Also, in the eyes of both a male person younger than forty-five was labeled "Danger--Keep Away." But one creature of the masculine gender taught in their school; he was white-haired Doctor Barnes, professor of the dead languages.

It was the prevailing opinion among the scholars that Doctor Barnes, when at home, occupied an apartment in the Greek Antiquity section of the Art Museum, where he slept and ate surrounded by the statues and busts of his contemporaries.
As for the scholars themselves, there were about forty of them, girls--or young ladies: the Misses Cabot invariably referred to and addressed them as "young ladies"-- from Boston and New York and Philadelphia, even from Chicago and as far south as Baltimore.

Almost all were the daughters of well-to-do parents, almost all had their homes in cities.

There were very few who, like Mary-'Gusta, had lived all their lives in the country.

Some were pretty, some were not; some were giddy and giggly, some solemn and studious, some either according to mood; some were inclined to be snobbish, others simple and "everyday." In short, the school was like almost any school of its kind.
Mary-'Gusta entered this school and, doing so, ceased to be Mary-'Gusta, becoming Miss Lathrop to her instructors and Mary to her intimates among the scholars.