Angela Brazil

The New Girl at St. Chad's Angela Brazil

"Any new girls?"It was Madge Summers who asked the question, seated on the right-hand corner of Maisie Talbot'sbed, munching caramels. It was a very small bed, but at that moment it managed to accommodateno less than seven of Maisie's most particular friends, who were closely watching the progress of herunpacking, and discussing the latest school news, interspersed with remarks on her belongings. Maisie extricated herself from the depths of her box, and handed a pile of stockings to Lettice, heryounger sister."What's the use of asking me?" she replied. "Our cab only drove up half an hour ago. I feel almostnew myself yet.""So do I, and horribly in the blues too," said Pauline Reynolds. "It's always a wrench to leave home. I'm perfectly miserable for at least three days at the beginning of each term. I feel as if--""Oh, don't all begin to expatiate about your feelings!" broke in Chatty Burns. "We know Pauline'ssymptoms only too well: the first day she shows aggressively red eyes and a damp pockethandkerchief; the second day she writes lengthy letters home, begging to be allowed to returnimmediately and have lessons with a private governess; the third day she wanders about, trying to getsympathy from anyone who is weak-minded enough to listen to her, till in desperation somebodydrags her into the playground, and makes her have a round at hockey. That cheers her up, and shebegins to think life isn't quite such a desert. By the fourth morning she has recovered her spirits, andcome to the conclusion that Chessington College is a very decent kind of place; and she begins to bealarmed lest her mother, on the strength of the pathetic letter, should have decided to let her leave atonce, and should have already engaged a private governess.""You're most unsympathetic, Chatty!" said Pauline, smiling in spite of herself. "You don't knowwhat it is to be home-sick.""I wouldn't parade such a woebegone face, whatever might be the depths of my misery," returnedChatty briskly."I'm always glad to come back," declared Dorothy Arkwright. "I like school. It's fun to meeteverybody again, and arrange about cricket, and the Debating Society, and the Natural History Club. There's so much going on at St. Chad's."