Read In the Fifth at Malory Towers for Free Online Page A

her silly little laugh. Everyone else wanted to laugh, too. How could anyone be so idiotic?
    “Were there many girls at your last school?” asked Sally, wondering how in the world any school could turn out somebody like Maureen.
    “Oh no — it was a very very select school,” said Maureen. “They picked and chose their girls very very carefully.”
    “You’ll have to tell Gwen all these things,” said Alicia, earnestly. “Won’t she, girls? Gwen will be so interested. And don’t you think it would be nice for dear Gwendoline to have someone like Maureen for a friend? I mean — I feel she’s made of, er — finer stuff than we are — and I’m sure Gwendoline Mary would appreciate that.”
    Maureen could hardly believe that all these wonderful remarks applied to her. She gazed round half-suspiciously, but the girls all looked at her with straight faces. Irene had to look away. She felt certain one of her terrific snorts was coming.
    “Gwen’s always lonely when she comes back,” went on Alicia. Ten’s the time to talk to her, Maureen. We’ll tell her about you, and you can make friends.”
    “Thank you very much,” said Maureen, basking in what she thought was universal appreciation of herself. “I really hardly think the girls at Mazeley Manor could be nicer than you!”
    Irene snorted loudly and somehow turned it into a cough and a sneeze.
    Maureen looked a little suspicious again, but at that moment Mam'zelle Dupont descended on them, smiling. She sat down on the grass, first looking for ants, earwigs and beetles. She was terrified of them. She beamed round amicably. The girls smiled back. They liked the plump, hot-tempered, humorous French mistress. She was not like Mam’zelle Rougier, bad-tempered all the time — if she got into a temper, she blew up, certainly — but it didn’t last long.
    “Ah — you are all basketing in the sun,” she said, much to the surprise of everyone.
    “Oh — you mean basking , don’t you, Mam’zelle?” said Darrell, with a squeal of laughter.
    “Yes, yes — this lovely sun!” said Mam’zelle, and she wriggled her plump shoulders in enjoyment. In a moment or two, however, she would feel afraid of getting a freckle and would retire into the shade!
    “And you, ma petite Maureen — you are settling down here nicely, are you not?” asked Mam’zelle, kindly, seeing Maureen next to her. “Of course, you will be missing your old school — what name is it, now — ah, yes — your Measley Manor, is it not?”
    A shout of laughter deafened her.
    “Oh, Mam’zelle — you’re priceless!” almost wept Belinda. “You always hit the nail on the head!”
    “The nail? What nail?” asked Mam’zelle, looking all round as if she expected to see a nail suspended in the air somewhere. “I have hit nothing. Do not tease me now. It is too hot!”
    She turned to Maureen again. “They interrupt their kind old Mam’zelle,” she said, smiling down at the fluffy-haired Maureen. “I was asking you about your lovely Measley Manor.”
    This time it was too much. Maureen’s look of offended disgust with Mam’zelle and with the laughing girls made them roll on the grass in an agony of mirth. Mam’zelle was astonished. What had she said that was so funny?
    “All I ask is about this lovely...” she began again, in bewilderment. Nobody stopped laughing. Maureen got up and walked off in a huff. How hateful to laugh at such a horrid name for her old school — and did Mam’zelle really mean to call it that? Was she poking fun at her, too? Maureen seriously began to doubt if all the nice things said to her were meant.
    “Oh dear,” said Darrell, sitting up and wiping the tears from her eyes. “You’re a pet, Mam’zelle! Girls, in future, we refer to Measley Manor as soon as Maureen trots out her horrible soppy school again. We’ll soon cure her of that.”
    “I wish Gwen would hurry up and come,” said Sally. “I’m longing to see those two together. Maureen’s