Kitty was sitting near the organ and could not help noticing the player, evidently one of the girls, for her bright chestnut hair hung in a heavy mass down her back. Kitty was so absorbed in examining her aristocratic profile and admiring the elegant way in which she wore her clothes, that she missed a considerable part of the lesson.
Afterwards came supper, an informal meal of hot cocoa and "pavement" (a slice of cake), then bed bell and lights out, for the seniors, at ten o'clock. In spite of the strangeness of being enclosed in the white-panelled walls of a daintily furnished cubicle, Kitty was so tired and drowsy that before long her eyelids closed and she was sound asleep.
CHAPTER II
THE SENIORS OF CARSLAKE's
With the clang of the everlasting bell in her ears Kitty awoke, wondering for a few minutes where she could be, and almost thinking she was back in her little bunk on board the Wallaroon.
Then she heard a yawn, and a sleepy voice, "Oh, bother! Was that rising bell?" and Hilary's voice in answer, "Yes, Peggy my child, it was. What's more, I can see it raining out of my window."
"Oh, blow!" said another voice. "Shan't get up then. Wake me by twenty to eight, somebody, please, if I fall asleep again."
"Get up, you lazy kids," said Hilary sternly. "It's disgraceful, the way you lie in bed when you might have a run round the field before breakfast or a turn in the gym. No wonder we never get represented in gym displays. You know it's the rule to turn out when rising bell goes."
"Bother the bell!" said the voice of Peggy. "And you can't make us, Hilary. Duane is head of this dormitory, not you."
"Well, you ought to have a mistress sleeping next door, like the other dormitories. You'd have to alter your ways a little then. Are you awake, Kitty?"