Judith was quite ready for buns and milk at eleven-thirty and enjoyed
her fifteen minutes in the open, and by the end of the morning she was
both tired and stimulated, for she found that she was required to think
for herself in order to take part in the discussions. There was to be a
written test to-morrow on the books which had been set for Form Five A's
summer reading and Judith had thought that she was prepared for it. But
as Miss Marlowe proceeded with her keen questioning, Judith began to
wonder if she knew anything at all about "The Idylls of the King." Miss
Marlowe had a way of saying, when answers were given, "Yes--yes--what do
_you_ yourself think?" which Judith, accustomed to teachers who had
spoken with a voice of authority, found disconcerting but highly
interesting.
After luncheon and a rest period, Nancy took Judith for a tour of
inspection; tennis courts, cricket field, gymnasium, common room, and
library were visited in turn, the etiquette of the stairs
explained--Judith learned that it was considered fearful "side" for a
Fifth-Form girl to use the front stairway to the entrance hall--and the
round ended in the tuck shop where Judith was introduced to the
presiding genius--Mrs. Wilcox, the housekeeper's sister--a bright-eyed,
cheerful little Englishwoman, who, to judge by the way the girls greeted
her, was immensely popular.
Sally May and Josephine hailed them from a coveted table by the west
window, and the four of them were soon busily and happily engaged with
peach sundaes and the foibles and peculiarities of teachers new and old.
The four-thirty bell caused a hasty scattering: Judith was enrolled in
music and studio classes and introduced to study hour in the library.
It _was_ a busy day. Judith, as she drifted off into the sleep that
claimed her before she had time to think over the events of the last
twenty-four hours, wondered drowsily whether she had been at York a day
or a week, and however was she going to tell Mother and Daddy _all_
about it as she had promised!
By the end of the week the new girls had been so well shepherded by the
old that Judith had lost her first shyness and bewilderment at living
with so many new people, and was beginning to feel that she herself was
an old girl and ready to uphold and defend York Hill traditions.
Everything had so far been made so easy for her that she had lost sight
of Aunt Nell's cryptic remarks concerning the important things that the
girls were to teach her. But the week was not to end without the
beginning of the discipline Aunt Nell had been thinking about.
When Nancy and Judith ran upstairs after luncheon on Friday, Judith was
surprised to find on her bedroom door a card. There was one on
Josephine's too.