Could I have perceived it if there had been?
Whichever way the circumstances of my life vacillated, I was not yet reached to the quick; whether spiritual or material influences made sinuous the current of being, it still flowed toward an undiscovered ocean.
Half the girls at the Academy, like myself, came from distant towns.
Some had been there three years.

They were all younger than myself.
There never had been a boarding-house attached to the school, and it was not considered a derogatory thing for the best families to receive these girls as boarders.

We were therefore on the same footing, in a social sense.

I was also on good terms with Miss Prior.

She was a cold and kindly woman, faithful as a teacher, gifted with an insight into the capacity of a pupil.