election, I suppose," said Val Barnett.

"That's not like Dorothy. She flares up and gets into tantrums, but she
doesn't sulk."

"And she doesn't generally bear a grudge about things," added Grace
Russell.

"I believe I can guess," said Mavie Morris. "I heard yesterday that she
isn't really Miss Sherbourne's niece at all; she was adopted when she
was a baby, and she doesn't even know who her parents were."

"Well, she can't help that."

"Of course she can't; but you know Dorothy! She's as proud as Lucifer,
and Agnes Lowe called her a waif and a nobody."

"Agnes Lowe wants shaking."

"Well, she didn't mean Dorothy to overhear her. She's very sorry about
it."

"I'm more sorry for Dorothy. So that's the reason she's looking so glum!
Isn't she coming to the meeting?"

"I don't know. She's up in the classroom."

"Someone fetch her."

"I'll go," said Mavie. "It's a shame to let her stay out of everything.
She's as prickly as a hedgehog to-day, and will probably snap my head
off, but I don't mind. She may have a temper, but she's one of the
jolliest girls in the Form, all the same."

"So she is. It's fearfully hard on her if what Agnes Lowe says is really
true. I vote we try to be nice to her, to make up."

"Any girl who refers to it would be a cad."

"Well, look here! Let us try to get her made secretary of our
'Dramatic'."

"Right you are! I'll propose her myself."

Mavie ran quickly upstairs to the classroom.

"Aren't you coming, Dorothy? It's the committee meeting of the
'Dramatic', you know. The others are all waiting; they sent me to fetch
you."

"You'll get on just as well without me," growled Dorothy, with her head
inside her desk.

"Nonsense! Don't be such a goose. I tell you, everybody's waiting."

"Dorothy's jealous of Hope," piped Annie Gray, who, as monitress, was
performing her duty of cleaning the blackboard.

"I'm not! How can you say such a thing? I don't care in the least about
the Wardenship."

"Then come and show up at the meeting, just to let them see you're not
sulking, at any rate," whispered Mavie. "Do be quick! I can't wait any
longer."

Dorothy slammed her desk lid, but complied. Though she would rather have
preferred her own society that day, she did not wish her conduct to be
misconstrued into jealousy or sulks.

"Go on, Mavie, and I'll follow," she replied abruptly, but not
ungraciously.

As she strolled downstairs she noticed Alison Clarke standing rather
aimles