A Pair of Schoolgirls: A Story of School Days: Complete

IT was precisely five minutes past eleven on the first day of the autumn term, and Avondale College, which for seven whole weeks had been lonely and deserted, and given over to the tender mercies ofpaperhangers, painters, and charwomen, once more presented its wonted aspect of life and bustle.The reopening was a very important event in the opinion of everybody concerned, partly because itmarked the beginning of a fresh school year, and partly because the building had been altered andenlarged, many changes made in the curriculum, and many new names added to the already long listin the register. Three hundred and eighty-seven pupils had assembled that morning in the greatlecture hall, the largest number on record at the College; five additional classes had been formed, and there were six extra mistresses. At the eleven o'clock interval the place seemed swarming withgirls; they thronged the staircase and passages, filled the pantry, blocked the dressing-rooms, andoverflowed into the playground and the gymnasium-girls of all sorts and descriptions, from theten-year-olds who had just come up (rather solemn and overawed) from the Preparatory to thoseelect and superior damsels of seventeen who were studying for their Matriculatio