A Pair of Schoolgirls

IT was precisely five minutes past eleven on the first day of the autumn term, andAvondale College, which for seven whole weeks had been lonely and deserted, andgiven over to the tender mercies of paperhangers, painters, and charwomen, oncemore presented its wonted aspect of life and bustle. The reopening was a veryimportant event in the opinion of everybody concerned, partly because it markedthe beginning of a fresh school year, and partly because the building had beenaltered and enlarged, many changes made in the curriculum, and many new namesadded to the already long list in the register. Three hundred and eighty-sevenpupils had assembled that morning in the great lecture hall, the largest number onrecord at the College; five additional classes had been formed, and there were sixextra mistresses. At the eleven o'clock interval the place seemed swarming withgirls; they thronged the staircase and passages, filled the pantry, blocked thedressing-rooms, and overflowed into the playground and the gymnasium-girls ofall sorts and descriptions, from the ten-year-olds who had just come up (rathersolemn and overawed) from the Preparatory to those elect and superior damsels ofseventeen who were studying for their Matriculation.