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different courses and only saw one another in choir and during breaks. But Lilian was almost instantly surrounded by other girls. Though she did not exclude Gloria—quite the opposite, Lilian warmly welcomed her into her circle—the girl felt out of place. The lower-form girls looked at her with a mixture of bewilderment, envy, and caution, as a great rivalry reigned between the two wings at Oaks Garden; the girls did not visit each other except to play tricks. When Lilian invited her to a midnight party, Gloria snuck over and even almost enjoyed nibbling cake and drinking lemonade with the younger girls. But Gabrielle and her other roommates caught her on her return, speedily forced a confession from her, and immediately told on Lilian to the housemother. Miss Barnum caught the girls cleaning up after the party, and punishment ensued. They held Gloria responsible for the sad end of the festivities.
    “Of course I believe you,” Lilian said sympathetically. The girls met while doing their punishment exercises in the garden, which consisted of being forced to walk for hours, usually in the rain. They were not really allowed to talk, but Lily was unable to keep her mouth shut. “That Gabrielle is a monster. But the others don’t want to have you around anymore. I’m so sorry!”
    So Gloria remained alone. Lilian left almost every weekend to visit one or another friend’s family. Many others did the same, so weekends at school consisted largely of outcasts. This left the girls very cross, and Gabrielle and Fiona took their low spirits out on Gloria.
    Gloria saw Miss Bleachum every Sunday at church, her only ray of hope all week. However, the young governess did not look particularly happy either. Gloria was astonished to see her at the organ in Sawston that first Sunday.
    “I had no idea you could play,” she said when they spoke after service.
    Sarah sighed. There had been some discussion with Christopher about her performance in the village church. Miss Taylor-Bennington had always played the organ—and much better than Sarah—but Christopher had insisted that Sarah “make her debut” in the parish, as he put it. Though he introduced her as his cousin, local gossip swirled about their impending marriage. Almost every woman with whom Sarah came into contact took it for granted—and already had ideas about how the future pastor’s wife could make herself useful in the parish. Sarah demurely took over bible study and Sunday school, but despite her incontestable pedagogical talents, her efforts were not warmly received.
    “Sarah, my dear, the women are complaining,” Christopher explained after her second week. “You’re turning bible lessons into a scientific lecture. All these stories from the Old Testament—do you have to do it that way?”
    “I thought I’d read them bible passages featuring women,” Sarah defended herself. “And the nicest are all in the Old Testament.”
    “The nicest? Like the one about Deborah, who goes with the commander into battle? Or the one about Jael, who kills her foe with a tent stake?” Christopher shook his head.
    “Yes, well, the women in the Old Testament were a bit, well, more active than those in the New,” Sarah admitted. “But they achieved a great deal. Esther, for example.”
    Christopher frowned. “Tell me, Sarah, do you sympathize with the suffragettes? That sounds rather inflammatory.”
    “It’s in the Bible,” Sarah remarked.
    “But there are nicer passages too.” Christopher laid his hands on the New Testament—and demonstrated to Sarah in the very next Sunday sermon what he thought of women in the Bible.
    “The price of a virtuous woman is far above rubies,” he began, only briefly touching on Eve’s failings. “The grace of a wife delighteth her husband, and her discretion will fatten his bones.”
    The women of the parish reddened as if at a secret command but enjoyed the praise and were enthused by Mary’s surrender to the will of the