A subject had lately arisen upon which they were entirely agreed. They considered that Laura Kirby, as head of the school, was not nearly keen enough upon her duties. Laura was working very hard, in view of her matriculation and scholarship examination next summer, and as Literary delegate she was also preoccupied with the number of the _Alliance Magazine_ that was to be printed in time for Christmas. She did not care to be worried with too many school details, and rather than trouble to enforce her authority on the juniors, she would shut her eyes to much that was going on. Every now and then, if things got rather bad, she would seemingly wake up, and distribute punishments where they were due; but the younger girls soon found out that she preferred to keep a conveniently blind vision for some of their transgressions, and, taking advantage of this, they began to grow rather out of hand.
A particular point at present disturbing several of the monitresses was the behaviour of the juniors on their way home from the College. St. Cyprian's was situated in Lime Grove, a quiet avenue which communicated with one of the main roads connecting Kirkton and its suburbs. Many of the girls used the electric trams, the stopping-place for which was just at the end of the Grove; they had often five minutes or more to wait until their various cars arrived, and during that interval they conducted themselves in a most unseemly fashion. Instead of standing aside and chatting quietly, they blocked up the pavement to the inconvenience of passers-by, and talked and laughed in a manner that rendered them highly conspicuous.
"The last few days it has been absolutely shameful!" said Freda Kingston, discussing the situation with Lottie and Mildred. "There they are, in their school hats and badges, so that everybody knows they belong to St. Cyprian's. They bring disgrace on the Coll.! Some of them actually won't trouble to put on their gloves, and their behaviour makes people stare."
"And when their trams come up, they make a rush and crowd on in the rudest manner, pushing past older people, and giggling, and generally making one ashamed for them," said Mildred.
"The worst of it is that the very ones who behave so shockingly go by the Carlton Hill car, and Laura is nearly always on it herself. She's there waiting at the corner, and she hears the babel of noise they're making, and sees them stampede up the steps on to the top of the tram, and she just pops inside herself, opens a book, and takes no notice," said Lottie.