



Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England




Three Girls from School
By L.T. Meade
Illustrations by Percy Tarrant
Published by W and R Chambers, Ltd, London, Edinburgh.
This edition dated 1907.

Three Girls from School, by L.T. Meade.

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________
THREE GIRLS FROM SCHOOL, BY L.T. MEADE.

CHAPTER ONE.

LETTERS.

Priscilla Weir, Mabel Lushington, and Annie Brooke were all seated
huddled up close together on the same low window-sill.  The day was a
glorious one in the beginning of July.  The window behind the girls was
open, and the softest of summer breezes came in and touched their young
heads, playing with the tumbled locks of hair of different shades,
varying from copper-colour to dark, and then to brightest gold.

Priscilla was the owner of the dark hair; Mabel possessed the
copper-colour, Annie Brooke the gold.  All three girls looked much about
the same age, which might have been anything from sixteen to eighteen.
Priscilla was perhaps slightly the youngest of the trio.  She had
dark-grey, thoughtful eyes; her face was pale, her mouth firm and
resolved.  It was a sad mouth for so young a girl, but was also capable
of much sweetness.  Mabel Lushington was made on a big scale.  She was
already well developed, and the copper in her lovely hair was
accompanied by a complexion of peachlike bloom, by coral lips, and
red-brown eyes.  Those lips of hers were, as a rule, full of laughter.
People said of Mabel that she was always either laughing or smiling.
She was very much liked in the school, for she was at once good-natured
and rich.

Annie Brooke was small.  She was the sort of girl who would be described
as _petite_.  Her hair was bright and pretty.  She had beautiful hands
and feet, and light-blue eyes.  But she was by no means so
striking-looking as Mabel Lushington, or so thoughtful and intellectual
as Priscilla Weir.

The post had just come in, and two of the girls had received letters.
Priscilla read hers, turned a little paler than her wont, slipped it
into her pocket, and sat very still, Mabel, on the contrary, held her
unopened letter in her lap, and eagerly began to question Priscilla.

"Whom have you heard from?  What is the matter with you?  Why don't you
divulge the contents?"

"Yes, do, Priscilla, please," said Annie Brooke, who was the soul of
curiosity.  "You know, Priscilla, you never could have secrets from your
best friends."

"I have got to leave school," said Priscilla; "there is nothing more to
be said.  My uncle has written; he has made up his mind; he says I am to
learn farming."

"Farming!" cried the other two.  "You--a girl!"

"Oh, dairy-work," said Priscilla, "and the managing of a farm-house
generally.  If I don't succeed within six months he will apprentice me,
he says, to a dressmaker."

"Oh, poor Priscilla!  But you are a lady."

"Uncle Josiah doesn't mind."

"What an old horror he must be!" said Annie Brooke.

"Yes.  Don't let us talk about it."  Priscilla jumped up, walked across
the room, and took a book from its place on the shelf.  As she did so
she turned and faced her two companions.

The room in which the three found themselves was one of the most
beautiful of the many beautiful rooms at Mrs Lyttelton's school.  The
house was always called the School-House; and the girls, when asked
where they were educated, replied with a certain modest pomposity, "At
Mrs Lyttelton's school."  Those who had been there knew the value of the
announcement, for no school in the whole of England produced such girls:
so well-bred, so thoroughly educated, so truly taught those things which
make for honour, for purity, for a life of good report.

Mrs Lyttelton had a secret known but to a few: how to develop the very
best in each girl brought under her influence.  She knew how to give
liberty with all essential restraints, and how to cultivate ambition
without making the said ambition too worldly-minded.  She was adored by
all the girls, and there were very few who did not shed tears when the
time came for them to leave the School-House.

The said School-House was situated in the most lovely part of Middlesex,
not very far from Hendon.  It was quite in the country, and commanded a
splendid view.  The house was old, with many gables, quaint old windows,
long passages, and innumerable rooms.  Each girl over fifteen had a
bedroom to herself in Mrs Lyttelton's school, and each girl over fifteen
who deserved the privilege was accorded the _entree_ to the older girls'
sitting-room.  Into this room no teacher was allowed to enter without
permission.  The room as completely belonged to the girls as though
there were no teachers in the school.  Here they could give
entertainments; here they could conduct debates; here they could lounge
and read and chatter and enjoy themselves to their hearts' delight.

The room wanted for no lack of dainty furnishing.  There were cosy nooks
in more than one corner; there were easy-chairs galore; and from the
low, old-fashioned windows could be seen the most perfect view of the
outside world.

Priscilla Weir now turned to look at this view.  She had a passionate
love for all beautiful things.  There was a dimness before her eyes.
From the view she glanced at Mabel Lushington; then she looked at Annie
Brooke.

Both girls sympathised with her; and yet, not in the way she wanted.
She turned abruptly and left the room.

When the door closed behind her Mabel immediately rose, and as she did
so the unopened letter tumbled from her lap.  Annie Brooke took it up
and handed it to her.

"How upset she is!" said Annie.

"Oh yes," replied Mabel; "but I only wish I were in her shoes.  Oh, I
know, of course, Annie, it is jolly here, and Mrs Lyttelton is a
darling; but I want to get into the big world I shall be eighteen in a
month, and it seems absurd to keep any girl