The New House at the Chalet School Multiple Choice Quiz | Brent-Dyer, Elinor

Answer: Marie and Simone

Marie and Simone's rooms have a pink colour scheme as they face east, while Frieda has an orange one and Joey a yellow one. The furniture in each girl's room is decorated with flowers: roses, delphiniums and lupins for Marie, marigolds and nasturtiums for Frieda, jonquils, daffodils and buttercups for Joey and fuchsias and almond blossoms for Simone.

The girls also have their own washstands, rather than a communal bathroom. The new house also has its own common room for the prefects - complete with a canary - a dining room, a common room, a study/detention room, a rooftop garden, and dormitories for the Middles. Lessons will still be taking place over at the main chalet.

Although Joey does miss her old dorm, she is taken with the new arrangements. Mlle Lepattre explains that she and the others have been picked as they are a strong group; Joey is Head Girl, Frieda is her Second Prefect, Marie is Games Prefect and Simone is friends with all of them.

Answer: Rouge

Joey dislikes Matron Besly, the new matron at St Clare's, and consequently does not want to tell her about the toothache. The other girls comment on Joey's sickly appearance and Joey tries to disguise it by stealing some rouge from the acting cupboard, even though she knows make-up is banned in school. Matey catches her and asks what she's doing there, and when Joey cries out in pain, Matey insists on looking at her and discovers she has toothache.

She tells Joey off for being a coward, gives her chilli paste and lotion to calm the pain and orders her to rest up. Matey also tells Matron Besly off for not noticing that Joey was ill, though Matron Besly argues that Joey is naturally pale and she could not tell that Joey was off-colour.

This causes Matron Besly to resent Joey, which causes problems for both of them later.

Answer: Daisy

Daisy overhears Frieda and Joey speaking in English and begs them to come and help her mother, as they are lost. She also has a little sister, Primula Mary. After the girls talk to Daisy's mother and mention the Chalet School, she reveals that she is Jem Russell's long-lost sister Margot, who became estranged from the family after her marriage to Stephen Venables, an abusive alcoholic.

She explains that she came to Innsbruck to search for Jem as she knew he was there, and she and her daughters are staying at a hotel in the area. Joey notes Primula's similarity to Jem and she and Frieda accompany the Venables family back to their hotel. Frieda calls Jem and explains the situation, and Frieda's brother-in-law Kurt comes to pick them up as they are due to visit him and Frieda's sister Bernhilda, although Kurt warns them not to mention Margot as it might cause Bernhilda stress.

When Kurt takes Frieda and Joey back to the station, they run into a very angry Jem.

Answer: Queensland

Margot tells her tragic life story to Joey and Frieda, and later to Jem: she and Stephen Venables lived in Queensland with their five children, three of whom died due to the extreme climate. Margot had not communicated with her family for several years as Stephen had made her break off all communication.

He was an alcoholic and a waster, and eventually died of a snake bite. With the help of the family's Chinese servant and a couple of brothers who bought her land, Margot sold the family home and moved in with Nellie Rickards, Daisy and Primula's former nurse. For a while, she was able to make a little money by teaching piano, but Nellie died after catching pneumonia from a patient.

She had made plans before her death to ensure the Venables would be provided for, telling Margot to go to Jem if anything happened to her, and a kind lawyer helped Margot with booking travel and selling the house. Margot and the girls travelled across the world to Innsbruck, in the hope of somehow finding Jem as she knew he was somewhere in the Tyrol, but both girls became ill on the way, and Margot herself is exhausted and has a nervous breakdown after they move in with the Russells.

Answer: St Therese de Lisieux

At a prefects' meeting, Joey explains to the other girls that Mlle Lepattre thinks the houses need names, and that they are all to be named after female saints to keep it consistent. St Mary is the patron saint of the school as a whole, but each house must have its own patron saint. Le Petit Chalet has St Agnes, who represents gentleness and steadfastness.

The girls write down their choices and both St Clare and St Therese are popular suggestions (Joey rules out St Scholastika because there is already a school by that name in the area). Marie suggests that the new house take St Clare as their patron saint, as she represents charity and submission to orders, an important value for those naughty Middles to learn.

The main house gets St Thérèse de Lisieux as its patron saint, as she represents love for G-d. Mlle Lepattre later tells the girls the stories of the saints' lives.

Answer: Baby Voodoo

Cornelia Flower is one of the senior Middles and the younger ones are annoyed with her because she told Mary Shaw off for using slang - despite using it herself - and plan to get back at her by dangling a creepy doll, which they name Baby Voodoo, in front of her window at night.

Unfortunately, Cornelia is a heavy sleeper and doesn't hear it. To make matters worse, Joey hears the doll tapping on the window and goes to investigate. She catches the girls on the roof after locking all the doors, and confiscates Baby Voodoo, dumping it on a piano.

She forgets about Baby Voodoo and the next morning Anna, one of the maids, gets a fright when she sees the doll on the piano and thinks it is the Devil. Miss Wilson reassures her that it can't possibly be the Devil, as he has no reason to appear in the music room, and punishes the perpetrators by sending them all to bed (which they actually need).

Answer: Ilonka Barcokz puts Epsom salts in her tea.

Matron Besly has continually been upsetting both the Middles and the prefects by confiscating their books, making up new rules and micromanaging Joey, and even disbelieving Margia - the school's top musician - when she says she's looking forward to a practice session. Matron Besly and Joey have an argument at dinner which culminates in Joey being sent to Mlle Lepattre.

As Joey is very well-liked among the Middles, they restart the SSM (which readers of 'The Princess of the Chalet School' might remember) and start by spiking Matron Besly's tea with what Ilonka thinks is Margia's medicine, but is actually Epsom salts.

The Middles then begin a campaign of staring at Matron Besly, which unsettles her, until Miss Stewart notices and calls Yvette Mercier in over it. Miss Wilson then orders the girls to disband the SSM.

However, she does warn Matron Besly that being overly strict with the girls has made them resent her.

Answer: She sleepwalks and makes Joey faint.

Biddy tells her friends Irish folk stories one afternoon and the girls are so impressed at her storytelling ability that they beg her to do it at night. Biddy isn't keen as she doesn't want to be caught, so the girls agree to have a lookout on duty, and as Biddy does not want to leave her dormitory, girls from other dormitories have to come to hers if they want to hear the stories. Biddy tells a story about a banshee which gives Alixe von Elsen nightmares and causes her to walk in her sleep while wailing loudly. Joey runs into her and faints, and Miss Wilson gives her brandy while Miss Stewart takes Alixe back to her dormitory. Elsewhere, Matron Besly has a panic attack and Miss Nalder has to calm her down. Alixe wakes up and starts crying about banshees. Miss Wilson figures out that Biddy was involved somehow, as the banshee is from Ireland, and corners Biddy about it. Biddy is punished by being made to sleep in Miss Wilson's room for a week, much to her horror.

Answer: Anne Seymour

After an expedition to Mayrhofen, where the girls forget to bring a basket of fruit, Marie announces to the rest of the Quartette that she and Eugen von und zu Wertheimer are planning on getting engaged. Madge comes to visit with Sybil, her baby daughter, and tells them that Margot will be replacing Matron Besly as the matron at St Clare's. During a prep session the following week, Joey and Anne Seymour have a falling-out after Joey whinges about her work and Anne tells her to be quiet, not knowing that Joey is upset about having no plans for when she leaves school. Later in the week, the prefects go on a walk, where they pick flowers, and Anne nearly has a fatal accident when she tries to wet her flowers in a small pool on the edge of a waterfall. Luckily, Joey grabs hold of her and Miss Wilson, Miss Stewart and several girls pull them both to safety with a rope made of petticoats, though Miss Stewart badly injures her shoulder.

Answer: Guitar

Cornelia and Evadne's fathers take them out for the weekend and buy the girls a load of instruments at their requests: Jews' harps, harmonicas, ukuleles, whistles, a zither, a bugle, various percussion instruments and a saxophone, which Cornelia immediately bags. Evadne explains to their friends that as St Thérèse has the school library and the Hobbies Club, and most events happen there, St Clare's should do something as well and they came up with the idea of forming a band. Joey and Frieda notice a group of Middles going out early in the morning and go out to investigate; they run into Joyce Linton and insist on accompanying her, and Joey makes her stay in a field until she comes back. Frieda hears what she thinks is a dying bull, but it turns out to be Cornelia practising the saxophone, and when they hear other instruments, Joey and Frieda realise what's going on and promise Joyce that they will keep it a secret.

The Middles advertise their concert and although Miss Wilson is displeased that they booked a room without asking her, she lets it go ahead. Joey is coerced into singing, Faith Barbour and Joyce Linton murder 'Annie Laurie' on harmonicas, Kitty Burnett and Emmie Linders (who actually can play instruments) do a violin and cello duet, and Eustacia Benson manages to play a tune on the zither.

As the grand finale, the girls attempt 'Land of Hope and Glory', complete with a terrible sax solo from Cornelia, and both the girls and the teachers are in hysterics. (This concert is often referred to in later books.)