CHAPTER III

Wynch-on-the-Wold


Though the College only opened on Tuesday afternoon, the short remainder
of the week seemed enormously long to Ingred. Her form mates were the
same, but everything else was absolutely changed; she might have been at
a new school. She appreciated the convenient arrangements of the
handsome building: the lecture-hall, with its stained-glass window and
polished floor, the airy class-rooms, the studio with its facilities for
every kind of art work, the three music-rooms, the laboratory, the
gymnasium, and, last but not least, the hostel. Ingred had never before
been a boarder, and she had not expected to like the experience, but
there is a subtle charm in community life that infects everybody with
"the spirit of the hive," and in spite of herself she began to be
interested in the particular set of faces that met round the table for
meals. The greater part of the girls were in the middle and lower
school, but there were a few members of the Sixth, who sat next to Mrs.
Best, the matron, and Nurse Warner, and looked with superior eyes on the
crowd of intermediates and juniors. To have secured such congenial
room-mates was an asset for which she could not be sufficiently
thankful. Whatever troubles might await her downstairs, it was a
comfort to know that she had three allies ready to flock to her support.
She had not known any of them well in the past, but as they seemed
prepared to offer their friendship, she also was ready to act the part
of chum. By exchanging desks with Linda Slater, she managed to secure a
seat next to Verity in school, and entered into an arrangement with her
that they should supply the missing gaps in each other's notes, for Miss
Strong often lectured so rapidly that it was impossible to keep up with