to the way things were at home when I
was small. I was very strictly raised. With the exception of Tommy Gray,
who lives next door and only is about my age, I was never permitted to
know any of the Other Sex.
Looking back, I am sure that the present way society is organized is
really to blame for everything. I am being frank, and that is the way I
feel. I was too strictly raised. I always had a Governess taging along.
Until I came here to school I had never walked to the corner of the next
street unattended. If it wasn't Mademoiselle it was mother's maid, and
if it wasn't either of them, it was mother herself, telling me to hold
my toes out and my shoulder blades in. As I have said, I never knew any
of the Other Sex, except the miserable little beasts at dancing school.
I used to make faces at them when Mademoiselle was putting on my
slippers and pulling out my hair bow. They were totaly uninteresting,
and I used to put pins in my sash, so that they would get scratched.
Their pumps mostly squeaked, and nobody noticed it, although I have
known my parents to dismiss a Butler who creaked at the table.
When I was sent away to school, I expected to learn something of life.
But I was disapointed. I do not desire to criticize this Institution of
Learning. It is an excellent one, as is shown by the fact that the best
Families send their daughters here. But to learn life one must know
something of both sides of it, Male and Female. It was, therefore, a
matter of deep regret to me to find that, with the exception of the
Dancing Master, who has three children, and the Gardner, there were no
members of the sterner sex to be seen.
The Athletic Coach was a girl! As she has left now to be married, I
venture to say that she was not what Lord Chesterfield so uphoniously
termed "SUAVITER IN MODO, FORTATER IN RE."
When we go out to walk we are taken to the country, and the three
matinees a year we see in the city are mostly Shakspeare, aranged for
the young. We are allowed only certain magazines, the Atlantic Monthly
and one or two others, and Barbara Armstrong was penalized for having a
framed photograph of her brother in running clothes.
At the school dances we are compeled to dance with each other, and the
result is that when at home at Holaday parties I always try to lead,
which annoys the boys I dance with.
Notwithstanding all this it is an excellent school. We learn a great
deal, and our dear Principle is a most charmi
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