climbed
to the top of the class, and hooked Taylor out of his place already.
And old Mason actually had the cheek to tell us to-day that we should
have to pay a good deal more attention to our home work, or else
Howard would carry off all the prizes by-and-by. I should like to see
him do it,' he added.

'No, you wouldn't; and so you had better get on with your lessons
now,' said the young lady practically.

'No, no! let's settle this first. You haven't told me what a girl's
way would be with a fellow like this Howard.'

'Why, if he isn't nice, don't speak to him. Of course you can't help
it if he does his lessons better than you do, or you must work at them
a little more carefully, I suppose, if you mean to get ahead of him in
the class and take some of the prizes!'

'Oh, prizes be bothered!' exclaimed Leonard crossly, for his sister's
advice had not pleased him at all. 'I tell you we want to get rid of
the fellow if we can. Taylor says the head master ought to have
refused to take a scholarship boy.'

'Perhaps father could interfere,' said Florence. 'He has a good deal
to do with the Council.'

'If you breathe a word of what I've said to father, I'll never speak
to you again!' said her brother vehemently. 'The idea of such a thing!
Tell father, indeed! What would the other fellows say, do you think?
No, no, we can fight our own battle, and defend the honour of the
school in our own way. A nice hash you would make of everything. You
are a worse duffer than I thought, though I don't think you are a
tell-tale.'

'Of course I shall not tell father what we have been talking about, if
that is what you mean,' said Duffy, a little indignantly. The tears
were shining in her eyes, for she was very fond of her brother, and
always ready to help him whenever she was allowed, and so she felt
this scornful rebuff the more keenly.

'There, you needn't cry over it. I suppose you can't help being only a
girl. But mind, if you say a word to father or mother of what I have
told you, I never will speak to you again!' And with this last threat
Leonard turned with a sigh to his lessons.

'I've wasted a lot of time over you this evening,' he said, after a
short silence, during which Duffy had been muttering over a French
verb. 'I'm awfully disappointed about it,' he went on, 'for I shall
have to tell Taylor and the rest that you're nothing but a duffer.'

'Because I can't tell you how to manage with a boy that I don't know;
it