Miss Bishop, who had seen, to her sorrow, this downward trend, had welcomed the advent of Margaret, believing her to have the ability to cope with difficult situations, and at the same time to have the grit and self-control not to allow her head to be turned by her elevation to office.
"You will have a great responsibility: I am giving you unusual power, and I trust that you will make the highest use of it," she had said to the girl, during a certain quiet ten minutes' talk in her study, and Margaret had held herself very straight, and had answered: "I'll do my level best, Miss Bishop!" All eyes were now fixed on the head girl as she stood in the center of the platform, ringing the bell for silence.

The clamor subsided as if by magic, and in the midst of a dead hush she began her speech.
"Girls! We've been back now for a whole fortnight--time for most of us to shake down into our places, isn't it?
The school year's fairly started, and we've met together this afternoon to talk about a number of things that are of very great importance to us all.

You all know that a school--to be worth anything--has two sides.

There's the inside part, with classes and prep.

and exams .-- what's generally called the 'curriculum'-- that's managed by the mistresses.