preparations for
tennis and other games in the rest of the big playground, but nothing
had ever been done at the back of the Laboratory. When the two girls
arrived they found five other girls waiting for them. Their names were,
of course, Susy Hopkins, who considered herself on this delightful
occasion quite the leader; a gentle and refined-looking girl of the name
of Mary Rand; Rosy Myers, who was pretty and frivolous, with dark eyes
and fair hair; Clara Sawyer, who was renowned for her vulgar taste in
dress; and Hannah Johnson, a heavy-looking girl with a scowling brow and
a very pronounced jaw. Hannah Johnson was about the plainest girl in the
school. When Susy saw Kate Rourke and Ruth Craven she uttered a little
scream of delight.

"Now we are complete," she said. "Listen to me, all you girls, for I
haven't too long in which to tell you; that horrid bell will ring us
back to lessons and dullness in less than no time. The most wonderful,
delightful chance is offered to us. I met her yesterday, and she decided
to do it. She is a brick of bricks. She will make the most tremendous
difference in our lives. You know, although you pretend not to feel it,
but you all must know how we foundationers are sat upon and objected to
in the school. We bear it as meekly as we can for the sake of our
so-called advantages; but if we can be snubbed, we are, and if we can be
neglected, we are--although it isn't the teachers we have to complain
of, but the girls. Sometimes things are past bearing, and yet we are
powerless. There are three hundred paying girls, and there are one
hundred foundationers. What chance has one hundred against three?"

"What is the good of bringing all that up, Susy?" said Mary Rand. "We
are foundationers, and we ought to be thankful."

"The education is splendid; we ought not to forget that," said Ruth
Craven.

Susy turned on Ruth as though she would like to eat her.

"It is all very fine for you," she said. "Just because you happen to be
pretty, they take you up. I wonder one of your fine friends doesn't pay
for you, and so save your position out and out."

"I wouldn't allow her to," replied Ruth, her eyes flashing fire. "I had
much rather be a foundationer. I mean to prove that I am every bit as
good as a paying girl. I mean to make you all respect me, so there!"

"That'll do, Spitfire," said Kate Rourke. "The time is passing, and we
must get to the bottom of Susy Hopkins's remarkable address.--What's