The Mam'zelles of Malory Towers

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: THE DREADED SKETCHBOOK

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Mam'zelle Rougier slept long and peacefully after Miss Potts's party. Not only had she succeeded in stealing a truckload of jewellery and trinkets, she had also conveniently placed all the blame on that oily, pesky Mr. Young! Her face was frozen in an evil grin as she slept, and she woke up the next morning in a jolly mood.

Her first lesson was with the first-formers. She was substituting for Mam'zelle Dupont, because that gluttonous woman had a stomach ache after stuffing her mouth with jammy buns at last night's bash. Usually, the prospect of a lesson with the first-formers would have ruined Rougier's morning, for the unsightly faces of Darrell and Alicia Johns made Rougier feel like strangling a cat. But this morning, she glided into the classroom cheerfully and set her books on the desk.

"Bonjour, mes petites!" she beamed.

Daphne and Gwen stared hard at their leader. 

"Golly," Daphne thought to herself. "Did Rougier finally succeed in murdering Miss Peter's beloved horse? Why else could she be grinning like a satisfied jaguar?"

As for the rest of the girls, they did not have the ability to be astonished by Rougier's uncharacteristic cheerfulness because they were too horrified! Belinda had drawn some biting sketches of the two Mam'zelles in her clever way, and the girls had laid the sketchbook on the desk for Mam'zelle Dupont to see and laugh at. But they had no idea that Mam'zelle Rougier was to be substituting the lesson, and were sure that the dour, pointy woman would not be amused by the girls' little amusement.

Irene let out one of her explosive laughs, then tried to disguise it as a sneeze. Rougier eyed the girl in distaste- she had no tolerance for illnesses of any sort, and she was sure she had heard a laugh! 

"IRENE!" she barked. "I will not have you sneezing like an éléphant in my lessons. Go to Matron at once!"

Irene fled the room, glad to be out of the warzone. The other girls eyed her enviously, and Darrell even contemplated peeing in her pants on purpose.

Rougier's suspicions, however, had been aroused. "The girls must be scared of something for Irene to behave so ridiculously" she pondered. Who would willingly go to Matron?

 And then she saw the sketchbook on the desk. She picked it up and opened it, as the girls watched with bated breath.

The pages were filled with images of Rougier as the villain and Dupont as the hero. In one, Rougier held a large knife and waited behind a wall for Dupont to turn the corner. In another, Rougier was poisoning Dupont's food. In another - and this one was too much! - Rougier was stealing from Dupont's safe, and stuffing the money in her dress.

Rougier's face turned whiter and whiter as she saw more of these images. How could the girls have discovered her true identity! And she thought they were such dim-wits! Did Daphne and Gwen leak it to them? She glanced at her two cronies, but they looked as shocked to see the sketchbook as she was. Who was it, then? Who betrayed her?

With one last icy glare at the cowering first-formers, Rougier left the room. She needed to go to her study to think about this. 

Meanwhile, the first-formers were hotly debating what they could do to avoid immediately expulsion. Daphne and Gwen were thinking of more serious consequences. "She's probably going to feed us to Esme," whispered Gwen faintly. "She's going to think we snitched on her."

And then Mam'zelle Dupont entered the room. She had come to check on Rougier's lesson, and instead she found the entire class in disarray with no teacher in site!

"What is happening!" exclaimed Mam'zelle Dupont. She eyed the open sketchbook on the desk and flipped through it. First, she seemed appalled and horrified. But then, some pig-like sounds started to erupt from her nose.

"Mam'zelle Dupont is having a nose failure!" shrieked Jean, who was very good at handling money but quite hopeless in the common sense department.

Then Dupont's exploding laughter rang through the room. "Girls - these are simply too funny!" she cried. "Did my dear Agathe get angry at these and leave? Why, I shall explain the funny side of this to her and Miss Grayling, don't you worry girls!"

The girls breathed a sigh of relief. "Mam'zelle Dupont is a real peach," murmured Darrell fervently. 

One hour later, Dupont and Rougier were sitting in Miss Grayling's office, explaining the matter to the headmistress. 

"These English girls - they play the treeks all the time," said Dupont. "One must be forgiving."

Miss Grayling nodded her head, her lips twitching. Belinda's depiction of the thin, menacing Rougier was too accurate for words! "Yes, I have to admit that while these sketches are quite childish, they are also highly amusing," she said. "I shall give the girls a warning and then let them go - unless you are very offended, Agathe?"

Rougier forced some laughter. "Haha! These are very funny!" she roared fakely, pointing at the images. "I am not offended because these scenarios are simply too ridiculous to be true! Haha!"

She abruptly stopped, hoping her fake laughter was convincing enough for Miss Grayling.

Miss Grayling nodded. "Well, that's that, ladies. Now Amelie, please leave. Agathe and I need to have a serious conversation about Mr. Young and this whole thieving matter..."

WANT TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS TO POOR MR. YOUNG? READ ON!