sit to Lindenlea. She was most anxious to avoid the subject of her
invitation; she felt it would be extremely awkward to be obliged to tell
Dorothy point-blank that her mother refused to endorse it: and, mindful
of the prohibition against too great intimacy, she left her schoolfellow
to her books, and made no advances. The two walked from the station to
the College almost in silence, each occupied with her own thoughts; and
though they met frequently during the day, and travelled back together
as usual, they only talked about ordinary Avondale topics. Each felt as
warm towards the other as before, but both realized that theirs must be
a friendship entirely confined to school, and not brought into their
home lives. Dorothy, though she was far too proud to hint at the matter,
easily divined that Mrs. Clarke had disapproved of Alison's action in
taking her to the house, and that she did not mean to give her any
future invitation. That hurt her on a sore spot.

"She thinks me a nobody!" she groaned to herself. "If I had been Hope
Lawson, now, or even Val Barnett, I'm sure I should have been asked.
Alison hasn't even mentioned the tableaux again. I suppose she's not
allowed to lend me the costume. Well, I don't care; I'll wear something
else."

But she did care, not only about this, but about many things that
happened in class. It is not pleasant to be unpopular, and in several
ways Dorothy was having a hard term. Hope Lawson, who had never been
very friendly at any time, seemed to have completely turned against her,
and was both supercilious and disagreeable. Hope did not like Dorothy,
whose blunt, downright ways and frank speech were such a contrast to her
own easy flippancy. Money, position, and pretty clothes were what Hope
worshipped, and because Dorothy possessed none of these she looked down
upon her, and lost no opportunity of slighting her. In her capacity of
Warden, Hope naturally had much influence in the class, and led popular
opinion. It was very unfortunate that she had been elected, for she was
quite the wrong girl to fill a post which involved a tolerable amount of
moral responsibility. The tone of a Form is a subtle, intangible thing;
it means certain codes of schoolgirl honour, certain principles of right
and wrong, certain standards of thought and views of life, all of which
need keeping at a high level. Under Hope's rule the Upper Fourth began
to show a general slackness; rules were evaded where possible,