Syb bolted to the bathroom; the other two turned their backs studiously upon the aggressor, and talked ostentatiously to one another. Joey curled up on her bed, did her hair in three bangs, and then wrote up her diary for the first day at Redlands. "Redlands is a hole, and the girls are pigs. I hate them all, except p'r'aps Gabrielle. They think it a fair disgrace to have been at a council school, and say beastly things. I wish I was seventeen this minute, and coming away: I'll never get a bit of paper big enough to cross off all the hateful horrid days I've got to stay here. I have settled never to say a single word to any of these hateful horrid swanky girls, except, p'r'aps Gabrielle, as long as I live." The letter to Mums, which was also written while the other three bathed in tepid water with much bitterness of spirit, expressed a rather different view. "It's frightfully pretty here," Joey wrote, "and the Wash lies on the edge of what you see--all glittering--and the river is mixed up with it, and the Deeps are like another sea, only green grass. The College is awfully nice, and some of it is very ancient and historical. I'll tell you the history bits when I've mugged them up. I'm in Blue Dorm, and that's the nicest Dorm. I have the bed nearest the door, and that's frightfully handy for getting first bath. My room-companions are Sybil, Barbara, and Noreen O'Hara. They were very interested in my photographs. I'm going to have a topping time here, I can see, and I should think I'm in the liveliest dorm that ever was.--Your loving "JOEY." "P.S.--You might write soon; I'm frightfully happy here, still you might write." A bell rang just as Joey had finished her letter, and a stentorian voice in the passage cried, "Silence for prayers." Noreen O'Hara rushed from the bathroom, after a tub lasting a short two minutes, and hurled herself upon her knees among her sponges and bath-towel. A minute later a Prefect looked in, and withdrew noiselessly. There was absolute quiet for some seven or eight minutes, and then a little murmur arose again. Joey had dropped her writing-things and said her prayers like the rest. She wondered if she ought to feel ashamed of her behaviour with the bath; the sad thing was that she didn't, particularly. And if she said she was sorry now, the furious three would think she was afraid of what they might do to her. Joey decided to stick it out, but have a shorter and a cooler bath to-morrow. Another bell rang. Noreen and Syb were already in bed; Barbara jumped up at the bell, and Joey more slowly followed her example. The Prefect looked in again. "All in bed--that's right." She turned to put out the light. "Good-night." "Good-night, Ingrid," said the injured three in a burst. "Good-night," said Joey pointedly by herself when the others had finished. Ingrid Latimer looked in her direction. "Why, it's the new kid."