surely. She picked up one of the glymslups and held it infront of her. 'There's always a big fuss about the length of the skirt. Matron makes us kneel down and if the hem is more than four inches off the ground we get detention.'
Tally tried not to panic. The whole bed was covered in clothes; there was a smell of starch and newness.
But Margaret had not finished. She went back to the wardrobe and brought out a big carrier bag of brand new shoes.
' The lace up are for out of doors, and indoors we have strap shoes and on Sundays we wear these pumps. Then there are plimsolls and dancing shoes... I have skating boots...'
After the shoes came Margaret underclothes: woollen socks and garters and a liberty bodice that buttoned into Margaret green bottle green knickers. The knickers had pockets and elastic round the knees.
'Mummy thought I could wear the same knickers as I had last term, but I told her I couldn't. They have to be new because people can see you take your handkerchief out of your knickers pocket. And here are the things we have for games.
From another cupboard Margaret produced a pair of nailed hockey boots, a brand you hockey stick, a woollen bathing costume with the St Barbaras crest on the chest and the school scarf was stripped in the school colours of bottle green and blue.
It was not a joyful colour scheme.
Like a bruise, thought Tally, but a very expensive one. 'And we have to regulation nightclothes too: some schools are sloppy they let you wear what you like at night but not at St Barbaras.  Even the slippers are regulation and on Sundays we wear special dressez: green velvet with lace collars; I can't show you everthing because the maid is still sewing on name tapes. But here's my satchel we have to have proper leather ones with our names stamped on, and hymn bokks, of course, and a tuck box.'
But even Margaret, who seldom noticed other people, saw that Tally was beginning to looks worried and now she said, 'The school will send you a list of things you need and your aunts will help you buy them. Only you must have absolutely the right things a girl came last term without her Sunday shoes and she got in awful trouble. Being different is the thing you mustn't do'.
At this point Roderick came into the room. He was nearly two years older than Margaret a fair, good looking boy who seldom spoke to girls if he could help it. Roderick school was so famous and so grand that he didn't really need to show off about it, but since Tally wasnt usually easyto impress he mentioned that the Prince of Transjordania was in the class above him and that this term they were expecting a boy who was related  to the family of the Ex Emperor of Prussia.
' But we dont treat them any differently from the other boys at Foxingham,' He said carelessly.
The rules at Foxingham were of course even stricter than those at St Barbaras there were gagging and canning and it was a famous rugby school, which had beaten Eton at the game.
'Have you bought your uniform too?' Asked Tally.
Of course ,' said Roderick
For a moment he hesitated. Then he went to his room and came back with a brand new blazer, his tie and his cap.
All Of these were stoped fiercelyin red and yellow. Walking out together the boys, though Tally, must have looked like a swarm of angry wasps or ferocious postmen.
The motto on Rodericks blazer was: OUT OF MY Way.
I'll lend you some books if you like,' said Margaret. 'School stories. I want them back of course, but I've read them a million times. They'll give you an idea of what to expect.'
She went to her bookcase and took out Angela of the Upper Fouth and The Madcap of the Remove and gave them to Tally, who thanked her warmly.
Aunt Virginia came in then told them to come down to the dining room because tea was ready.
' You needn't bother to do that ,' said Margaret as Tally began to gather the clothes on the bed  ' The maid will do it.'
But after tea, just as Tally was getting ready to go home and was alone with her cousins, Margaret said: 'By the way, what's the name if your School? The one you're going to.'
' It's called Delderton.
Margaret and Roderick looked at each other. ' Delderton? Are you sure?
'Yes why?'
There was a pause. Then: 'Oh, nothing,' said Roderick, shrugging his shoulders. 'Nothing at all.'
But as the maid opened the front door to let her out, Tally heard them titr
ter. The twitter turned into a full scale laughter but the door was shutting, and Tally was out in the street.