"Gosh! What have we collected this time?" she asked herself as she limped into IIIa, her lips straight again, though her eyes were still dancing with amusement. "I think I'd better cultivate Jane Carew a little. She'll be quite a novel experience for me! "

"Has no one told you that Jack generally does help Miss Ferrars and Miss Wilmot with their car?"

one thing that thoroughly depresses me about it isn't Jack or some odd prefecting, but the fact that an entire form, even at the CS, where everyone is well-drilled in politeness and hospitality and sheepdogging, is prepared to go along with the bullying of a new girl based on the irrational dislike of a single person.

is a sheep of a girl, running with the crowd and rarely voicing an opinion of her own. She grinned feebly at Jane, but made no effort to talk to her.

I do find myself comparing it with the treatment of Eustacia by her form when she first arrives. They don't want for leaders and strong characters, with Evvy and Margia around, and Eustacia is much more dislikeable than Jane, but even though they do send her to Coventry for a short period, they remain polite, and make a point of seeing she is looked after at meals etc. I can't help feeling that the leader/follower culture has suddenly become much more thuggish by Jack's gang!

"...Auntie Hilda”—Len laid heavy stress on the name—“has told me that I’m to miss the walk for once and help Ted Grantley move all her books and things from Inter V to Vb. I’ll fix up with you for Tuesday, if you like.”
“I’m booked with Francie Wilford for Tuesday. Can’t someone else take on Ted Grantley? She isn’t a V.I.P., is she?” Margot’s blue eyes suddenly flamed with a light her sister knew and dreaded.

. [Len said] "...I'm all right, Flavia. Don't look so worried." Whereat Jack darted a quick look at her and another, rather less friendly than usual, at Copper.
Len caught both looks and managed to forget her fright a little in hastening to pour oil on what might become troubled waters. Jack Lambert had a tendency to regard the prefect as hers specially and she was a jealous young thing. Only last term there had been trouble with her and the elder girl was not anxious to have the same sort of thing repeated.

It seems like Len can't stand up to their tantrums -- which are almost a form of bullying.

I guess you'd call it more emotional blackmail? Len wouldn't be the first person to fall under that kind of behaviour, but it does make her seem a little weak

I'd suggest that Len has a learned response to anger - she tries to cover up Margot's tantrums because it's what she's seen Joey doing - and thus tries to smooth over any potential friction.

"I wish we could call in one of the older doctors. Young Gordon is a very nice lad, but he hasn't had the experience of the others."

'Dr Jem really knows. He said, 'Tell Jane that though it will probably be very slow, I think myself her mother will pull through'. And he knows!"

Miss Ferrars had a case of sewing-cottons, needles and scissors in case of accidents to clothes. Later, much later, both were thankful to have them.

laden with frocks, underclothes, sandals and a very full sponge-bag and towels. Len had even remembered ribbons for Jane's pigtails.

Honestly, EBD! You gave the mistresses a sewing kit on purpose, and you've already told us that Jane and Jack washed in the brook, and that Jane's tied her plaits with wool - is it really worth making poor, fussy, over-responsible Len run for miles up and down a mountain in a heatwave so that Jane can wear hair-ribbons to go home in?? Poor Len!

Can't just imagine the conversation when Len got home.

"Oh Mama, come quick! Jack and Jane have got into the most awful trouble!"
"Oh, my dear! Should I ring the San?"
"No - no! Just bring me some hair-ribbons!"

"Poor Jack! Still, feeling herself what she calls' a specious pig' and repenting for dear life of her many sins won't hurt her. In fact, this looks to me like a turning-point for her. Jack will make all the finer woman for her present bitter regret, so I'm not sorry for her really.

"I see," Len said quietly. "You know, Jack, what's really happened is that you've got round to disliking not Jane, but the girl you've been where Jane was concerned. You'd like to make a fresh start, but haven't much chance of a straight talk with her in school; and you're afraid she may think that what you say is because you're sorry for her and you'd hate that yourself."
Jack stared at her, wide-eyed. "Gosh! How did you understand?"

Whereas a second Head's Report or worse would be just another grievance to chalk up to Jane, Len and Hilda's efforts, plus Jane herself, are ultimately responsible for Jack changing deep down.

I don't at all agree that the school's approach to her reform is wrong. Whereas a second Head's Report or worse would be just another grievance to chalk up to Jane, Len and Hilda's efforts, plus Jane herself, are ultimately responsible for Jack changing deep down.

There was silence for a full minute. Then Len spoke and her words were icy. "That will do, Jacynth. Go to your formroom at once. I will see you about this later. Go, I say!"

"Good! Now you'll have to scram or you'll be late for prep. You've exactly two minutes to get there."
"Oh, darling, I must fly!" Jane exclaimed, herself again. "We have Francie Wilford on duty tonight and you can't imagine what a dirty look she can give you if you aren't punctual! I will remember, though – and thanks a million!"

Just what the two mistresses said to Jack, only they and that criminal ever knew. It was effective, all right.

"Very well, Jane, we believe you. At the same time, you had no business to fight as you did. You're neither a schoolboy nor a baby. You're fourteen and expected to behave like fourteen. The fact that it was Jack who began it makes it a little less serious, but in future, keep your hands to yourself. Now you may go. Take your book and go and sit by yourself in the arbour and stay there till the bell goes. Perhaps, by that time, you will have learned that a girl who may be a full Senior Middle next term can't behave in that way.

The reminder that Jane shouldn't be in the wrong corridor isn't followed by the usual order mark, but by Jane's very adult acknowledgement, Len's eyes losing their iciness, and Not exactly the response of your typical homesick victim! An amazing individual, Jane.

She had seen Jack coming and had slipped into the corridor to avoid meeting her. Jack had made it plain that, for her own reasons, she hated the new girl [...] If they happened to be alone, she always had something hurtful to say and Jane, sensitive and too proud to reply in the same manner, had only silence for her armour.

Both girls were so absorbed in their own encounter that they never heard the prefect's halting step until she was almost on them, and Len heard enough to assure her that Jack was baiting Jane.
"Did the poor little baby run to its mammy with all sorts of tales about the nasty girls?" Jack jeered while Jane, unaccustomed to this sort of thing, stared at her in silence. "Did it want a nice nanny to look after it and tuck it up in bed at nights and kiss it when – "

She considered seriously how best she could get through the shell of ill-feeling and naughtiness with which Jack had concealed her normal self. It would be no easy task, but Len had had much the same thing to do with the youngest of her triplet sisters, though she didn't think that Margot's troubles in the least resembled Jack's.

I don't think there's a fundamental change, since EBD has always treated schoolgirl villains in a sympathetic way, with the primary emphasis on making them better people. Take, for example, Diana Skelton, who may be the most similar to Jack, not only tormenting Bride but bullying Marian into helping, as well as attracting a set of "frivolous" hangers-on.