A Pair of Schoolgirls: A Story of School Days

rothy O

entered the Upper Fourth room with a sheaf of voting papers in her hand. These were dealt round to all the

oose for your warden. Do not write anything at all, but fold the paper and hand it in

last was hardly dropped into the ballot box before Miss James reappeared. The result of the election was to be announced at four o'clock, therefore there were still twenty minutes of suspense. Miss Pitman went on with the French reading as if nothing had happened, and Dorothy made a gallant effort to fix her attention on Le Jeune Patriote, and to forget that Miss Tempest and Miss James were hard at work in the library counting votes. Nobody's translation was particularly brilliant that afternoon

Warden of the Lower School b

mous majority was most astonishing. She could not understand it. Conversation was strictly forbid

. "I thought myself that Val would get it. All the Lo

Hope possibly

with the kid

and Second we

o say you never knew? Why, Miss

it! It's the first year those kids have ever taken pa

but you stalked away and wouldn't li

have run

lofty, I didn't

e First or the Second; no more did Grace or No?lle. I'm not certain if any of

as sitting on the see-saw making herself so extremely pleasant. It's not fair! Miss

r so!" sneered

s call things unfair,

would rather not speak even to her friends, so, ignoring violent signals from Bertha Warren and Addie Parker, she went at once to put on her outdoor clothes. The dressing-room, to provide greater accommodation, had not only hooks round the walls, but double rows of hat-stands down the middl

Helen Walker was saying. "I thought Val w

for Dorothy," rep

e had a chance even against Val.

we. "After all, she's far the most suitable fo

more than

r something. Her father was Mayor last year, and her mother

. One often sees the name 'Barbara Sherbourne' in t

account," returned Agnes, "for, as it happens, Miss

you s

but a waif, a nobody, who is being brought up for cha

the conversation without any thought of eavesdropping, flung her slipp

an by telling such an absol

u were there!"

r any good of themse

me a chance to deny such rubbish. I shal

h a glare in her eyes and a determined look a

replied. "It wasn't meant for you; but it's true

n it be

hat hastily and s

out it except yourself. Come, Helen, I'm ready now," and she hurried awa

she must walk fast if she meant to be at the station by half-past four. She scurried along High Street, keeping a watchful eye on the town hall clock in the intervals of dodging passengers on the pavements and dashing recklessly over crossings. At Station Road she quickened her footsteps to a run, an

ee you're back at school," he re

he was bitterly chagrined at missing the wardenship, and the thought that she might have had a chance of success if she had known of the voting powers of the First and Second Forms only added to her disappointment. She was indignant and out of temper with Mavie, with Hope, with the whole of her little world; everything had seemed to go wrong, and, to crown all, Agnes Lowe had dared to call her a nobody and a charity child! What could Agnes mean? It was surely a ridiculously false accusation, made from spite or sheer love of teasing. She, Dorothy Greenfield, a waif! The idea was impossible. Why, she had always prided herself upon her good birth! The Sherbournes were of knightly race, and their doings

thought it was because they were dead; but surely that was not a sufficient reason for the omission? Could there be another and a stronger motive for thus withholding all knowledge about them? Several things occurred to her-hints that had been dropped by Martha, the maid, which, though

black shadow. "I'll ask Aunt Barbara, and I've no doubt

cupied with her reflections that she would have forgotten her books, if a fellow-passenger had not handed them to her. She scarcely noticed the Rector and his c

nation was a little, quaint, old-fashioned stone house that stood close by the roadside at the beginning of the village street. A thick, well-clipped holly hedge protected from prying eyes a garden where summer flowers were still blooming profusely, a strip of lawn was laid out for croquet, and a small orchard, a

rs! I'm in the Upper Fourth, but it's been a hateful day. I never thought school

in her hands, as the girl knelt by her side, and trying to kiss away the frown th

nship, and my name was on the list, and I might perhaps have won if th

candidates. All the girls who lost will be feeling equally disappointed. Suppose you just

her face had lost its inj

t I warn you that this is only a respite, and I mean to give you a full and detailed list of a

ere was the old-fashioned dining-room, with its carved oak furniture, blue china, and rows of shining pewter; its choice prints on the walls, its bookshelves, overflowing with interesting volumes; and the desk where Aunt Barbara wrote in the mornings-a room that seemed made especially for comfort, and reached its acme of cosiness on a cold winter's day, when arm-chairs were drawn up to the blazing fire that burnt in the quaint dog grate. Then there was the little drawing-room, with its piano and music rack, and its great Japanese cabinet, full of all kinds of treasures from foreign places. When Dorothy was a tiny girl it had been her Sunday afternoon treat to be allowed to investigate the mysteries of this cabinet, to open its numerous drawers and sliding panels, and to turn over the miscellaneous collection of things it contained; and she still regarded it in the light of an old

ections of stamps, crests, and picture postcards; there was a table where she could use paste or glue, or indulge in various sticky performances forbidden in the dining-room, and a cupboard where oddments could be stored without the painful necessity of continually keeping them tidily arranged. She could try experime

rest until she had mentioned Agnes Lowe's remarks, and either proved or disproved their truth. It was not a question that she could raise, however, when Martha was coming into and going out of the dining-

ll you, all the same," she concluded, and waited for a deni

e reply. Apparently she was co

st. "It seemed unnecessary for you to know before, but you are g

. She did not want even Aunt Barbara

?" she asked, in

In a sense it is a