She was even heard to say that
school might be bearable if they let you play cricket most of the
time!--which was a great admission for Norah, who had kept her word
rigidly about not mentioning the dreaded prospect before her. That she
thought of it continually, Jim knew well and he and his chum were wont,
by all means in their power, to paint school life for girls in
attractive colours without appearing to be directly "preaching" to
Norah; which kindly thought she saw through very well, and was silently
grateful, though it was doubtful if her sentence lost any of its
terrors.
It was always more or less before her. Her own circle had been too
limited to give Norah much experience of the outer world, and she
shrank instinctively from anything that lay beyond Billabong and its
surroundings. No one, meeting her in her home, would have dreamed that
she might be shy; but the truth was that a very passion of shyness came
over her when she thought of confronting a number of girls, all up to
date and smart, and at ease in their environment, and all, if Cecil
were to be believed, ready to look down upon the recruit from the Bush.
For Cecil lost no opportunity to point out to Norah her drawbacks, and
to hint at her inferiority to ordinary girls of her own age; "properly
trained girls" was his phrase.
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