"Did you get up to any larks? Were there any boarders at your school?" Isobel persisted.
"No," Beryl answered. "It was only a day school. We didn't have any special larks."
"Didn't you like the school?"
"Not very much. It was all right."
"Why? Weren't the girls nice?"
"Oh, they were nice enough," said Beryl. "It was a nice school. But nothing specially exciting ever happened. Just work."
"Um ... I shouldn't have liked that," said Isobel. "By the way, your father and mother are dead, aren't they?"
Beryl nodded.
"Many years ago?" asked Isobel.
"Ever so many years, it seems to me," Beryl replied very quietly.