Erna was tapping her foot on the floor impatiently. "Hey, we just remembered," she broke in. "You're new girls and we haven't initiated you yet." "Oh, Erna," Gloria groaned. "Do we have to be initiated?" Erna pulled off her barette, pulled her hair back more tightly, and clasped the barette again as she always did when she felt important. "Well, you don't _have_ to be, but it just means we can't accept you if you aren't. You want to be accepted, don't you?" "Oh, okay," Gloria said. "I suppose we'll survive. Go ahead." "Do _you_ want to be accepted, Pill?" Erna asked. Flip answered in a low voice. "Yes." "Okay. I'll continue. Oh, first you'd better get out of bed and sit on your chairs, please." Obediently Flip and Gloria sat on the chairs at the foot of their beds. Erna nodded in satisfaction. She stood, hands on hips, looking at them, while Jackie lounged more comfortably on her bed. "Do you promise to keep our dormitory secrets till the death?" Erna asked. Flip and Gloria nodded. "And to do anything we tell you to do during the period of probation?" Flip and Gloria nodded again. "Good. Now we want to ask you a couple of questions." Jackie took over. She sat up, her feet half in and half out of her crimson woolly slippers, dangling over the foot of the bed, and pointed at Gloria. "Who do you like most in the school?" "You and Erna," Gloria answered promptly. "I told you she'd say that." Erna nodded at Jackie. Jackie pointed at Flip. "And you?" "Madame Perceval." "Percy? Well, she'll do all right." Jackie kicked one slipper onto the floor and pointed at Gloria. "Where were you born?" "London." "Where?" "London." "Where?" Erna asked. "London." And Jackie asked again, "Where?" "Oh, Brazil where the nuts come from," Gloria cried in exasperation. "Where did you say you were born?" Erna asked. "I've told you three times," Gloria muttered. "You seem sort of confused." Jackie kicked off the other slipper. Erna tightened her bathrobe belt. Miss Tulip had taken her over to Lausanne that morning and the gold braces on her teeth had been tightened; her teeth hurt and her voice sounded cross. "If you don't know where you were born we certainly can't accept you. Where were you born?" "London," Gloria mumbled sulkily. "Are you sure?" "Yes." "It wasn't Brazil?" "No." "Why did you say it was Brazil?" "I don't know." "You mean you say things and you don't know why you say them?" "No." "But that's what you just said." Gloria wailed, "You're trying to confuse me." Erna put her hands in the pockets of her bath robe and smiled tolerantly. "Why should we try to confuse you? We're just trying to find out whether or not you're sure where you were born." "Of course I'm sure." "Where was it?" "London." "All right. We'll let it go this once. But we can't have people in our room saying things without knowing why they say them. So be careful." She turned to Flip. "Okay, Pill. Where were you born?"