David was sent to the headmaster about half way through the morning and just after our mid-morning break. He was missing from the refectory at lunch time but Jane and I and a couple of other girls went out onto the playing fields for a stroll and found him in the middle of a few of his mates with his trousers and pants down showing off four nasty looking long narrow bruises that stretched right across his very pale bottom. I think we must have been staring for some time because eventually David saw us looking through the group of his mates and blushed almost as red as his bottom. He quickly pulled his clothing up which set us giggling although we discreetly turned away while he did his trousers up.

After Christmas, we were into our second term and it seemed that all the girls had settled in pretty well. We were no longer being regarded as strange beings from another planet and had even become friends with most of the boys in the lower sixth, many of whom would open doors for the girls and perform other such gentlemanly things. A couple of girls even had boyfriends although I was not one of them.

Naturally, feminist Helen objected most strongly to boys opening doors for her and the like, but that was just Helen. I think most of the girls had some sympathy with Helen’s views, possibly even some of the boys, but she had a rather antagonistic and demanding way of putting her views across and that more than anything left her with few real friends, and those few were all boys with a rather left-wing political persuasion.

Whilst most of us were able to not take Helen too seriously and largely ignore her aggressive stance, inevitably her views led her into conflict with the staff. What was really surprising was that it should be as a result of a row with Mr Perkins who was a sweet old chap getting quite close to retirement. The row must have escalated to the point where the headmaster became involved because Helen and three boys, all lower sixth, were called to his study.