nie from the very first had resented Rona's presence at The
Woodlands, and since the practical joke which the latter had played upon
her she had disliked her heartily. She lost no opportunity of showing
her contempt, and of trying to make Rona seem of small account. She
revived an ancient tradition of the school which made it a breach of
etiquette for girls to go into other form-rooms than their own, thus
banishing Rona from V B, where she had often been brought in by Ulyth or
good-natured Addie to share the fun that went on. If obliged to take
Rona's hand in figure-dancing, she would only give the extreme tips of
her fingers, and if forced on any occasion to sit next to her, she would
draw away her skirts as if she feared contamination.

"The Woodlands isn't what it used to be," she would assure a select
circle of listeners. "When my eldest sister was here there were the
Courtenays and the Derringtons and the Vernons and quite a number of
girls of really good family. Miss Bowes would never have dreamt then of
taking a girl she knew nothing about; she was so particular whom she
received."

"The poor old Cuckoo has her points," volunteered Addie. "I'm afraid
most of us aren't 'county'!"

"All schools are more mixed than they used to be," admitted Stephanie
candidly; "but I'd draw the line at specimens straight from the
backwoods."

Few of the girls really liked Stephanie, nevertheless her opinions
carried weight. A school-mate who dresses well, talks continually of
highborn friends, and "gives herself airs" can nearly always command a
certain following among the more unthinking of her comrades, and such
girls as Beth Broadway, Alice and Merle Denham, and Mary Acton were
easily impressed by Stephanie's attitude of superiority, and ready to
follow her lead on a question of caste. It gave them a kind of reflected
credit to belong to Stephanie's circle, and they liked to pride
themselves upon their exclusiveness.

Though Rona was many thousand miles away from her home, she evidently
did not forget her New Zealand friends, and looked out anxiously for the
thin foreign letters which arrived from time to time. She never showed
them to anybody, and spoke little of old associations, but a word would
slip out here and there to reveal that she cared more than she would
give her schoolfellows to suppose. One afternoon, shortly before the New
Zealand mail was expected, Rona was working in her portion of the
garden, when Mary Ac