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How can I, Hattie, when I dont know what to say. I cant guess what I am to do at college.
Oh dear, sighed Rose, I only wish I were the one to go! It will be very dull living with Aunt Raby when you are away, Priscilla. She wont let us take long walks, and if ever we go in for a real, jolly lark we are sure to be punished. Oh dear, oh dear!
Even though it is for your good, I wish with all my heart you were not going away, Prissie, said Hattie, in her blunt fashion.
Katie burst into sudden loud wails.
Priscilla coloured. Then she spoke with firmness. We have had enough of this kind of talk. Katie, you shall come and sit in my lap, darling. Ill wrap you up quite warm in this big shawl. Now, girls, she said, what is the use of making things harder? You know, perfectly, you two elder ones, why I must go away, and you, Katie, you know also, dont you, pet?
Yes, Prissie, answered Katie, speaking in a broken, half-sobbing voice, only I am so lonely.
But youre not going to be selfish, darling. By-and-by Ill come back to you all. Once every year, at least, Ill come back. And then, after Ive gone through my course of study, Ill get a situation of some sort a good situation and you three shall come and live with me. There, what do you say to that? Only three years, and then such a jolly time. Why, Katie will be only eleven then.
Priscilla spoke in a remarkably cheerful voice, but the appalling magnitude of three years could not be diminished, and the three little sisters who were to stay behind with Aunt Raby were still disposed to view things dismally.
If she wasnt just what she is began Hattie.
If she didnt think the least tiny morsel of a lark wrong continued Rose.
Why, then we could pull along somehow, sighed Hattie.
Oh, youll pull along as it is, said Priscilla. Ill write to you as often as ever I can. If possible Ill keep a sort of journal, and send it to you. And perhaps therell be stories and larks in it. Now you really must go to sleep, for I have to get up so early in the morning. Katie, darling, Ill make a corner for you in my bed to-night. Wont that be a treat?
Oh, yes, Prissie.
Katies pale face was lit up by a radiant smile; Hattie and Rose lay down side by side, and closed their eyes. In a few moments they were sound asleep.
As they lay in the sound happy sleep of healthy childhood Priscilla bent over them and kissed them. Then before she lay down herself she knelt by the window, looked up at the clear, dark sky in which the moon sailed in majesty, bent her head, murmured a few words of prayer, then crept into bed by her little sisters side.
Prissie felt full of courage and good resolves. She was going out into the world to-morrow, and she was quite determined that the world should not conquer her, although she knew that she was a very poor maiden with a specially heavy load of care on her young shoulders.
Chapter Two The Delights of being a Fresher
St. Benets, the College for Women, was approached by a private road, and high entrance gates obstructed the gaze of the curious. Inside there were cheerful halls and pleasant gardens, and gay, fresh, unrestrained life. But the passer-by got no peep of these things unless the high gates happened to be open.
This was the first evening of term,
and most of the girls were back. There was nothing very particular going on, and they were walking about the gardens, and greeting old friends, and telling each other their experiences, and more or less picking up the threads which had been broken or loosened in the long vacation.
The evenings were drawing in, but the pleasant twilight which was soon to be rendered brilliant by the full moon seemed to the girls even nicer than broad daylight to linger about in. They did not want to go into the houses; they flitted about in groups here and there, chatting and laughing merrily.
St. Benets had three Halls, each with its own Vice-Principal, and a certain number of resident students. Each Hall stood in its own grounds, and was more or less a complete home in itself. There were resident lecturers and demonstrators for the whole college, and one Lady Principal, who took the lead, and was virtually head of the college.
Miss Vincent was the name of the present Principal. She was an old lady, and had a Vice-Principal under her at Vincent Hall, the largest and newest of these spacious homes, where young women received the advantages of University instruction to prepare them for the battle of life.
Priscilla was to live at Heath Hall a slightly smaller house, which stood at a little distance away its grounds being divided from the grounds of Vincent Hall by means of a rustic paling. Miss Heath was the very popular Vice-Principal of this Hall, and Prissie was considered a fortunate girl to obtain a home in her house. She sat now a forlorn and rather scared young person, huddled up in one corner of the fly which turned in at the wide gates, and finally deposited her and her luggage at the back entrance of Heath Hall.