The Story of Louie

or two old microscopes; and it totally lacked the newer trimmings of specialisation. Its founder, a Bristol seedsman called Chesson, had bought the place cheap

that the wages of two men and a boy might be saved, he ha

-the premium idea. With the Diploma properly advertised, its grantee made Principal, a premium or so forgone (called a Scholarship) and the proper person installed over all as Lady-in-Charge, Chesson had foreseen a good deal of his work being done by young women

hey alighted at Rainham Magna station the Captain put Louie and her traps into one of the nondescript vehicles that only saw the light when the Rainham girls arrived or departed, and drove off with her to the college. There he shook hands with the Lady-in-Charge, Mrs. Lovenant-Smith, and asked her w

ou've heard me speak of Lovenant-Smith, haven't you? Adjutant eight or nine years ago; not a bad chap at all, I should have said. She'll

che and inwardly commenting that the

n trees up the sides of the cottages and had to be cut away from the upper windows, and filled the deep lanes with the hart's-tongue fern. It also brought forth rich produce. The dairy business and poultry farm flourished; crates and parcels and returned empties kept the goods clerk at Rainham Magna station busy; and,

the way to her cubicle, was more than twenty-two. Her large black feathered hat (see the first part of the Captain's advice as to how she would make the most of herself), and her expensively simple navy blue coat and skirt down to her toes, further distinguished her among the tweed jackets and ankle-length skirts of the younger girls. No doubt she had her perfect management

rk, and sudden steps where no steps were to have been expected made of the uneven floors a series of booby-traps for those not familiar with them. Memories of the Monmouth Rebellion seemed to linger round the corners and to be shut up in the cupboards of the place. They passed downstairs. Through the doorway of the handsome Restoration fa?ade they saw the yew again, dark beyond the shining

ea?" said the copper-haired g

to Miss Chesson at five," sai

just time, if

ekeeper ran cups of tea from the ta

e dining-room. Before the clock had struck five

ss of unadjusted proportions and movements that lacked co-ordination. She had several distinct voices, and in one of these she was now engaged in unabashed mimicry. Louie, who had got her cup of tea, heard a bell-like "Os-trich feathers!" and she was about to put a qu

re all wrong,

hild turned

do it?" s

om curtsy? Yes," the child had cried: "Girls! Girls! Here

g, and handing her cup of te

atch (that's my sister-she's

ckly then-I have to

de her first bow to her fellow-students at Chesson's in the deep and swanlike genuflexion she had p

ebody say as she did so. "I

ught Mis

of study she proposed to take. Louie replied (in other words) that all courses were the same to her. Miss Harriet had had that kind of student before.

. There was a serenity about them that transcended the ordinary imperative mood. "Students do not absent themselves from Morning Prayers or Divine Service without Permission." "Students do not give Orders to the Garden

t-Smith's persuasion that the young ladies of Chesson's, being the daughters of g

second of the Captain's recommendations for the attire that suited her best), and weari