The master of St. Benedict's, Vol. 1 (of 2) — John Shaqi
The master of St. Benedict's, Vol. 1 (of 2)St. Aubyn, Alan
General
The master of St. Benedict's, Vol. 1 (of 2)
St. Aubyn, Alan
Cambridge (England) -- Fiction; School principals -- Fiction; Students -- Fiction
'Chilling! that's lovely! You've come to the wrong place if you expect
any warmth at Newnham, or sympathy either. It would be nothing better
than a big girls' school if we were always "How-d'ye-doing" and shaking
hands with each other--we should get to _kissing_ soon! Thank goodness
there is no spooning here! We are barely civil to each other; and we
make a point of ignoring everybody if we meet 'em out-of-doors. I hope
you won't, on the strength of this tea, nod to me if you happen to run
against me in the street, because I shan't notice you.'
'No,' said Lucy, 'I certainly won't nod to you.' She didn't say it at
all humbly, but she drank Miss Stubbs' tea. It was very good tea for
Newnham.
CHAPTER IV.
PAMELA GWATKIN.
Lucy saw the Principal, as Miss Stubbs had said, at dinner. She came
into the hall rather late, and took her seat at the High table.
It is necessary to spell it with a capital H, as it is distinctly a
proper noun, and in Newnham parlance, like the tables in men's colleges
where the Dons eat their dinners, it is known as the 'High.'
Miss Wrayburne came in rather late, after the rest were seated, and
took her place at the head of the 'High,' and then followed a moment's
interval for grace, and then the murmur of tongues began--a low,
distinctly female murmur, and occasionally a laugh--a little low laugh.
There was a good deal of talk to-day, as everybody had come up fresh,
and the atmosphere of the vacation was still about them, and nobody
had begun work yet. They would unpack their books by-and-by, and then
everything would be changed.
Lucy did not know a soul in the place, except Maria Stubbs, and she sat
at another table. She sat quite at the other end of the room, and never
once looked Lucy's way, and brushed by her in the corridor as if she
had never seen her before.
'She needn't be afraid I shall notice her, the horrid red-haired
thing!' Lucy said to herself with quite unnecessary warmth, when Maria
looked the other way. 'I wouldn't notice her for the world!'
There were quite half a dozen tables between her and Maria, long narrow
tables, with some half-dozen girls at each--girls who ignored everybody
else except their own set, and talked across a stranger as if she were
a dummy.
They talked across Lucy, and she listened to their talk with a red spot
burning on her cheeks and her heart beating. She had not much appetite
for the dinner, and she got up from the table with a strange choking
sensation that brought the tears smarting to her eyes. She took some
comfort in the thought that some day she would talk across a fresher.
Her turn would come some day; and while her mind was occupied with this
agreeable reflection Miss Wrayburne smiled at her, and said:
'How do you do?'
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