"I did not quite mean the number of girls in the house, Miss St. Leger," the head prefect defended herself. "I was referring to the number of seniors. After all, it is the seniors who form the backbone of the house teams. There are only seven of us; Sheerston's, for example, have over twenty." "True again. Of course you have been unfortunate in losing three senior girls in the middle of the school year--a most unusual occurrence. That is why I put the only new senior girl this term in your house. But it is quality, as well as quantity, that counts." She looked at the listening girls, and a smile flashed over her face, smoothing out its lines and wrinkles. "You were studying Henry V last term in the Upper Fifth, weren't you, girls? Accept his point of view, then--the fewer fighters, the greater share of glory," and with a few more parting words of encouragement, she dismissed them. Kitty found the rest of that day one whirl of "settling down." First of all, with half a dozen other new girls, all younger, she was put through a searching oral examination by Miss Sheerston, in order to be "placed." Kitty, whose nerves hindered her, acquitted herself more creditably than she had hoped. Miss Sheerston was a queer, masculine-looking person, with a shirt blouse, high collar, and grey hair strained back from her face, but her manner was brisk, kindly, and invigorating in the extreme; her own girls thought the world of their house mistress. She praised Kitty's mathematics, declared her French to be appalling, and finally said, "You are sixteen, you say. Well, I don't see why you shouldn't make a shot for removal into the Sixth Form next term. Only you would have to give up any idea of taking extra classes, for the present, and devote extra time to your French." Kitty, feeling that she would have quite enough to cope with in the Upper Fifth, and then in the Sixth, as it was, hastily disclaimed any desire to take special classes, and so it was settled that she should join the ranks of the most elevated members of her own house in the Upper Fifth. In her few leisure moments she was busily arranging her part of the study she was to share with Hilary. All Sixth-formers were entitled to studies, of which they were very proud, sharing one between two. As there were now no Sixth-formers at Carslake's, the four studies were handed over to the Fifths, Upper and Lower.