School Girl Torrent Download

In 1982, the Walkman had been out only three years, and I was living in Japan on the brink of adulthood, and it was perfect. The Walkman allowed me to occupy two places at once, to belong here and there. It accompanied me on my walk to school. It accompanied me on my train ride. It accompanied me when my palate finally started to change, and I exchanged the French fries for rice and fish and miso- shiru. It accompanied the skinny, long-haired Belen girl who became the not-so-skinny, spiky-topped, Japanese school girl. It was there when it became more difficult for me to speak English than Japanese. The little sisters of my second host family borrowed my Walkman and left behind their cassettes, and I listened to them too.

Adelle was in her thirteenth year and in the last grade of her schoolwhen she first began to notice the presence of some strangers in theChurch Street house. She was not an observant child, and there was sucha succession of "roomers" in the house that a stranger's face arousedlittle curiosity. But these men were better dressed than any roomers andtalked in tones of authority and conscious position. They held longconversations with her uncle and aunt in the dining-room behind closeddoors, and once she saw a bundle of papers spread out upon the table.These days her uncle and aunt talked much about titles, mortgages,deeds, and other matters she did not understand nor ask about. But shefelt that something important was astir in the Church Street house, as achild realizes vaguely such movements outside its own sphere. Once oneof the men, who was putting on his silk hat in the hall and preparing toleave the house, inquired, "Is that the girl?" To which question heruncle and aunt answered briefly, "Yes." The tone of the stranger wasexactly as if he had asked, "Is that the bundle of clothes we weretalking about?"

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Whereat the class tittered and Adelle had a mild sensation of dislikefor the irascible teacher, who reported in "teachers' meeting" thatAdelle Clark was as nearly defective as a child of her years could beand be "all right," and that the grades ought not to permit such pupilsto graduate into the high school. Indeed, algebra, Cæsar, and Greekhistory were as nearly senseless to Adelle Clark as they could be. Theywere entirely remote from her life, and nothing of imagination rose fromwithin to give them meaning. She learned by rote, and she had a poormemory. It was much the same, however, with English literature or socialscience or French, subjects that might be expected to awaken someresponse in the mind of a girl. The only subject that she really likedwas dancing, which the gymnasium instructor taught. Adelle danced verywell, as if she were aware of being alive when she danced. But even theathletic young woman who had the gymnasium classes reported that AdelleClark was too dull, too lifeless, to succeed as a dancer or athleticteacher. These public guardians of youth may or may not have been rightin their judgments, but certainly as yet the girl had not "waked up"....

Adelle did not know all at once. She had read something aboutboarding-schools in story-books, but her conception of them was hazy.And she ventured to say out loud that they must take a "sight of money."The president of the trust company smiled for the benefit of hisfellow-officers and proceeded to break the news of the rich expectationsawaiting the timid little girl.

These remarks reveal on his part a special philosophy that will becomeclearer as we get to know better Miss Annette Thompson and Herndon Hall.The officers of the trust company felt that in sending their ward tothis fashionable girls' school, they were doing their duty by her notonly safely but handsomely, and thenceforth dismissed her from theirthoughts, except when a subordinate brought them at regular intervals avoucher to sign before issuing a check on behalf of Adelle....

"Terribly crude little piece," the president of the trust company saidof Adelle, thinking of his own vivacious daughters, who at her age hadbeen complete little women of the world, and of all the other pretty,confident, voluble girls he met in his social life. "She has seennothing of life," he said in extenuation, by which he meant naturallythat Adelle Clark had never known how "nice people live," had never beento dancing-school or parties, or country clubs or smart dressmakers, andall the rest of what to him constituted a "suitable education" for ayoung girl who was to inherit money.

The tone of the school was distinctly fashionable, also idle andluxurious, which was what its patrons desired. Many of the mothers andother female relatives of the girls, besides the "old girls" themselves,ran up to the school from New York, which was not far away, bringingwith them a rich atmosphere of jewels, clothes, and gossip that seemedto hang about the large drawing-room of the stately stone mansion. Themore fortunate pupils found frequent excuses for getting down to the gaycity for the theater and parties, and there were besides boys from aneighboring college, with parties to the races, all discreetlychaperoned, of course.

The path of the manager of a fashionable school is by no means an easyone. It is, in fact, as Miss Thompson had found, more difficult than thefamous eye of the needle. For if she were so scrupulous as to bar outall the daughters of new wealth, she was in danger of lacking thatmaterial support without which Herndon Hall could not be maintained. Andif she admitted too freely rich "Western girls" whose parents were"nobodies," but were keenly anxious to have their daughters become"somebodies," she was in danger of watering her wine to the point whereit would lose all its potency. A constant equilibrium between thegood-family class and the merely rich must be maintained if the schoolwas to preserve its position. And so it can be understood why theproprietor and the teachers of Herndon Hall carefully scrutinized Adelleon her first appearance. Would she merely water their precious wine? Ifso she must be very rich, indeed, to compensate for her dilutingpresence. Miss Thompson had accepted her on the strength of PresidentWest's personal letter, and it did not take her long to discover thatshe had made a grave mistake. Adelle was all water!

Let no reader suppose that Herndon Hall in which Adelle was sufferingher martyrdom is typical of all fashionable girls' boarding-schools. Ina real sense nothing in this life is sufficiently universal to beconsidered typical. There are to-day many schools that have some of thecharacteristics of Herndon Hall, though fortunately fewer than therewere when Adelle got her education. But even at that time there weremany excellent schools for girls where the teachers made sincere effortsto teach the girls something, where the girls were human and well-bred,and the teachers were kind and sympathetic and would not have toleratedsuch conduct as went on almost openly in this "exclusive" establishment,nor such brutal treatment as the girls dealt out to Adelle.

The only other event of this twelve weeks was the letter she wrote toMr. Lovejoy, the manager of the livery-stable in Alton. This was theresult of an acute attack of loneliness when, after a thorough canvassof her friends, Mr. Lovejoy's name was the only one she could think of.She told him in her little letter about the school, said she missed theChurch Street house, and asked specifically after certain "roomers." Butshe never received a reply. Whether the teachers suppressed Mr.Lovejoy's letter, or he had never received Adelle's, or, which was morelikely, he was not sufficiently stimulated by the girl's epistle toanswer her, she never knew. After that one attempt Adelle made no effortto reach back into her past: she accepted the present with that strangestoicism that young people sometimes exhibit.

From her way of dressing her hair to her pointed slippers and brokenEnglish, the little Mexican was even more markedly different from theHerndon type than Adelle, and though the older girls knew enough of theworld to recognize a distinction in differences, Diane did not seem to.She was gracious to all, and Adelle happened to be the first girl shecould speak to while she waited for her mother, who was closeted withMiss Thompson. Here was Adelle's chance, although she did not recognizeit as such. They talked for an hour, rather Diane talked and Adelle didher best to understand the rapid, lisping, birdlike notes of theforeigner. She learned that Diane had a brother in a school near St.Louis, another in a technical college, and still another now in Germany.The Merelda family seemed much scattered, but that did not disturb thelittle Mexican.

Adelle, who had never looked at the world in this light, thought Diane alittle "queer." Nevertheless they were good friends as school-girlfriendships go and consoled each other for what they lacked in theircommon environment.

Whatever incipient anticipations of the girl herself he might haveentertained during his ride were immediately dissipated as soon asAdelle entered the drawing-room from the class whence she had beensummoned. She was a little larger, perhaps, than he remembered her, butessentially the same awkward, homely child, and she was now wearing anugly harness upon her teeth that further disfigured her. Mr. Ashly Cranewas an observant man, and he became at once merely the business man,solely intent upon performing his duty and getting back to Albany intime to catch his train. He presented his roses, which Adelle took fromhim clumsily and allowed to lie across her lap, while with legs spreadapart to sustain their burden she listened to what he had to say. Mr.Crane explained to her briefly Mr. Gardiner's retirement and his ownrecent elevation to the post of being her nominal guardian, and theninquired if everything was satisfactory in the school. When Adellereplied, yes, she guessed so, he observed that the Hall was prettilylocated above the river with a good view and that a girl ought to have afine time in such a pleasant country. 2ff7e9595c