three o'clock
But they reckoned without Gipsy . That any girl of her age should be capable of welding the shifting dissatisfaction of the Lower School into one solid mass of opposition had never occurred to them . So far no Junior had exercised any particular influence over her fellows ; it had been each for herself , even in clamouring appeals for privileges , and the upper girls looked down on the `` kids '' as a noisy , selfish , troublesome crew , to be kept well under , and not worthy of very much consideration . The Annual Meeting of the Guilds was to take place on Friday , 15 October , at three o'clock , in the lecture hall . It was held every year on the Friday nearest to the middle of October , and by old-established custom the last hour of the afternoon was allowed to be devoted to it . The mistresses were never present , and the girls , under the superintendence of the monitresses , were permitted to make any arrangements they thought fit , so long as they did not interfere with the ordinary school rules . Though the meetings had begun in good faith , as representative assemblies for all alike , they had degenerated into a merely formal statement of accounts by the Committee , which the general rank and file were expected to pass without comment , and an election of officers chosen almost entirely from the monitresses .