th sitting-room, Jack--Joanna Pym, Geraldine
afterwards discovered her full name to be--was instructing the new girl
in the ways of Wakehurst Priory.

"Ever been to school before?" she asked, regarding Geraldine with some
interest, when Monica had left the room and most of the other girls had
moved away, thus leaving the two alone together.

"No, never," said Geraldine, feeling that the admission implied some
grave neglect upon somebody's part.

Jack appeared to take this view of the matter also.

"You're awfully old to come to school for the first time. Fifteen on
your last birthday, didn't you say? You must be pretty good at
lessons, though, to be in the Lower Fifth right away. Miss Oakley
usually puts people into a form lower than they could go into, for
their first term, because she says that entrance examinations are so
deceptive, and if the girls are really good they can always be moved
up. We don't often get new girls in the Lower Fifth--most of the new
kids begin in the Lower School. I guess you'll be the only new girl in
our form this term."

"Shall I?" said Geraldine. "I'm rather sorry for that. It would have
been nicer if there had been somebody else new, too."

"Oh, I don't know. New girls are a rotten lot as a rule," replied Jack
airily. "You seem rather decenter than most. But you will have an
awful lot to learn if you've never been to school before."

"Why? Are the lessons so very difficult?" questioned Geraldine.

"Oh, it isn't the _lessons_," replied her informant. "Lessons don't
really count very much at school, except with the mistresses. It's
games and rules and--and--well, school etiquette in general, you know.
I expect it will take you quite a term to learn all our school ways."

"Will it?" said Geraldine, looking rather alarmed. Jack hastened to
reassure her.

"You needn't look so scared about it! Of course there are heaps of
unwritten rules and things which you'll have to pick up, besides all
the rules which the mistresses make. But people make allowances for
you your first term, and I'll help you a lot, if you'd like me to.
I've been here for years and years and years, and there isn't much
about the old Priory I couldn't put you up to--though I'm not specially
good at lessons," Jack added, with becoming modesty.

"Oh, I wish you would! Tell me about things, I mean. What happens
next this evening? And what time do we start lessons, and when do we
play games, and al