The Absent Father
After Jo Returns, Dick and Mollie’s next appearance is a long time coming. They are scarcely mentioned during the war years, since they are far away in India and miss out on all the excitement of the Chalet School’s evacuations from Tyrol to Guernsey and then to Armiford. Gradually their daughters Peggy and Bride take significant roles in the school, but Dick seems to be out of sight, out of mind, as far as his sisters (or EBD) are concerned, although the birth of Second Twins (Maeve and Maurice) gets a mention. It is not until Tom Tackles the Chalet School that Bride writes to her mother, “I do wish you and Daddy would come home…we’ve never seen Maeve and Maurice yet, and they’re almost eight! Wh en are you coming?” And lo and behold, a few pages later Mollie replies to tell Peggy and Bride their wish has come true.
Daddy has resigned from the Forestry, and we are coming home…Uncle Tom…has left Daddy his house in Devonshire, and…Daddy has decided to leave India and make a home for all of us at The Quadrant, which is on the North Devon coast, not far from Bideford…I don’t want to see two skinny creatures looking as if they needed a month of Sundays in bed to recover from the term’s work. I don’t think there’s much need to tell Rix that. Daddy nearly had a fit over his last report!
Dick, then, has become paterfamilias enough to “have a fit” over Rix’s report, although having been separated from his son for so long he has not played much of a part in shaping Rix’s character. The children spend the term eagerly anticipating their parents’ arrival, and when they do arrive Dick comes first to the Chalet School to see Peggy and Bride. “Oh Tom, it’s just too wizard for words!” (says Bride). In fact, it transpires that Dick and Mollie have been in England for several days, but went to see their new house before going to see their long-lost children. Rather unusually, Dick and Mollie ask for the school to be given the afternoon off for a picnic, so they can meet their daughters’ friends. Definitely a case of the Bettanys pulling rank here, not many parents could expect to have such a request granted! The verdict from the girls, voiced by Tom, is “You’ve got a topping pa and ma, Bride.”
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