ance of the ready ear he had lent to the enemy's
side of the question had prevented any future appeal to intervention.
Matters with Vivien went on in a species of guerrilla warfare.

As head girl, Lorraine had, of course, the whip hand at The Gables, but
in every fresh scheme she found her cousin a dead weight and an
impediment. Vivien always suggested something different. At committee
meetings she invariably started an opposition to every resolution.
Nothing could be carried without bickering. In her capacity of monitress
Vivien was not a favourite. She was far too high-handed and domineering
to win any measure of popularity among the juniors. Surging discontent
sometimes broke out into rebellion. It is a delicate task for a general
whose aide-de-camp is too officious. Lorraine, with a feeling that she
was treading on eggs, brought up the subject of discipline at the next
committee meeting.

"We must see that rules are kept, naturally," she conceded, "but I think
perhaps lately some of us have just a little exceeded our authority. We
don't want to get snubbed by Miss Kingsley, and told to mind our own
business!"

"If you mean me," retorted Vivien, "I wish you'd say so straight out and
have done with it! I hate innuendoes. I consider that the kids want
keeping in order, and I'm there to do it, whether they like it or
whether they don't."

"We must, of course, keep order; but if we can do it pleasantly, it
makes a far nicer feeling in the school. Some of those babes will do
anything for a monitress they like."

"Oh, it's all very well to go about fishing for popularity, like some
people we know!"

"I suppose you mean _me_?" said Patsie quickly.

"If the cap fits, put it on."

Nellie and Claire began to giggle at the prospect of a spar between
Patsie and Vivien. Dorothy was fiddling with her pencil and frowning.

"I don't let the kiddies take liberties with me," she vouchsafed; "yet
they escort me home in relays every day."

"A monitress ought surely to be _liked_!" said Audrey plaintively.

"What I feel is, that we ought to work more in harmony," explained
Lorraine. "It doesn't do for one monitress to allow a thing, and another
to forbid it. The juniors don't know where they are."

"Yes, we can't each run the show on our own," agreed Patsie.

"Couldn't we draw up a sort of general list to go upon?"

"A black-list?"

"Well, I mean some general guiding rules."

"It's quite unnecessary," demurred Vivien.