"My dear," she said, "prayers are at the school at a quarter to nine. Don't forget to ask Kate to introduce you, immediately after prayers, to Miss Forester."
Molly promised to obey, and then went up to her room. She found it in the hands of one of the housemaids. She put on her hat and jacket, and ran downstairs again. It was a crisp and beautiful autumn day. Not a leaf stirred on the trees; the sky was of a clear, pale blue; there was just a faint touch of frost in the air.
"Everything is lovely," she said, under her breath. "I mean to have a splendid time here. I mean to show grannie and father of what stuff I am made."
Her meditations were cut short by a troop of girls who were seen passing St. Dorothy's.
They stopped abruptly when they saw Molly. One of them—a girl with a plain, freckled face—came close up to the paling which divided St. Dorothy's from the rest of the school.
"Say—are you a newcomer?" she called to her.
"I don't understand you," answered Molly, with a little haughtiness.
"But do say—are you a new-comer?"
When the girl spoke a second time, two or three of her companions giggled. Molly's face grew crimson.