Monica and the Fifth
CHAPTER I
THE FIRST DAY
The first day of a new school-year at colleges and boarding-schools is of necessity devoted entirely to the arrival of the boarders, unpacking and settling down. St. Etheldreda's was no exception to this rule. Undoubtedly the busiest girl in the whole school on that important Tuesday—the first day of the autumn term—was Madge Amhurst, late of the Fifth Form, but now promoted to the double dignity of the Sixth and a prefectship. Madge had been selected by the house mistress, Miss Perkins, to receive and take charge of all the new girls, and she was performing her first duty as a prefect with remarkable conscientiousness; not that Madge was always so painstakingly conscientious, but she was the possessor of a fluent and ready tongue and was never so happy as when exercising it well in airing her views. Though liked by her school companions she could not always obtain an audience willing to listen to her; now at last was a splendid opportunity; for the greater part of a day she could hold the stage to her heart's content.
The rule at St. Etheldreda's was that all girls, save in very exceptional circumstances, should be in the school before six-thirty on Tuesday evening. Throughout the afternoon Madge was seen wandering round the building with an ever-lengthening train of small girls at her heels, very much, as Nellie Barthe remarked with a broad grin, like a fussy old hen with a family of newly-hatched chicks, all wearing the forlorn and miserable appearance of newcomers in a strange and unknown world.
By four o'clock, Madge had collected a following of eight or nine youngsters and was still walking them round. She was greeted with broad smiles by girls whom she passed in the various rooms and passages, but seemed quite unperturbed by their amusement at her expense, and looked both busy and business-like with her pencil tucked clerically behind one ear and in her hand the list with which Miss Perkins had provided her. She finally halted her little band in the Blue Dormitory, with another glance at the list she was carrying and then at the watch on her wrist.
"This, my dear children," she remarked with a wave of her hand, "is the Blue Dormitory, so called, as you may guess for yourselves, from the tasteful cream and art-blue scheme of decoration. I think I have already told you that we are now in the Annexe, which has been recently added to the main building, to which it is connected by a covered-in passage. Most of the dormitories are in the Annexe, also the common room, senior studies and assembly hall."
She consulted her list again. "Which of you is Norah Maguire? Sure, and it's you, is it, begorrah? This is the haven where in future you will enjoy your nocturnal slumbers, Norah. In other words, cubicle No. 4 is yours. You are the last on the list, I think. Here is the wardrobe where you will hang your things, and this, of course, is your chest of drawers. I haven't missed anyone out, have I?"
There was a murmured chorus of "Noes."
"A little refreshment will be provided at half-past four," Madge continued pleasantly, "and as the tea-bell will ring shortly I don't think it's much use starting to unpack till afterwards. Now, is there anything you would like to know about your cubicles?"
After a few moments' silence one small, curly-haired girl spoke up.