“But hark! hark!” said Merry, “there is a funny sound after all.”
“What do you take it for?” asked Aneta.
“I don’t know,” said Merry. “I could almost imagine that we were by the seaside, and that the sound was the roar of the breakers on the beach.”
“It is the roar of human breakers,” said Aneta. “One always 107 hears that kind of sound even in the quietest parts of London. It is the great traffic in the thoroughfares not far away.”
“It is delightful! wonderful!” said Merry. “Oh, I long to know all the girls! You will introduce us, won’t you, Aneta?”
“Of course; and you must be very quick remembering names. Let me see. You two, and Molly and Isabel, and Maggie Howland, and I make six. There are twenty girls in the house altogether, so you have to make the acquaintance of fourteen others.”
“I never can possibly remember their names,” said Merry.
“You will have to try. That’s the first thing expected of a schoolgirl—to know the names of her schoolfellows.”
“Well, I will do my best.”
“You had better do your best; it will be a good occupation for you during this first evening. Now, are you ready? And shall we go down? We have tea in the refectory at four o’clock. Mademoiselle Laplage presides over the tea-table this week.”