they've been put in IV.a., and
IV.b. Marjorie Kaye? You mean that girl in spectacles? No,
she's not come. I heard her say that if she didn't win she was to be
sent somewhere else. Where are you staying? With an aunt? I'm with a
second cousin. She's nice, but I wish they'd open a hostel; it would be
topping to be with a heap of others, wouldn't it? We'd get up acting in
the evenings, and all sorts of fun. Well, perhaps that may come later
on. I shall see you this afternoon, shan't I?"
"Yes, I'm coming for my books. It's too late to stop and get them now."
Afternoon attendance at the High School was not nominally compulsory.
All the principal subjects were taken in the morning, but there were
classes for drawing, singing or physical culture from half-past two
until four, and practically very few girls had more than one free
afternoon in a week. Any who liked might do preparation in their own
form room, and many availed themselves of the permission, especially
those who came from a distance, and stayed for dinner at the school.
When Winona first examined her time-table she had not considered its
demands excessively formidable, but before she had been a week at Seaton
she began to realize that she would have very few spare moments to call
her own. Miss Bishop believed in girls being fully occupied, and in
addition to the ordinary form work, expected every one to take part in
the games, and in the numerous societies and guilds which had been
instituted. Winona found that she was required to join the Debating
Club, and the Patriotic Knitting Guild, while a Dramatic Society and a
Literary Association would be prepared to open their doors to her if she
proved worthy of admission. So far, however, she considered that she had
enough on her hands. The demands of her new life were almost
overwhelming, and she lived from day to day in a whirl of fresh
experiences. It took her some time even to grasp the names of the
seventeen other girls in her form. Audrey Redfern, her left-hand
neighbor, was friendly, but Olave Parry, at the desk in front, ignored
her very existence. She gathered that Audrey, like herself, was a
new-comer, while Olave had attended the school since its foundation; but
she did not realize the significance of this in the difference of their
behavior to her. The fact was that the three new girls in the form were
on probation. The others, who had come up from the Lower School, and
were well versed in the traditions
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