"P'r'aps I'd better think of yours," she said.
"You little beast!" muttered Noreen, but rather inaudibly, "beast" being one of the expressions that even easy-going Miss Lambton did not pass at table.
There was a walk before chapel on Sundays, if weather allowed; Joey paired off with Gabrielle on this occasion, and found her sympathetic over the outing.
"It's always decent going out when you're at school, even if it's to the stuffiest people," she explained. "It's different, you know—that's it partly. There was a girl here—she's left now—whose only relation handy was a great-aunt who was quite deaf and almost blind, and rather childish too, poor thing. And there was nothing whatever for Chrissie to do at her house but play with the cat, and no books except Laneton Parsonage and The Fairchild Family. But Chrissie liked going all the same; you see, she could tell the other girls she had a good time when she came back, and that was something."
"Yes, I suppose that would be something," Joey agreed, and went to get ready for chapel in much better spirits.
Redlands Chapel was very beautiful. Later on Joey came to know much of its story: that the wonderful black chancel screen had been rescued by a girl's father from an old barn on his estate, and went back to the stormy times of Henry VIII.'s devastating war upon the monasteries; that the beautiful reredos had been carved by an old pupil of the College who had gone out into the world to find fame. Three of the windows came from a little private chapel near by, and had suffered at the hands of Cromwell's Fifth Monarchy men.
She stood and knelt in her place about half-way down the aisle, feeling it all very strange after the plain little "Established" service at Calgarloch, where Mr. Craigie preached for an hour on end, and brought sweeties to Kirsty and Bingo in the afternoon if they had not fidgeted.
Joey liked the service, though she didn't know what singing could be till the second hymn; the College always refusing to throw any enthusiasm into the strains of
Lord, behold us with Thy blessing,
Once again assembled here.