ways
felt sorry for those three girls. I hope they all found decent
husbands, poor dears! The literature book doesn't tell us any more
about them, and they're far more interesting to me than their stern old
father. When I write a literature book, I shall put things in their
proper focus. 'Celebrities from a Girl's Point of View' I mean to call
it. Yes, I'm in earnest! Don't snigger, all of you! I'll publish it some
day and then you'll just see. Oh yes, glorify Regina into 'the Blessed
Damozel' if you like. I don't mind what names you call her. 'Blessed
Damson' would do for me. Ta-ta!"

Though the girls joked about Regina, and even teased her, there was a
certain amount of liking mixed with their chaff. They all agreed that
she was 'rather a sport'. Her amazing cleverness absolutely took their
breath away. They would almost have resented it if Regina herself had
set any store by it. She would finish her mathematical problems in a few
minutes, while her schoolmates were still staring at them, and would sit
with arms folded and answers ready when the rest of the form were
helplessly beating their brains. She saw at once that it gave offence,
and apologized in her abrupt manner.

"I can't help it. I just see the answers somehow and write them down."

"Couldn't you fiddle about with your pencil and look as if you were
still working?" urged Calla's injured voice. "It makes Miss Pratt on the
warpath to see you sitting up so soon. She said, 'Aren't you finished
_yet_, girls?' this morning, very acidly. I think you might try to spin
things out for _our_ sakes."

In the matter of memorizing, also, Regina's nimble brains utterly
outdistanced those of her companions. She took home the history book and
read up all the portions which VA had taken during the two previous
terms, proving a far better acquaintance with it at revision classes
than the rest of the form, and bringing out dates with enviable
accuracy.

"I can't help it," was still her protest. "It's as easy to remember a
right date as a wrong one. They stick in my head somehow. If I see them
once I know them."

"You're a genius, I suppose," sighed Kathleen. "There ought to be a
special form for geniuses. It's not right to wedge them in amongst
ordinary girls."

Yet all the time it was the ordinary girls whom Regina admired. Her own
movements were awkward and jerky, but she would watch fascinated while
dainty Alice Orton, the dunce, even of VB, performed a scarf danc