"Could you--would you tell me what that bell is for?" asked Geraldine
very timidly. If there had been anyone else to ask, she would not have
approached her late antagonist. But there was nobody in sight at the
moment, and the new girl at last plucked up sufficient courage to make
her request.

Phyllis eyed her grumpily.

"Tea, of course, duffer," she snapped rudely. "Whatever else do you
expect at this hour of the day?"

Then she caught sight of Dorothy Pemberton emerging from her cubicle,
and went flying down the corridor to meet her.

"Come along, old thing," she cried. "Let's buck up and bag places at
Muriel's table." And the two chums vanished, arm in arm, leaving
Geraldine Wilmott to find her way as best she might.

The new girl was the only person left in the dormitory, and her face
grew wistful, and a choking sensation came into her throat as she
realised the fact.

"They might have just shown me the way," she murmured to herself,
looking forlornly around her. "I don't think I'm going to like Phyllis
whatever-her-name-is, and that Dorothy Pemberton. They needn't have
been so beastly to me just because I'm in one of their cubicles. It
wasn't my fault. Oh, well, I suppose I'd better go and try and find
out where tea is." And the new girl made her way towards the door
through which Dorothy and Phyllis had disappeared.

CHAPTER II

AN INTRODUCTION

Tea was in full swing when Geraldine at last found her way to the
dining-hall. She stood for a few moments in embarrassed hesitation
just inside the doorway, until a girl who was sitting at the head of
the nearest table spoke to her.

"You haven't got a place yet, have you? Won't you come and sit by me?"

It was Monica Deane, the girl who slept in Number Fourteen Cubicle in
the Pink Dormitory. Geraldine recognised her with a feeling of relief,
and moved across to her table with alacrity. Monica spoke to a small
girl sitting on her left hand.

"Shove up one, Vera, will you? And ask the others to move up, too.
This is a new girl in my dorm, and I want to talk to her," she said,
with a friendly smile at Geraldine as the girl slipped thankfully into
the seat thus provided for her. "Pass the bread and butter down,
Mamie," she added to somebody farther up the table. "And, Gwennie, run
and get another cup of tea." Then, having thus attended to the new
girl's immediate wants, she turned round to her with the obvious
intention of commenci