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
The college was quite shut away in its own grounds, and only from the upper windows did the girls get a peep of the old University town of Kingsdene. From these, however, particularly in the winter, they could see the gabled colleges, the chapels with their rich glory of architecture, and the smooth lawns of the college gardens as they sloped gently down to the river.
St. Benet’s, 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. Benet’s 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.
Priscilla looked out into the darkness of the autumn night with frightened eyes. She hated herself for feeling nervous. She had told Aunt Raby that, of course, she would have no silly tremors, yet here she was, trembling, and scarcely able to pay the cabman his fare.
She heard a girl’s laugh in the distance, and it caused her to start so violently that she dropped one of her few treasured sixpences, which went rolling about aimlessly almost under the horse’s hoofs.
“Stop a minute, I’ll find it for you,” said a voice. A tall girl with big, brown eyes suddenly darted into view, picked up the sixpence as if by magic, popped it into Priscilla’s hand, and then, vanished. Priscilla knew that this was the girl who had laughed; she heard her laughing again as she turned to join someone who was standing beside a laurel hedge. The two linked their arms together, and walked off in the darkness.
“Such a frightened poor Fresher!” said the girl who had picked up the sixpence to her companion.
“Maggie,” said the other in a warning voice, “I know you, I know what you mean to do.”
“My dear good Nancy, it is more than I know myself. What awful indiscretion does your prophetic soul see me perpetrating?”
“Oh, Maggie, as if anything could change your nature! You know you’ll take up that miserable Fresher for about a fortnight, and make her imagine that you are going to be excellent friends for the rest of your life, and then – p-f! you’ll snuff her out as if she had never existed; I know you, Maggie, and I call it cruel.”
“Is not that Miss Banister I hear talking?” said a voice quite close to the two girls.
They both turned, and immediately with heightened colour rushed up eagerly to shake hands with the Vice-Principal of their college.
“How do you do, my dears?” she said in a hearty voice. “Are you quite well, Maggie, and you, Nancy? Had you a pleasant holiday? And did you two great chums spend it together?”
The girls began answering eagerly; some other girls came up and joined the group, all anxious to shake hands with Miss Heath, and to get a word of greeting from her.
At this moment the dressing-gong for dinner sounded, and the little group moved slowly towards the house.
In the entrance-hall numbers of girls who had recently arrived were standing about; all had a nod, or a smile, or a kiss for Maggie Oliphant.
“How do you do, Miss Oliphant? Come and see me to-night in my room, won’t you, dear?” issued from many throats.
Maggie promised in her good-natured, affectionate, wholesale way.
Nancy Banister was also greeted by several friends. She, too, was gay and bright, but quieter than Maggie. Her face was more reliable in its expression, but not nearly so beautiful.
“If you accept all these invitations, Maggie,” she said, as the two girls walked down the corridor which led to their rooms, “you know you will have to sit up until morning. Why will you say ‘yes’ to everyone? You know it only causes disappointment and jealousy.”
Maggie laughed.
“My dear, good creature, don’t worry your righteous soul,” she answered. “I’ll call on all the girls I can, and the others must grin and bear it. Now we have barely time to change our dresses for dinner. Stay, though, Nance, there’s a light under Annabel Lee’s door; who have they dared to put into her room? It must be one of those wretched Freshers. I don’t think I can bear it. I shall have to go away into another corridor.”
“Maggie, dear – you are far too sensitive. Could the college afford to keep a room empty because poor dear Annie Lee occupied it?”
“They could, they ought,” burst from Maggie. She stamped her foot with anger. “That room is a shrine to me. It will always be a shrine. I shall hate the person who lives in it.” Tears filled her bright brown eyes. Her arched proud lips trembled. She opened her door, and going into her room, shut it with a bang, almost in Nancy Banister’s face.
Nancy stood still for a minute. A quick sigh came from her lips.
“Maggie is the dearest girl in the college,” she said to herself; “the dearest, the sweetest, the prettiest, yet also the most tantalising, the most provoking, the most inconsequent. It is the greatest wonder she has kept so long out of some serious scrape. She will never leave here without doing something outrageous, and yet there isn’t a girl in the place to be named with her. I wish – ” here Nancy sighed again, and put her hand to her brow as if to chase away some perplexity. Then, after a moment’s hesitation, she went up to the door of the room next to Maggie’s and knocked.
There was a moment’s silence, then a constrained voice said —
“Come in.”
Nancy entered at once.
Priscilla Peel was standing in the centre of the room. The electric light was turned on, revealing the bareness and absence of all ornament of the apartment; a fire was laid in the grate but not lit, and Priscilla’s ugly square trunk, its canvas covering removed, stood in a prominent position, half on the hearthrug, half on the square of carpet, which covered the centre of the floor. Priscilla had taken off her jacket and hat.