Three minutes afterwards Betty, having tiptoed along passages which seemed scented both with the old-fashioned flowers whose perfumes were wafted through the widely-opened windows and also with nowadays beeswax and turpentine, found herself seated inside a cubicle that was to be “all her own.” It was then that the shyness came back. If only she’d had Jan’s frock to change, or Jack’s bootlace to unknot! Of course she knew that school was really going to be lovely--her first acquaintance with Sybil, and Gerry, Miss Drury, and, yes, even with the old house itself, had assured her of that; but if only there had been somebody there who needed her as they all had needed her at home! CHAPTER III AT THE WINDOW TABLE “I just half-guessed you’d be in our room,” said Gerry. “That was why I couldn’t help speaking to you in the station.” She had dimpled herself into Betty’s cubicle, and had perched herself, still dimpling, on the side of Betty’s bed. Her hat had been left downstairs, and a mass of red-to-golden hair seemed almost to glitter as she sat there. To Betty’s admiring eyes she seemed a glittery sort of person altogether. “When I saw you standing under the clock,” continued Gerry, as the dimple came and went, “I said, ‘That’s _her_!’” She broke off suddenly--not to correct her grammatical lapse, but to start in surprise at the sound of a louder voice than her own. “_Geraldine!_” said the outraged voice. “Oh!” cried Gerry with an apologetic squeak. She rose from the white coverlet as she squeaked, and was attempting to remove certain creases as Nurse drew back the curtain. “In another girl’s cubicle, and before half an hour of the term has passed, Geraldine!” remarked the starched and stately dignitary. “I had two thoughts about putting a new girl in here at all; for with you so forgetful and all, how’s she to learn the rules? Rumpling the covers--!” Nurse bent down and smoothed the coverlet herself; “and she younger than you, and needing teaching!” [Illustration: “I just half-guessed you’d be in our room.”] Nurse’s tone was majestic in its intonation, and a subdued voice came in reply from the other end of the room where Gerry had fled to her own domain. “Nurse, I honestly forgot. I’ll really remember. In three weeks, you know, one can forget such lots of things!” But Nurse replied not at all, and apparently making no allowance for this extenuating circumstance, turned to Betty instead. “You’re ready now? Well, Geraldine may take you downstairs when the tea-gong rings. You will see Miss Carey afterwards; but first of all she wishes you to have your tea.” Nurse withdrew, and the closing of the door behind her seemed to serve to loosen the tongue of Gerry, who burst into a flood of conversation without delay.