Peggy from Kerry by L.T. Meade

It was the custom at The Red Gables for the entire school to meet together, and in the presence of their teachers to have tea together during the first evening of each term. Afterwards the Upper and the Lower School might still remain in the great central hall, talking with their mutual friends and discussing how and where the holidays were spent. This evening was looked forward to with deep interest by all the old pupils; they had so much to say, to inquire about, to whisper together. For the rules were very strict, and except in the case of a holiday, or the Saturday half-holiday, the pupils of the Upper and Lower Schools never met except on this one precious evening.

But while the old pupils delighted in these few moments of reunion, the new pupils-when there were new pupils-did not find this time of mutual confab so agreeable. They, poor things, felt strange and out in the cold, and as a rule longed for the moment when they might cross the quadrangle and retire to their own rooms.