believe they had spent the hour really in Africa or South America, as the
case might be.

"You'd know what clothes to take with you to India or Canada at any
rate," said Miss Mitchell, "and what sort of a life you must be prepared
to live there. Before the term is over I think you'll realise what
British women are doing all over the globe. Climatic conditions have an
immense effect upon people and ought to be properly understood. The
knowledge of these is the foundation of the brotherhood of races."

It was not only in history and geography that Miss Mitchell made
innovations. French also was to be on a different method. It had always
been a successful subject at 'The Moorings,' though it had developed
along old-fashioned lines. Mademoiselle Chavasse, however, had left, and
the new Mademoiselle came from a very up-to-date School of Languages in
London. She taught largely by the oral system, making her pupils repeat
words and build them into sentences, like babies learning to talk. She
used English as little as possible, trying to make them catch ideas in
French without the medium of translation. Thus, in a beginners' class she
would hold up a book and say, "le livre," then placing it _on_ the
table or _under_ the table would extend her sentence to show the use
of the prepositions. The girls soon began to grasp the method, and learnt
to reply in French to simple questions asked them, and were given by
degrees a larger vocabulary and encouraged to try to express themselves,
however imperfectly, in the foreign tongue. She also instituted French
games, and set the whole school singing, "Qui passe ce chemin si tard?"
or "Sur le pont d'Avignon," while several of the Fifth form who could
write letters in French were put into correspondence with schoolgirls in
France.