ork a reform, at any rate to sober her considerably for the present.

CHAPTER VIII

A Mysterious Happening

"I wonder how it is," philosophized Ruth Latimer, "that one always
seems to like some girls so much, and detest others? There are certain
people who, no matter what they do, or even if their intentions are
good, always rub one up the wrong way."

"Natural affinity, or the reverse, I suppose," answered Maisie Talbot.
"I'm a great believer in first impressions. I can generally tell in
five minutes whether I'm going to be friends with anyone or not; and I
find I'm nearly certain to be right in the long run."

"I suppose I must have a natural antipathy, then, against Flossie
Taylor," confessed Honor candidly. "It didn't take me as long as five
minutes to discover my sentiments towards her."

"I don't wonder," said Lettice. "Flossie is a bounder!"

"What's that?"

"Oh, Paddy! You've lived at the back of beyond! A bounder
means--well--just a bounder; putting on side, you know."

"How particularly lucid and enlightening!"

"It means someone who tries to make herself out of more consequence
than she really is," explained Maisie. "Flossie is continually dragging
into her conversation the grand things she has at home, and the grand
people she stays with."

"She doesn't mention them naturally, as anyone might do without being
offensive," said Ruth Latimer. "She parades them just to show off, in a
particularly obtrusive and objectionable manner."

"And we think that very bad taste at Chessington, because, of course,
almost all of us have quite as nice homes and friends, only we don't
care to boast about them."

"It looks as if you hadn't been accustomed to decent things, if you're
always wanting to let people know you possess them," added Lettice.

"The worst of it is," continued Maisie, "that she's having a bad
influence at St. Chad's. The Hammond-Smiths and the Lawsons and the
Palmers follow her lead implicitly, and she's completely spoiling Rhoda
Cunliffe and Hope Robertson. They used to be quite different before
Flossie came. I don't think Jessie Gray and Gladys Chesters have
improved either lately. It seems such a pity, because we've always
prided ourselves that St. Chad's was the best house in the College, and
we don't want this kind of element to creep in."

"What can we do?" asked Ruth Latimer.

"Suppose we form a league against it! All the nicer girls would join,
and if Flossie and her set