nine o'clock
The next morning Claire was introduced to the scene of her new labours , and was agreeably impressed with its outside appearance . Saint Cuthbert 's High School was situated in a handsome thoroughfare , and had originally been a large private house , to which long wings had been added to right and left . On each side and across the road were handsome private houses standing in their own grounds , owned by tenants who regarded the High School with lively detestation , and would have borne up with equanimity had an earthquake swallowed it root and branch . Viewed from inside , the building was less attractive , passages and class-rooms alike having the air of bleak austerity which seems inseparable from such buildings ; but when nine o'clock struck , and the flood of young life went trooping up the stairways and flowed into the separate rooms , the sense of bareness was replaced by one of tingling vitality . As is usual on an opening day , every girl was at her best and brightest , decked in a new blouse , with pigtails fastened by crisp new ribbons , and good resolutions wound up to fever point . To find a new French mistress in the shape of a pretty well-dressed girl , who was English at one moment , and at the next even Frenchier than Mademoiselle , was an unexpected joy , and Claire found the battery of admiring young eyes an embarrassing if stimulating experience . Following Miss Farnborough 's advice , she spent the first day 's lessons in questioning the different classes as to their past work , and so turned the hour into an impromptu conversation class .