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[[underline]] THE LADY PRINCIPAL. [[/underline]]

On arriving at school, instead of making straight for my dormitory to arrange my things, I was taken into the Director's private study. There, blocking up the room and facing me was the huge form of the new Principal. She was dressed in the latest bustled and frilled dress of the period. By her side lay a big and inordinately fat dog who growled loudly when his mistress out-stretched her enormous arms do draw me towards her double roll of chins. I was to be her favorite, she said, and taken special care of. 

Undemonstrative by nature, and thoroughly resenting this effusion, I decided then and there that the lady did not belong to St. Catherine's at all. On looking back I realise that she represented one of those impecunious society women who take upon themselves duties quite foreign to their nature or capacity. She was insensible to the distinctive atmosphere of the old school; the object before her was to brighten things up a bit, and this more for herself than for anyone else.

During the three years that had passed, I had enjoyed the comparative freedom of being one with the crowd; an apparent loss of identity allowing much for inner development. Suddenly this seclusion come to an end. As the favorite of the lady principal I was brought sharply into the lime-light. My place at the table was next to hers, and her "special care" so intimidated me that I could scarcely eat. My new dress, like hers, had a bustle of ruffles, and was not in harmony either with my appearance or my particular turn of mind.

This lady was the first of her tribe called "Society" that I was to meet. The old-world atmosphere of St. Catherine's was dispelled by her intrusive stupidity. All day long she and her fat dog