midday
This was her second . She had been in the school a fortnight -- the first Saturday she had spent writing to her mother -- a long letter for everyone to read , full of first impressions and enclosing a slangy almost affectionate little note for Harriett . In her general letter she had said , `` If you want to think of something jolly , think of me , here . '' She had hesitated over that sentence when she considered meal-times , especially the midday meal , but on the whole she had decided to let it stand -- this afternoon she felt it was truer . She was beginning to belong to the house -- she did not want to write letters -- but just to sit revelling in the sense of this room full of quietly occupied girls -- in the first hours of the weekly holiday . She thought of strange Ulrica somewhere upstairs and felt quite one of the old gang . `` Ages '' she had known all these girls .