human
Are you sleepy, Jocelyn? Or would you like me to come in and talk?
gpt
Oh, do come in--I'm fearfully tired of bed, Joey burst out--
human
I'd rather talk----
gpt
Hullo, Jocelyn, ready for some company?
human
Oh--you've come to sit with Jocelyn, have you? Noreen said.
gpt
Then I'd better clear out.
human
Look here, why shouldn't we both stay?
gpt
Don't know why we shouldn't, Noreen agreed.
human
Mind, Jocelyn?
gpt
Rather not.
human
Only, there's one thing I want to say to you which Gabrielle can't hear--it isn't my secret,
gpt
Shall I get out?
human
No--stick your fingers in your ears a sec, if you don't mind.
gpt
It's this--Syb and Barbara asked me to tell you they're sorry they were such beasts to you last night--and they think you a sport not to have let on to Ingrid.
human
Did they say that?
gpt
Yes, honest injun!
human
Then I shan't be able to say the utterly hateful things I'd thought of for to-night, Joey murmured regretfully.
gpt
But I _was_ a pig about the bath-water, wasn't I?
human
You were,
gpt
Then that's all right and square. Please tell them I'm sorry I took it all.
human
Have you finished? asked Gabrielle tragically.
gpt
It's giving me a pain in both my arms to keep them up so long.
human
It's all right. We've only been settling to be friends in this dorm. After all, it _is_ a decent dorm; it was a pity to fight in it.
gpt
It's got the best places for photos of any, Gabrielle said, walking round, and looking at Joey's collection in a very friendly way.
human
May I take them down and look? I say, what a darling little thing in socks. Is he your brother?
gpt
Yes--he's Bingo--his proper name is Bevil, but of course we couldn't call him a thing like that, poor kid, Joey explained, quite cheerfully.
human
He is pretty, isn't he? An artist came along and painted him last year--and he was in the Academy. He did him hugging a German helmet Father brought back--and just in his everyday things, so Bingo was pleased. He was looking up as if someone out of the picture was telling him something he wasn't going to lose a word of. The artist put some Latin under the picture--it meant 'Our fathers have told us.'
gpt
HAVE YOU FINISHED?
human
But--but--you _said_ that the kid was the gravedigger's youngest,
gpt
So I did,
human
And he isn't?
gpt
Did you suppose all the having on was going to be upon one side? Joey inquired succinctly.
human
Besides I thought you'd all like it better that way.
gpt
Then isn't the big one the butcher's boy?
human
No, he's my brother Gavin.
gpt
I say, did you happen to hear what we said--in the train?
human
About the village school, and letting down Redlands by my coming? Joey answered.
gpt
Yes, I did. I couldn't help it, you did talk so fearfully loud,
human
We didn't mean you to hear,
gpt
It doesn't matter if I did. _I_ don't care. It was a very jolly village school.
human
I'm sure it must have been,
gpt
Look here, interrupted Gabrielle.
human
What on earth does it matter what sort of school Jocelyn went to? It was pretty poor in Redlanders even to talk as if it mattered.
gpt
It was,
human
But Noreen started being awfully decent to me last night, when she still thought all my photos were--what I said they were, Joey chimed in, in a hurry.
gpt
So _I_ don't mind. We went to the village school because Father died in the war, you know, and Mums is frightfully poor; and if the other Redlanders don't like it--well, they needn't! But I'm glad to be friends with Blue Dorm--at least not enemies, you know--that sort of friends.
human
I want you to be real friends, Jocelyn--the proper kind, if you'll be it with me as well as Gabrielle, Noreen explained in a hurry.
gpt
I wanted to last night.
human
All right, said Joey.
gpt
I think I'd like to be friends too.
human
And we must find a name for you, suggested Gabrielle.
gpt
Jocelyn is awfully nice, but the others will think about you as the scholarship kid they ragged, if you stick to it; you want some handy little name--that will make you seem like another girl; and we'll all start fresh.
human
They call me 'Joey' at home,