It was a school for the offspring of the "better classes" and good
enough for all but the most select who must needs turn to certain
private institutions of still greater exclusiveness for instruction.
Its official title was St. Mary's Elementary School and it had only five
grades or classes, as they were called, being supplemented by a
"gymnasium," from which the pupils passed on to the university. No boy
was admitted under nine, but there seemed to be no limit at the other
end, for at the time of Keith's entrance the upper grades still held a
few youngsters with well developed moustaches who, from the viewpoint of
Keith's own peach-skinned diminutiveness, looked like veritable
patriarchs. Stories were afloat about their actually being addressed as
"mister" by the teachers.
Admission was conditioned by examinations held in the school itself, and
thither Keith was escorted by his mother one late August day. All
novelties stimulated him, and to his inexperience the rather dingy old
school seemed enormously impressive. The mere fact that it occupied a
whole building all by itself was enough. In addition, however, it had
an assembly hall large enough to hold several hundred boys, and there
were numerous rooms capable of holding thirty or forty boys.
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