to
practice.

She particularly waged war against what she termed "sentiment". She
objected to seeing girls walking about the playground with their arms
round each other's waists, or to the display of any affection. She
called such behaviour "early Victorian", and spoke of it with contempt.
During the war she had taken the place of a junior master at a boys'
grammar school, and her ideal was that girls should exhibit their
feelings as little as their brothers. She made a new rule that
recreation time must be spent in definite games, and that nobody was to
be allowed to lounge about the playground or gymnasium and chat. This
met with fierce opposition among the seniors and juniors alike. They
talked about it fifty to the dozen in their cloakrooms.

"I never heard such nonsense in all my life."

"Mayn't take each other's arms, indeed."

"What would happen if I kissed anybody?"

"Oh, you'd get reported!"

"Kissing's called 'unhealthy', if you please."

"Oh, indeed, is it? I thought 'Any time was kissing time'."

"Don't tell Miss Ormerod so, that's all."

"_Why_ shouldn't we walk round the gym and talk?"

"We're supposed to be learning to gossip."

"What _is_ gossip?"

"Ask me a harder."

"Miss Tatham never said we weren't to have chums."

"Oh, but _she_ was sensible!"

"Miss Ormerod's just a crank."

"It's too bad her coming and upsetting all our ways."

"I vote we don't play any wretched old games."

"We can't be _made_ to play when we don't want to."

The prefects in particular thought it a great undermining of their
dignity to be expected to tear about during recreation-time like any
juniors. They were determined to resist the new rule. When a mistress,
under orders from the principal, came into the playground, broke up
groups of girls, and insisted upon all joining in a common game of
rounders, the seniors hit the ball feebly, walked instead of running,
and plainly showed that they did not mean to be coerced against their
will. Their example spread downwards. It was at once fashionable to be a
"slacker" or "shirker", and the unfortunate mistress who was told off to
superintend the playground during eleven o'clock "break" had a bad time
of it. With the knowledge that Miss Ormerod was peeping from her study
window she made valiant efforts to set games going, but forced play is
very different from the real article, and her attempts generally ended
in dismal failure. Whether Miss Tatham, resting in