Agnes Brendon in
persecuting a poor little stranger," said honest Tilly, a day or two
after the tennis affair; for Agnes had at once set to work to carry out
her plan of showing that she was not to be forced, as she expressed it,
into making acquaintances she didn't like, and had thus lost no
opportunity of being disagreeable.

Dora flushed at Tilly's words, but she answered coolly,--

"Persecuting! I don't call it persecuting to avoid a person one doesn't
want to know."

"Yes; but how does Agnes avoid her? She stiffens herself up and curls
her lips when the girl goes by, as if there was something contaminating
about her; and one night when we were in the music-room and Miss Smith
was playing and singing 'Mrs. Brady' for us, Agnes came in with Amy and
made a great fuss and noise, disturbing everybody in pretending to hunt
up one of her own music-books; and when I asked her to be quieter, she
said something horrid about 'low common songs,' and 'Mrs. Brady' isn't
a low common song; and the other morning, when Pete, the little dog, ran
up to her on the piazza, she pushed him away from her in such a
disagreeable manner--and so it has gone on every day, and I think it's a
shame, and such a nice girl as Miss Smith is too. I told grandmother all
about it,--the whole story,--and she says it is Agnes who is vulgar and
not Miss Smith, and that she never would have brought me here if she had
known that a girl who could behave like that was to be in the house; and
you can tell Miss Agnes Brendon this, if you like, and you can tell her
too that she'll only make us stand by Miss Smith stancher than ever by
persecuting her as she does."

"I shall tell her nothing of the kind, and there's no such thing as
persecution anyway,--that's ridiculous. Agnes is very exclusive,--the
Brendons all are,--and she doesn't like to make acquaintances with
common people, that's all."

"Common people! Miss Smith isn't any more common than you or I. She's a
very ladylike girl.--much more ladylike and nice, and nicer-looking too,
than Agnes."

"Nicer looking with those plain frocky dresses, and her hair all pulled
back without the sign of a crimp or curl!" and Dora burst into a jeering
laugh.

"Oh, she isn't all fussed up, I know, as most of us girls are; but her
clothes are of the very finest materials,--I've noticed that."

"And that stuffy old aunt's clothes are of the finest material, I
suppose; and the little yellow dog's coat is as fine a