the horseback riding and
occasional strolls was the only concession to the athletic spirit of the
day.

The schoolrooms were not the feature of the Hall that one might expect.
They were confined to a small wing in the rear, or the basement, and
there were no laboratories or other paraphernalia of modern education.
The long drawing-room, with its recessed windows facing the river, was
hung with "old masters"--a few faded American protraits and some recent
copies of the Italian school. It was also furnished luxuriously and had
books in handsome bindings. But educationally, in any accepted sense of
the word, Herndon Hall was quite negligible, as all such institutions
for the care of the daughters of the rich must be, as long as the chief
concern of its patrons is to see their daughters properly married and
"taking a good position in society." Adelle quickly perceived that,
though she had been reckoned a dull pupil in the Alton Girls' High
School, she had much more than enough book knowledge to hold her own in
the classes of her new school. If it is difficult to say what is a good
education for a boy whose parents can afford to give him "the best," it
is almost impossible to solve the educational riddle for his sister. She
must have good manners, an attractive person, and, less clearly, some
acquaintance with literature, music, and art, and one modern language to
enable her to hold her own in the social circles that it is presumed she
will adorn. At least that was the way Miss Thompson looked at the
profound problem of girls' education. She herself was accounted
"accomplished," a "brilliant conversationalist," and "broadly cultured,"
with the confident air that the best society is supposed to give, and
her business was to impart some of this polish to her pupils.
"Conversation," it may be added, was one of the features of Herndon
Hall.

Art, music, and literature did not seem to awaken Adelle's dormant mind
any more than had the rigorous course of the public schools. She did as
most of the girls did,--nothing,--coming unprepared day after day to her
recitations to be helped through the lessons by the obliging teachers,
who professed to care little for "mere scholarship" and strove rather to
"awaken the intelligence" and "stir the spirit," "educate the taste,"
and all the rest of the fluff with which an easy age excuses its
laziness. The girls at Herndon Hall impudently bluffed their teachers or
impertinently replied that