irl. Like most rebels of her sex, she ardently desired to
re-enter the fold of law and order; and it was to this end she worked,
although, wherever she approached it, the place seemed to bristle with
spears. But she did not let herself be daunted; she pocketed injuries,
pretended not to hear them, played the spaniel to people she despised;
and it soon became open talk, that no matter what you said to her,
Laura Rambotham would not take offence. You could also rely on her to
do a dirty job for you.--A horrid little toady was the verdict;
especially of those who had no objection to be toadied to.

Torn thus, between mutinous sentiments on the one hand, a longing for
restitution on the other, Laura grew very sly--a regular little
tactician. In these days, she was for ever considering what she ought
to do, what to leave undone. She learnt to weigh her words before
uttering them, instead of blurting out her thoughts in the childish
fashion that had exposed her to ridicule; she learnt, too, at last, to
keep her real opinions to herself, and to make those she expressed
tally with her hearers'. And she was quick to discover that this was a
short-cut towards regaining her lost place: to conceal what she truly
felt--particularly if her feelings ran counter to those of the
majority. For, the longer she was at school, the more insistently the
truth was driven home to her, that the majority is always in the right.

In the shifting of classes that took place at the year's end, she left
the three chief witnesses of her disgrace--Tilly, Maria, Kate--behind
her. She was again among a new set of girls. But this little piece of
luck was outweighed by the fact that, shortly after Christmas, her room
was changed for the one occupied by M. P., and M. P.'s best friend.

So far, Laura had hardly dared to lift her eyes in Mary Pidwall's
presence. For Mary knew not only the sum of her lies, but also held--or
so Laura believed--that she came of a thoroughly degenerate family;
thanks to Uncle Tom. And the early weeks spent at close quarters with
her bore out these fears. The looks both M. P. and her friend bent on
Laura said as plainly as words: if we are forced to tolerate this
obnoxious little insect about us, we can at least show it just what a
horrid little beast it is.--M. P. in particular was adamant,
unrelenting; Laura quailed at the sound of her step.

And yet she soon felt, rightly enough, it was just in the winning over
of this stern,