marvelous trip, and anyway it’ll be marvelous to get away from here, but the time I’m just dreading is when we get back. You can’t think how much I’d love to be coming to university too.”
“ Would you? But I didn’t know,” Juliet said, a little taken aback. “You’ve never …”
“Oh, I hardly ever talk about it. It’s pretty futile saying anything when Mother simply won’t think of letting me. But I’ve always – always – wanted to study medicine.”
“Medicine?” Juliet sounded still more surprised. “You mean you’d like to be a doctor? But isn’t that rather unusual? For a girl , I mean.”
“No so very unusual,” Patricia assured her. “I’m told there are quite a few lady doctors around nowadays.
There was a simply marvelous one when I had my appendix out three years ago. She used to come and talk to me almost every day at the nursing home. I suppose it was meeting her that first gave me the idea. Or, as Mother would say,” (this in cutting tones), “Put this ridiculously silly notion into your head.’”
After a short pause, in which Juliet could sense the conflict underlying her friend’s outburst, Patricia continued more calmly, “I’ve passed Matric in all the right subjects too. If I really tried, I think I’d have a good chance of getting into medical school. But it’s all absolutely hopeless. There doesn’t seem the faintest chance that my mother will ever agree to letting me.”
(Juliet wondered for a moment why Patricia’s father apparently had no say in the matter; it was odd that she had never heard him mentioned.)
“It isn’t even a question of money, either,” Patricia went on with increasing bitterness. “Mother will be only too delighted to dish out far more on my doing a London season and going to boring dances and all that sort of rot. But she thinks I should get to know the ‘wrong sort of people’ at the university; and of course that would be a disaster. She even has all sorts of batty ideas about how standing around in hospitals would ruin the shape of my ankles, or some such drivel.”
There was a wealth of scorn in the words. Juliet felt her sympathy go out to Patricia and wished she could do something to help. For the moment she couldn’t even think of anything helpful say; but she resolved to write to her guardian about Patricia’s forthcoming visit to Briesau. Juliet had boundless faith in Madge Russell’s ability to help.
Walking back to the hotel, Juliet was very thoughtful, and Miss Denny noticed she was quiet at dinnertime.
Later in the evening Juliet confided something of the situation at Devonshire Close to Miss Denny, who was not at all surprised; Juliet was only confirming what Miss Bruce had already indicated.
“Probably it will be the best thing in the world for Patricia to get right away for a time,” Miss Denny said kindly. “We must just hope that this trip abroad is going to be helpful for her.”
CHAPTER 3
Term Begins
The September days slipped quickly past. A bevy of relations and envious school-friends waved good-bye as the Grange House party left Victoria Station for Paris. Juliet began to settle down in her new life. And the day arrived for the girls of the Chalet School to return from the many different countries where they had been scattered during the summer holidays.
The school was situated at Briesau on the shores of the Tiernsee, a beautiful Tyrolean lake set high among the mountains above the Inn Valley. Briesau is usually a very peaceful place, but there was little peace anywhere near the Chalet School buildings and grounds on this first day of the Christmas term.
By three o’clock in the afternoon most of the girls had arrived and everywhere there was bustle and chatter.
Snatches of conversation echoed up and down the stairs. Excited groups of friends were exchanging holiday news in the big main classroom. The dormitories were thronged with girls busy unpacking under the eagle eye of the new
“ Would you? But I didn’t know,” Juliet said, a little taken aback. “You’ve never …”
“Oh, I hardly ever talk about it. It’s pretty futile saying anything when Mother simply won’t think of letting me. But I’ve always – always – wanted to study medicine.”
“Medicine?” Juliet sounded still more surprised. “You mean you’d like to be a doctor? But isn’t that rather unusual? For a girl , I mean.”
“No so very unusual,” Patricia assured her. “I’m told there are quite a few lady doctors around nowadays.
There was a simply marvelous one when I had my appendix out three years ago. She used to come and talk to me almost every day at the nursing home. I suppose it was meeting her that first gave me the idea. Or, as Mother would say,” (this in cutting tones), “Put this ridiculously silly notion into your head.’”
After a short pause, in which Juliet could sense the conflict underlying her friend’s outburst, Patricia continued more calmly, “I’ve passed Matric in all the right subjects too. If I really tried, I think I’d have a good chance of getting into medical school. But it’s all absolutely hopeless. There doesn’t seem the faintest chance that my mother will ever agree to letting me.”
(Juliet wondered for a moment why Patricia’s father apparently had no say in the matter; it was odd that she had never heard him mentioned.)
“It isn’t even a question of money, either,” Patricia went on with increasing bitterness. “Mother will be only too delighted to dish out far more on my doing a London season and going to boring dances and all that sort of rot. But she thinks I should get to know the ‘wrong sort of people’ at the university; and of course that would be a disaster. She even has all sorts of batty ideas about how standing around in hospitals would ruin the shape of my ankles, or some such drivel.”
There was a wealth of scorn in the words. Juliet felt her sympathy go out to Patricia and wished she could do something to help. For the moment she couldn’t even think of anything helpful say; but she resolved to write to her guardian about Patricia’s forthcoming visit to Briesau. Juliet had boundless faith in Madge Russell’s ability to help.
Walking back to the hotel, Juliet was very thoughtful, and Miss Denny noticed she was quiet at dinnertime.
Later in the evening Juliet confided something of the situation at Devonshire Close to Miss Denny, who was not at all surprised; Juliet was only confirming what Miss Bruce had already indicated.
“Probably it will be the best thing in the world for Patricia to get right away for a time,” Miss Denny said kindly. “We must just hope that this trip abroad is going to be helpful for her.”
CHAPTER 3
Term Begins
The September days slipped quickly past. A bevy of relations and envious school-friends waved good-bye as the Grange House party left Victoria Station for Paris. Juliet began to settle down in her new life. And the day arrived for the girls of the Chalet School to return from the many different countries where they had been scattered during the summer holidays.
The school was situated at Briesau on the shores of the Tiernsee, a beautiful Tyrolean lake set high among the mountains above the Inn Valley. Briesau is usually a very peaceful place, but there was little peace anywhere near the Chalet School buildings and grounds on this first day of the Christmas term.
By three o’clock in the afternoon most of the girls had arrived and everywhere there was bustle and chatter.
Snatches of conversation echoed up and down the stairs. Excited groups of friends were exchanging holiday news in the big main classroom. The dormitories were thronged with girls busy unpacking under the eagle eye of the new
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