The hall · four houses

The house that treats nerve as a kind of scholarship. Its room sits high in a tower, and its reputation — fair or not — is for people who would rather move than wait for a perfect plan.

A house with a talent for strategy and a dungeon for a common room. Ambition is the public word. The more interesting one is selectivity: who is allowed in, and what that choice costs.

The house that would rather solve the door than be waved through it. Wit is the banner. The better description is appetite: for odd facts, for a sharper question, for being right in an interesting way.

The house most often underestimated by people who confuse volume with worth. Patience, fair dealing, and loyalty are the stated values. The stories keep returning to how much quiet work holds a school up.