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The Head Girl at the Gables — Reading Companion

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In Category - Fantasy Juvenile Worlds

Authors: Brazil, Angela, 1869-1947, Salmon, Balliol, 1868-1953 [Illustrator] Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2010 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Boarding schools -- Juvenile fiction; Schoolgirls -- Juvenile fiction; Girls' schools -- Juvenile fiction Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 69,787

Reading time 304 min

Text sections 8

Before opening The Head Girl at the Gables — Reading Companion, the edition data offers a quick orientation: 69,787 words, 5 hr 4 min estimated reading time, and 8 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 13.6 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Boarding schools -- Juvenile fiction,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #32575

Angela Brazil's school story opens with Miss Kingsley planning a new term at The Gables, introducing Lorraine, Vivien, and Patsie. Early chapters establish a tone of mild rebellion and secret societies, while later excerpts show the girls spying on Madame Bertier and forming a 'Sensation Bureau' to combat boredom.

Editorial Edition Score 4.7/5

★★★★★ ★★★★★

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Description quality20 pts
Title & short description10 pts
Source metadata20 pts
Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
EPUB file integrity20 pts

Total of 100 points, scaled to a 2.5-5.0 range. Editions with an empty description or a missing EPUB file are not scored.

Edition quality

File: pg32575

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THE HEAD GIRL AT THE GABLES

"Angela Brazil has proved her undoubted talent for writing a story of schoolgirls for other schoolgirls to read."--=Bookman.=

A Harum-Scarum Schoolgirl. The Head Girl at the Gables. A Patriotic Schoolgirl. For the School Colours. The Madcap of the School. The Luckiest Girl in the School. The Jolliest Term on Record. The Girls of St. Cyprian's. The Youngest Girl in the Fifth. The New Girl at St. Chad's. For the Sake of the School. The School by the Sea. The Leader of the Lower School. A Pair of Schoolgirls. A Fourth Form Friendship. The Manor House School. The Nicest Girl in the School. The Third Class at Miss Kaye's. The Fortunes of Philippa.

LONDON: BLACKIE & SON, LTD., 50 OLD BAILEY, E.C.

THE HEAD GIRL AT THE GABLES

Author of "For the School Colours" "The Madcap of the School" "A Patriotic Schoolgirl" &c. &c.

_Illustrated by Balliol Salmon_

BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED LONDON GLASGOW AND BOMBAY

I. A MOMENTOUS DECISION 9

II. THE FIRST DAY OF TERM 22

IV. GREETS CLAUDIA 48

V. A QUESTION OF DISCIPLINE 61

VI. THE SEA-NYMPHS' GROTTO 75

VIII. VIVIEN MAKES TERMS 101

IX. WHITE ELEPHANTS 114

X. A SINISTER INCIDENT 128

XI. MADAME BERTIER 140

XII. THE SENSATION BUREAU 154

XIII. ROSEMARY'S SECRET 168

XIV. WHAT HAPPENED AT EASTER 181

XV. AN ACADEMY PICTURE 196

XVI. AN OPPORTUNITY 211

XVII. A MID-TERM BEANO 223

XVIII. AN ADVENTURE 235

XIX. MORLAND ON LEAVE 243

XX. SMUGGLERS' COVE 250

XXII. THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 280

"OH, DO FIND OUT WHERE 'KILMENY' IS," BEGGED LORRAINE _Frontispiece_

"EVERYTHING'S GONE WRONG!" DECLARED LORRAINE TRAGICALLY 144

"CLAUDIA! HOW _COULD_ YOU FORGET?" 192

CLAUDIA FLUNG HER ARMS ROUND ROSEMARY'S NECK AND HUGGED HER 216

SHE STOOD UP CAUTIOUSLY 240

THE HEAD GIRL AT THE GABLES

It was exactly ten days before the opening of the autumn term at The Gables. The September sunshine, flooding through the window of the Principal's study, lighted up the bowl of carnations upon the writing-table, and, flashed back from the Chippendale mirror on the wall, caught the book-case with the morocco-bound editions of the poets, showed up the etching of "Dante's Dream" over the mantelpiece, and glowed on Miss Kingsley's ripply brown hair, turning all the silver threads in it to gold. Miss Kingsley, rested and refreshed after the long summer holiday, a touch of pink in her cheeks and a brightness in her eyes, left as a legacy from the breezes of the Cheviot Hills, was seated at her desk with a notebook in front of her and a fountain pen in her hand, making plans for a fresh year's work.

Miss Janet, armed with a stump of pencil and the back of an envelope, ready to jot down suggestions, swayed to and fro in the rocking-chair with her lips drawn into a bunch and the particular little pucker between her eyebrows that always came when she was trying to concentrate her thoughts.

"It really _is_ a difficulty, Janet!" said Miss Kingsley. "A suitable head girl makes all the difference to a school, and if we happen to choose the wrong one it may completely spoil the tone. If only Lottie Carson or Helen Stanley had stayed on! Or even Enid Jones or Stella Hardy!"

"It's hard luck to lose all our best senior girls at once!" agreed Miss Janet, biting her stump of pencil abstractedly. "But if they're gone, they're gone."

"Of course!" Miss Kingsley's tone savoured slightly of impatience. "And the urgent matter is to supply their places. It's like making bricks without straw. Haven't you any suggestions? I _do_ wish you'd stop rocking, it worries me to hear your chair creak!"

Miss Janet, seasoned by thirty-five years' acquaintance with her sister's nervous temperament, rose and walked to the window, where she stood looking out over the sunlit tennis court to the bank of exotic shrubs that half hid the blue line of the sea. There was a moment's pause, then she said:

"Suppose you read over the list of 'eligibles', and we'll discuss their points each in turn."

Miss Kingsley reached for a certain black-backed shiny exercise-book and opened it. The entries were in her own neat hand.

"There will only be eight girls in the Sixth Form this term," she volunteered. "Taking them in alphabetical order they are: Nellie Appleby, Claire Bardsley, Claudia Castleton, Vivien Forrester, Lorraine Forrester, Audrey Roberts, Dorothy Skipton, and Patricia Sullivan."

"First of all you may cross off the last," she suggested.

"Decidedly. Patsie Sullivan as head girl would be about as suitable as--as----"

Miss Kingsley paused for an appropriate simile.

"As making Charlie Chaplin Archbishop of Canterbury!" finished Miss Janet with a chuckle.

Continue Reading →

The first chapter of The Head Girl at the Gables opens not with a pupil but with the Principal, Miss Kingsley, planning the autumn term in her study, surrounded by carnations, a Chippendale mirror, and an etching of 'Dante's Dream'. The September sunshine catches the silver threads in her hair. Beside her, Miss Janet rocks in a chair, jotting notes on an envelope. This calm administrative scene quickly gives way to the schoolgirls' perspective: Lorraine, Vivien, and Patsie emerge as central figures, their voices marked by slang, impatience, and a desire for excitement. The excerpts show a school where rules are questioned, secrets are kept, and the girls actively seek sensation—whether by spying on a French teacher's seaside rendezvous or founding a 'Sensation Bureau' to manufacture drama.

A Principal's Study and a Schoolgirl's Gaze

The opening scene is unusual for a school story: it begins with the headmistress, not a new girl. Miss Kingsley is described with specific details—'ripply brown hair', 'silver threads', a 'touch of pink in her cheeks' from Cheviot Hills breezes—that suggest a character with her own history. The study's furnishings (carnations, Chippendale mirror, etching of 'Dante's Dream') establish a cultured, orderly world. Yet this order is immediately contrasted with the girls' perspective. Lorraine, introduced later, is sharp-eyed and suspicious: she recognizes Madame Bertier's grey costume and crimson toque from a cliff-top vantage, and is frustrated by a 'half-memory' of the man with her. The narrative shifts between adult planning and adolescent observation, hinting at tensions between authority and private knowledge.

Slang, Grievances, and the Sensation Bureau

In the gymnasium, Vivien declares the school 'a very second-rate sort of show' and 'a set of blighters'. Her complaint about dry oatcake—'It's as dry as chumping chaff'—is met with Audrey's lament about margarine shortages. Lorraine, defensive of the school, counters that they have societies, but Vivien dismisses them as slack. Patsie, the jester, proposes a 'Sensation Bureau' to supply excitement: 'An elopement? A fire? A burglary?' The girls' language is colloquial and performative—'buck up', 'silly cockchafer', 'dying duck in a thunderstorm'—and their boredom is a driving force. The Bureau, offered with mock-commercial terms ('Cheques and postal orders must be crossed'), becomes a plot device that the excerpts suggest will generate the term's adventures.

Watching from the Cliffs: Observation and Suspicion

A later excerpt places Lorraine and Margaret on cliffs, using field-glasses to spy on the shore below. They spot Madame Bertier with a man—'a kiss! How touching!'—and Lorraine is troubled by a familiar face she cannot place. The scene is voyeuristic and slightly ironic: the girls are 'hundreds of feet above', unseen spectators. Margaret dismisses the flirtation as not worth 'wasting valuable time', but Lorraine's 'half-memory' lingers. This moment of surveillance echoes the earlier tension between adult authority and pupil knowledge. The cliffs, the field-glasses, and the 'flutter of a feminine skirt' create a vivid, almost cinematic image. The excerpt breaks off before the man is identified, leaving a thread of mystery that the reader must follow through the full text.

Structure and Voice: How the Excerpts Shape a First Reading

The excerpts move from the Principal's study to the gymnasium to the cliffs, each scene introducing a different tone: administrative calm, rebellious banter, and covert observation. The narrative voice is third-person but often aligns with the girls' perspective, using their idioms ('jogging along', 'brain-wave'). The opening chapter's focus on Miss Kingsley may mislead a reader expecting a pupil-centric start; the later excerpts re-center the girls. The Sensation Bureau and the cliff-top spying are set up as early plot engines, but the excerpts do not reveal their outcomes. A first reader should note the recurring motif of watching—Miss Kingsley planning, girls spying, Patsie performing—and the way small details (a half-remembered face, a piece of dry oatcake) accumulate into larger concerns about loyalty, secrecy, and the desire for a more exciting life.

The excerpts from The Head Girl at the Gables offer a fragmented but suggestive view of Angela Brazil's school-world. The reader is left with questions: Who is the man with Madame Bertier? Will the Sensation Bureau succeed? How will Lorraine's half-memory resolve? The text rewards attention to small, concrete details—the etching over the mantelpiece, the field-glasses, the slangy complaints—that build character and atmosphere. Approach the full novel as a series of such scenes, each layering the girls' private lives against the school's official routines.

There’s something about the quiet mischief at The Gables, that little thrill of secret plans, that stayed with me long after closing it. It reminded me of another story where friendship carries the same tender weight. A Fourth Form Friendship: A School Story — Inside the Classic holds that same gentle ache of growing up, the kind you find yourself thinking about on a slow afternoon.