Dick Bettany has the honour of speaking the very first lines of the very first Chalet School book, The School at the Chalet. For those who have forgotten, the immortal words are “If only I knew what to do with you girls!” Having been in on the decision to found the Chalet School, Dick does not remain a central character throughout the series, mainly because it revolves around a female environment. His role is peripheral, and his appearances become fewer as the series goes on. His daughters Peggy, Bride and Maeve, of course, play an important part in the Chalet School, as do his numerous nieces.
But what do we know about Dick Bettany’s character? As a young man he is a rather bland stereotype. He is concerned about Madge and Joey’s well-being, but “He knew very well that Madge had set her heart on this project, and that he had neither the strength of will nor the authority to turn her from her purpose. They were twins, and all their lives long she had been the one to plan for them both. If she had determined to start this school, nothing he could say or do could prevent her.” Physically, we get a long and fulsome physical description of Madge Bettany on the first page of the book (“well poised head…curly dark-brown hair…eyes the colour of old brown sherry…wonderful Saxon fair skin…slender figure etc., etc.). And what description do we get of Dick? “He lifted his fair boyish head”. That’s it. Not much help when we are forming a mental picture.
Dick makes Madge promise to write weekly and to cable him if any problems arise. But when Joey succumbs to a coughing fit it is Madge who ministers to her while Dick strolls across the room towards her with his hands in his pockets! “ ‘I say, old lady,’ he began, ‘you mustn’t sprint about like that!’ ” It doesn’t sound as if Dick has taken much responsibility for Joey’s upbringing. However, when he becomes a parent he may become more authoritarian – we shall see…
Madge and Jo set out for Paris. Dick meets them in Innsbruck and then vanishes to India. He does not reappear until late in the book when he sends Madge an eight-word cable warning her against Juliet Carrick’s unsavoury father – too late, as it happens, to prevent the Carricks from dumping their daughter on Madge. The letter which follows, revealing more of Captain Carrick’s iniquities, also contains some interesting sidelights on Dick’s values – his assertion, for instance, that “women are so helpless! They ought to have a man to look after them.” His letter is typical of the sort of thing that might be written by any young man of his class, age and time. “I certainly don’t want my sisters stuck up in every cinema for any idiot to see!” He adds a few complaints about his chief, “The Gobbler”, who is making him plant fruit trees in tropical conditions. His chief, incidentally, is to become his father-in-law. He also sends his sisters some insights into Indian life – “…the snakes are lying pretty low. My bearer caught a whacker the other night – a king cobra – so he’s introduced a mongoose to the household in case the mate is anywhere round.”
In Jo of the Chalet School, Dick is still in India and too far away to influence the action of the story, except by sending Indian silk and other Christmas presents to his sisters, until he writes to tell Madge and Jo that he is “engaged to his chief’s youngest girl, and that they hoped to be married very soon. There was a note from the lady herself, which showed her to be a jolly, rather school-girlish, person, who evidently took life as a huge joke.”
Kate Dixon, England
Note: This article is reproduced with permission from the author and the Editor of the New Chalet Club Journals and originally appeared in Journal 15