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Felicity.
    'Hallo, Darrell! Had a swim? What's the water like? Doesn't it look heavenly?'
    'Wizard,' said Susan, her friend, and tried il with her toe as soon as she had taken oil her shoes. 'Gosh, it's warming up already. Buck up, Felicity. The sooner we're in, the longer we'll have!'
    Darrell had a lew minutes to spare, and she stayed with Sally and Moira to watch the younger ones. Now that Darrell was so soon leaving, she leit an intense desire to make sure that there were others who would
    carry on worthily the gro.it traditions ol Malory Towers - and in particular she wanted to he sure that Felicity, hei Nister, would
    She watched Felicity with pride. She and Susan dived n >]uickl\, and with strong, graceiul strokes swam across :he great pool and hack.
    'That sistei ol yours is coming on,' said Moira to Darrell. 'She was good last year -- she's going to he even [letter this. 1 think il she improves her hack stroke, we night trv her in one of the teams.'
    'I hope so,' said Darrell, longing tor Felicity to shine. Susan's good too - hut not nearly so last. Hallo - who's 'his porpoise5'
    A fat and ungainly girl stood shivering on the brink ol die pool. She was yelled at by some ol the second- i ii mers already in the water.
    'Get in, ,!o! Come on. Fatty! I! you don't husk up, vou'll have exactly two minutes in the water, and that's all!'
    Even two minutes was too much for the fat and owardly Jo. Bumptious and brazen in everything else, be was a coward over cold water. She had begged her lather to get her excused irom swimming, and he had ung up Miss Grayling and informed her that he didn't wish his daughter Jo to go in lor swimming il she didn't ant to.
    Why not?' asked Miss Grayling, coldly. 'Has the doc lor lorbidden it for her ?'
    'No. But / have,' said the loud-voiced Mr Jones, bellowing down the telephone. 'That's good enough,
     
    · n't it?'
    I'm afraid not,' said Miss Grayling, in her firm, iceisivc voice. 'Girls sent to Malory Towers follow the oidinary routine ol the school, unless il is against ■ loc tor's orders. There is nothing wrong about swimming '01 fo - she is merely alraid of cold water, so the games rcss tells me. I think you will agree with me ihat
    is
     
     
    Josephine should conquer the cold water rather than that the cold water should defeat Josephine?'
    Mr Jones had been about to say that he had always detested cold water, and he didn't see why Jo shouldn't do what he had done, and not go near it; but he suddenly thought better of it. There was something in Miss Grayling's cool voice that warned him. He put down the telephone abruptly. Miss Grayling might find there was no room for Jo at Malory Towers, if he persisted!
    And so Jo, to her annoyance and surprise, had been told by her father that she'd got to put up with the swimming and get on with it. Every day she had to come down to the pool and shiver in dread on the brink, till she was inevitably pushed in or dragged in by a scornful second-former. Even the first-formers had been known to push Jo in!
    Today it was Felicity who crept up behind, gave Jo an enormous shove, and landed her in the pool with a colossal splash! Jo came up, gasping and spluttering, furiously angry. When she had got the water out of her mouth, she turned on the laughing Felicity.
    'You beast! That's the second time you've done that. Just you wait, I'll pay you out. You're as bad as your father!'
    'What's my father done?' asked Felicity, amused.
    'He was rude to mine,' said Jo. 'About pushing your car into the hedge. 1 heard him!'
    'Oh well - he pushed our car into the hedge - and now I've pushed you into the water!' cried Felicity. 'Tit for tat! We're quits! Look out - I'm coming to duck you!'
    She dived under the water to get Jo's legs. Jo screamed and kicked. Her legs slid away from her and she disappeared under the water again. She came up, furious. She struggled to the side and called to Sally.
    'Sally! Can't you stop Felicity playing the fool in the water? She's