Her mouth pursed, Matron said, ‘You will plait your hair before you come down to breakfast.’

It was an almost impossible task for Kate to plait the long hair herself. She made a valiant effort, although strands escaped and the skeins of hair were woven in and out unevenly. If only her mother’s nimble fingers were there; she could plait the length of Kate’s hair in seconds.

The day seemed interminable. Kate struggled with the sums and every time she opened her mouth to speak, there came a wave of suppressed giggles around the room. Miss Ogden, helpless to reprimand the covert cruelty, tried to bring comfort to the lonely new girl by praising her sewing, but that only seemed to alienate her further from the other girls.

‘“Look at the back of Katharine’s work”’, mimicked Isobel, when Miss Ogden left the room for a moment. ‘“See how neat it is?” Pity her hair isn’t as neat.’

Isobel’s two followers giggled dutifully. It was soon obvious to Kate that Isobel Cartwright was a natural ring-leader. The two girls who were her closest friends – Brenda and Hazel – followed her around and she ordered them about like a mistress giving orders to servants. Isobel had short hair, cut to the regulation length, and yet there seemed a subtle difference in the style. Kate couldn’t understand what it was that made it different from all the rest. Then, when school had finished on the Friday afternoon, Isobel was missing. Kate overheard Brenda saying that she had gone out in a car.

‘Her mother’s taken her out to tea in town – and to have her hair done. They’ve got a chauffeur. You should have seen him, Hazel. He looked so smart in his grey uniform and peaked cap.’

‘However does Isobel get permission to go out in the week?’

Brenda leaned closer, but Kate still heard her whispered words. ‘It’s probably because her father’s a governor of the school. Even Miss Denham doesn’t want to upset the Cartwright family!’

‘Yes, but to be allowed to go out of school to have her hair done in a salon . .!’ Hazel sighed enviously.

The subject of hair made them turn and look at Kate. ‘It’s your bath night tonight,’ Hazel reminded her gleefully. ‘And you’ve to wash your hair.’

‘How do you get it dry?’

‘In front of the range,’ Kate told them.

The two girls exchanged a glance and then clutched each other as they shook with laughter. ‘There’s no range here. You’ll have to go into the kitchen and put your head in the oven!’