Despite your ploys, tears, and pleading you find yourself packed up and sent off to the awful school. It is just as awful as you feared it would be. The grounds are enclosed in high walls. You cannot leave the school unless you are chaperoned by a teacher. The teachers are fusty old women, some of them even over thirty. There are no interesting young men. There are lots of girls. Some are nice. It would be nice to make friends with them. However most of the girls are very silly.

The school is a finishing school for young women like yourself, daughters whose parents came from humble backgrounds but who have risen high in the world. You and your fellow students are to be taught the social graces, the art of polite conversation, a smattering of knowledge of the classics, style and dress, minor artistic accomplishments, art appreciation, and the details of the management of large households, including how to treat servants. In short, the purpose of the school is to prepare you to become the wife of an aristocrat.

In short order you make a best friend, another girl who is an army brat like yourself. You discover that she has found a way to sneak out in the evening and wander about the city. It sounds very exciting and very dangerous. You could ask to go with her - that might be fun. Perhaps you should try to persuade her to stop before she gets into serious trouble. Maybe you should just keep your mouth shut and say nothing. What will you do?