A Popular Schoolgirl | Page 6

with their nearest neighbors. A
general buzz of conversation, constantly restrained by mistresses, kept
rising and then falling again to subdued whispers. In a short time the
hall was full, Miss Perry had opened the piano, and the choir leaders
had ranged themselves round her. In dead silence all the girls, big and
little, turned their eyes towards the platform. The door behind the row
of palms and ferns was opening, and Miss Burd, in scholastic cap and
gown, was ushering in the Mayor, the Mayoress, several Town
Councilors and their wives, a few clergy, the head-master of the School
of Art, and, to the place of honor in the middle, Sir James Hilton, the
Member of Parliament for Grovebury, who was to conduct the
ceremony of the afternoon. He was a pleasant, genial-looking man, and
though, as he assured his audience, he had never before had the
opportunity of addressing a room full of girls, he seemed to be able to
rise to the occasion, and made quite a capital speech.
"You're lucky to have this handsome building in which to do your
lessons," he concluded. "Our environment makes a great difference to
us, and I think it is far easier to turn out good work in the midst of
beautiful surroundings. Grovebury College has reaped a well-deserved
reputation in the past, and I trust that its hitherto excellent standards
will be maintained or even surpassed in the future. As member for the
town there's a special word I wish to say to you. Train yourselves to be
good women citizens. Some day, when you're grown up, you will have
votes, and in that way assist in the self-government of this great nation.
The better educated and the more enlightened you are, the better fitted
you will be for your civic responsibility. Every girl who does her duty
at school is helping her country, because she is making herself efficient
to serve it in some capacity. At present England stands at a great crisis;
if we are to keep up the traditions of our forefathers we want workers,

not slackers, in every department of life. Even the smallest of those
little girls sitting in the front row can do her bit. As for you elder girls,
think of yourselves as a Cadet Corps, training for the service of the
British Empire, and let every lesson you learn be not for your own
advantage, but for the good you can do with it afterwards to the world.
I have very great pleasure in declaring this new building open."
After Sir James had sat down, the Mayor and several other people made
short speeches, and when all the clapping had finally subsided, the
piano struck up, and the school sang an Empire Song and the National
Anthem. Then the door at the back of the platform opened again for the
exit of the visitors, who, chatting among themselves, made their way to
Miss Burd's study to be hospitably entertained with tea and cakes. The
whole ceremony had barely occupied an hour, and it was not yet four
o'clock. The girls, in orderly files, marched from the lecture-hall, and
betook themselves first to their new form-rooms, where textbooks were
given out with preparation for the next day, and desks allotted; then,
when the great bell rang for dismissal, to the playground and
cloak-rooms, en route for home.
Ingred, with a goodly pile of fresh literature under her arm, walked
slowly downstairs. She was not in any hurry to leave the class-room,
and lingered as long as the limits of Miss Strong's patience lasted. She
knew there was a certain ordeal to be faced with her form-mates, and
she was not sure whether she wanted to put it off, or to get it over at
once.
"Better let them know and have done with it," she said to herself after a
few moments' consideration on the landing. "After all, it's my business,
not theirs!"
It was a rather airily-defiant Ingred who strolled into the cloak-room
and put on her hat. Francie Hall, trying to thread her boot with a lace
that had lost its tag, looked up, smiled, and made room for her on the
form.
"Cheery-ho, Ingred! How do you like our new diggings? Some removal,
this, isn't it? I must say the place looks nice. It's topping to be here at

last. By the by, I suppose you'll be getting in Rotherwood soon? Or
have you got already?"
Ingred was stooping to lace her shoe, so perhaps the position accounted
for her stifled voice.
"We're not going back there."
"Not going back!" Francie's tone was one of genuine amazement. "Why,
but you said it was being done up for you, and you'd be moving before
the term started!"
"Well, we're not, at any