Read Upper Fourth at Malory Towers for Free Online

head of the Upper Fourth!” Felicity would be proud and pleased.
    Darrell rushed off at Break to find Felicity and tell her. But again she had disappeared. How absolutely maddening ! Darrell only had a few minutes. She rushed round and about and at last found Felicity in the Courtyard, with June. The Courtyard was the space that lay inside the hollow oblong of the building that made up Malory Towers. It was very sheltered, and here everything was very early indeed. It was now gay with tulips, rhododendrons and lupins, and very lovely to see.
    But Darrell didn't see the flowers that morning. She rushed at Felicity.
    “Felicity! I've got good news for you—I've been made head-girl of the Upper Fourth!”
    “Oh, Darrell! How super!” said Felicity. “I'm awfully glad. Oh, Darrell, I must tell you—I saw Miss Grayling this morning, and she said to me and all the other new girls, exactly the same things that she said to you, when you first came. She was grand!”
    Darrell's mind took her back to her own first morning—standing opposite Miss Grayling in her pleasant drawing-room, hearing her talk gravely to the listening girls. She heard the Headmistress's voice.
    “One day you will leave school, and go out into the world as young women. You should take with you a good understanding of many things, and a willingness to accept responsibility and show yourselves as women to be loved and trusted. I do not count as our successes those who have won scholarships and passed exams, though these are good things to do. I count as our successes those who learn to be good-hearted and kind, sensible and trustable, good sound women the world can lean on.”
    Yes, Darrell remembered those long-ago words, and was very very glad she was beginning to be one of the successes—for had she not been chosen as head-girl that very day, head of the Upper Fourth, the School Cert, form!
    “Yes. Miss Grayling's grand,” she said to Felicity.
    “And you're grand, too!” said Felicity, proudly to Darrell. “It's lovely to have a head-girl for a sister!”

Clarissa arrives
    Gwendoline was keeping a good lookout for the coming of the last new Upper Fourth girl, Clarissa. She was about the only girl in the form who had no special friend, and she could see that it wouldn't be much good trying to make friends with the twins, because they would only want each other.
    “Anyway I don't like the look of them much,” thought Gwendoline. “They'll probably go all out for games and gym and walks. Why aren't there any nice feminine girls here—ones who like to talk and read quietly, and not always go pounding about the lacrosse field or splash in that horrible pool!”
    Poor lazy Gwendoline! She didn't enjoy any of the things that gave the others such fun and pleasure. She hated anything that made her run about, and she detested the cold water of the pool.
    Daphne and Mary-Lou didn't like the pool either, but they enjoyed tennis and walks. Neither of them went riding because they were terrified of horses. Bill, who now rode every day on Thunder before breakfast, scorned Daphne, Mary-Lou and Gwendoline because they wouldn't even offer Thunder a lump of sugar and screamed if he so much as stamped on the ground. She and Darrell and the new twins arranged an evening ride twice a week together, and Miss Peters, the third-form mistress, and Bill's great friend, came with them. They all enjoyed those rides on the cliffs immensely.

    Felicity was not allowed to go with them because she was only a first-former. To Darrell's annoyance she learnt that the only other good rider in the first form was June, so once again it seemed as if Felicity and June were to be companions and enjoy something together.
    “It'll end in Felicity having to make June her friend,” thought Darrell. “Oh, dear—it's an awful pity I don't like June. Felicity likes Sally so much. We ought to like each other's friends. The mere thought of having June to stay with us in any holidays makes