CHAPTER III
THE WAYS OF WAKEHURST PRIORY
Meanwhile in the Lower Fifth 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."