And then my father conceived the idea of sending me to school. At first I was excited at the prospect, and tramped willingly enough the few miles to Rancey Bridge, where there was a fair-sized school for boarders and day scholars, standing on a hill that sloped down to the Rancey River. But as my school-days have nothing to do with my story, except that it was at Rancey Bridge where I met Worthing Bright, I needn't dwell on them. Indeed the only thing I learnt there was how abnormal my life had been, and what a wonderful father I had; but judging by what I heard I had no desire to change either the one or the other, for the normal and the ordinary smacked of tameness to one of my experiences. Not that life was entirely uneventful. For I soon found that scholarship wasn't the best fun in the world, and after a period of grumpiness I set to work to enliven the dull hours of study, and with such success that there was a sort of revolution in the affairs of Rancey Bridge, initiated by my drawing my knife on Staggers, the usher, who was threatening to birch me, and driving him from the room. Naturally this created an uproar, and for a moment I was heralded as the hero of a new age; but the excitement was short-lived, for the time at any rate, for Worthing Bright appeared at the door, and the tumult died down. Now Worthing Bright was smaller than myself, though some three years older; but there was something in his presence and personality, and in his straight, neat, commanding little figure, that cowed the most rebellious. I had frequently tried to make a stand against this domination, which my reason told me was absurd, but I had never come off victor. A cutting word and a cold stare seemed to melt all the strength from my nerves and muscles, and my fists would fall open foolishly, and bowing my head I would slink away. It was much the same on this occasion. He stood at the door and looked at me. I summoned up all my bravado, but there was no moral support to be had from my fellows, already subdued. I was flushed and excited, and raising my knife I made it quiver above my head. But he gave me a look of pitying scorn, and said, "Let's play at being pirates," in a tone of such sneering emphasis that I felt convicted of conduct fit only for a girl of three. A minute later Staggers returned reassured, and I took my thrashing without a struggle. When it was over I turned away and would have left the school, not intending to stay any longer at such a place. But at the door I found Worthing still on guard. "That was well done," he said. "Now, don't spoil it." I faced him for a minute, but he pointed me back to the room; and I obeyed.