ed Dona. "She looked over all my clothes
as I put them away in my drawers, and said they weren't as nice as hers,
and that she'd never dream of wearing a camisole unless it was trimmed
with real lace. She twists her hair in Hinde's wavers every night, and
keeps a pot of complexion cream on her dressing-table. She always uses
stephanotis scent that she gets from one special place in London, and it
costs four and sixpence a bottle. She hates bacon for breakfast, and she
has seventeen relations at the front. She's thin and brown, and her nose
wiggles like a rabbit's when she talks."

"I shouldn't mind her if she'd keep to her own cubicle," commented
Marjorie. "Sylvia Page will overflow into mine, and I find her things
dumped down on my bed. She's nicer than Irene Andrews, though; we had a
squabble last night over the window. Betty Moore brought a whole box of
chocolates with her, and she ate them in bed and never offered a single
one to anybody else. We could hear her crunching for ages. I don't like
Irene, but I agreed with her that Betty is mean!"

"Nellie Mason sleeps in the next cubicle to me," continued Dona, bent on
retailing her own woes. "She snores dreadfully, and it kept me awake,
though she's not so bad otherwise. Beatrice Elliot is detestable. She
found that little Teddy bear I brought with me, and she sniggered and
asked if I came from a kindergarten. I've calculated there are
seventy-four days in this term. I don't know how I'm going to live
through them until the holidays."

"Hallo!" said a cheerful voice. "Sitting weeping under the willows, are
you? New girls always grouse. Miss Broadway's sent me to hunt you up and
do the honours of the premises. I'm Mollie Simpson. Come along with me
and I'll show you round."

The speaker was a jolly-looking girl of about sixteen, with particularly
merry blue eyes and a whimsical expression. Her dark curly hair was
plaited and tied with broad ribbons.

"We've been round, thanks very much," returned Marjorie to the
new-comer.

"Oh, but that doesn't count if you've only gone by yourselves! You
wouldn't notice the points. Every new girl has got to be personally
conducted by an old one and told the traditions of the place. It's a
sort of initiation, you know. We've a regular freemasons' code here of
things you may do or mustn't. Quick march! I've no time to waste. Tea is
at four prompt."

Thus urged, Marjorie and Dona got up, shook the pine needles from their
dresses