l that?"

"I'd better begin at the beginning," said Jack, nothing loath at the
opportunity of exercising her tongue. Jack was an inveterate
chatterbox. "Getting-up bell goes at seven, breakfast is at quarter to
eight. Eight-fifteen to eight-thirty we tidy cubicles and make our
beds. Then there's half an hour free, which we're supposed on fine
days to spend in the quad or somewhere out in the grounds, before the
bell goes at nine o'clock for prayers. We all assemble then in the
Great Hall and march into Chapel for prayers, in the order of forms.
You'd better stick to me to-morrow morning, and I'll show you where to
stand and sit. After prayers, we go to our form rooms and work until
eleven. At eleven there's half an hour's recess, when you can get
cocoa and biscuits, if you want them, in the dining-hall. Then lessons
again until one o'clock, tidy yourself, and dinner at quarter-past.
Then there's a free time until half-past two, when either you have to
go for a walk or play games."

"May you choose which you do?" asked Geraldine.

"Rather not!" answered Jack emphatically. "You're marked down which
you're to be. Usually you get about four games' afternoons a week, and
the rest walks. In the summer we do prep in the afternoon, and have
games after tea. But this term we do prep in the evening, and have our
hockey in the afternoon. Do you play hockey?"

"No," confessed Geraldine, rather uneasily.

"That's a pity," said her new friend. "How was that? Wasn't there any
sort of a club in the village where you lived?"

"Y--yes--there was," said Geraldine. "But my people wouldn't let me
join. Mother and Dad didn't approve much of hockey for girls."

"What a shame!" sympathised Jack. "Weren't you jolly sick about it?"

Geraldine flushed suddenly hotly red. She wished that she could have
honestly said "Yes." But she was a very truthful person, and even to
make a favourable impression upon Jack--to whom she had taken an
immense liking--she could not prevaricate.

"Well, no, not exactly," she said in a low tone. "You--you see, I
didn't much think I should care about it, myself."

"Not care about it!" Jack opened wide surprised eyes. Hockey was the
joy and delight of her harum-scarum existence, and it had never before
occurred to her that there could be an individual of hockey age in the
world misguided enough not to care. "Why, it's a perfectly scrumptious
game! It's an awful pity you've never playe