“I _did_ forget. Honest Injun, I did. We’re not allowed in each other’s cubicles without permission, though we may have the curtains drawn back. Nurse is most awfully strict; but she’s not really so strict as she seems. For one thing,” Gerry sighed, “she might have lost me a dormitory mark, but she didn’t. I’d like to have seen Mona’s and Irene’s faces if I’d lost one. We’re all Daisies, you see, and----” The speaker broke off as the sound of a loud but very melodiously-toned gong boomed somewhere from the regions below. Tea-time; there was no doubt of that; and the new girl was thankful of Geraldine’s presence at her side as the pair made their way down the wide and shallow stair. She was still more thankful that she was not alone when they had reached the bottom, for their progress was held up there on the lowest step as the school filed its way dining-room wards. Along the corridor, in a single line, without hurry and without words, came--first of all--the older girls, then the junior girls behind. Gerry waited till they had filed past, and then took her own place at the end with Betty beside her. It felt wonderful to Betty to take her place, too, by right in the procession; there were thirty-three of them altogether, counting Gerry and herself, for she had numbered every one while they were passing. There would have been only thirty-two girls at St. Benedick’s if _she_ were not there, she told herself; but she was here, and so there were thirty-_three_! The delicious thought made her gulp with pride. She forgot the pride, though, for shyness again, just for a little while, when the dining-room door was reached. At home meals were generally eaten in a basement room, to save trouble for the general servant whose duties were so never-ending. Here the very idea of a meal in such a lovely room made Betty gasp with shyness at first, and then realize suddenly how hungry she was! The dining-room ceiling overhead was oak-beamed; the walls were panelled in dark oak too; the mullioned windows which lined one side of the wall were all thrown widely open, and the scent of stocks and pinks seemed to fill the room. A big bowl of pinks, too, stood in the middle of each of the three tables, one of which--of circular shape--was smaller than the others. This round table was placed in the very centre of the room, and was flanked on either side by a longer and narrower one. Betty, standing in the doorway, saw six senior girls take their places at the round table, while a line of junior girls, each evidently taking her own seat by right, advanced to each of the narrow tables in quiet file. “Geraldine, please take Betty Carlyle to the window table with you,” came the voice of a mistress standing at the door.