She went up and down at St.
Sidwell's, adored and unadoring, kindling the fire of a secret worship.
In any other place, with any other woman at the head of it, such a vivid individuality might have proved fatal to her progress.

But Miss Cursiter was too original herself not to perceive the fine uses of originality.
All her hopes for the future were centred in Rhoda Vivian.

She looked below that brilliant surface and saw in her the ideal leader of young womanhood.

Rhoda was a force that could strike fire from a stone; what she wanted she was certain to get; she seemed to compel work from the laziest and intelligence from the dullest by the mere word of her will.
What was more, her nature was too large for vanity; she held her worshippers at arm's length and consecrated her power of personal seduction to strictly intellectual ends.

At the end of her first term her position was second only to the Head.