ere near, and she was far too
shy to bring herself into prominence by going and hunting for one. So
she stayed where she was, and when grace had been said, sat down next
to Nita.

The meal was a very uncomfortable one for her. Jack and Nita evidently
considered that she had been very much to blame over the classroom
incident, and beyond seeing that she was supplied with table
necessaries, bread, and salt and water, they left her severely alone,
making no attempt to draw her into the conversation as they had done at
breakfast. And poor Geraldine ate her meal in silence, wishing that
Jack's unfortunate caricature had been at the bottom of the sea before
she had had anything to do with it.

It was really rather hard upon Geraldine to be blamed like this, for
she had never intended to get Jack into trouble, and, in their heart of
hearts, the whole of the Lower Fifth knew this. The whole episode
would probably have blown over in a day or so, if it had not been for
Dorothy and Phyllis. These two, although almost the youngest girls in
the Lower Fifth, possessed a great deal of influence in their form, and
unfortunately they seemed to have taken a violent dislike to the new
girl upon the first day of term. Anything that they could do to hurt
and annoy her, they did, and the rest of the form were either too weak
or too indifferent to interfere. Not that all the girls were actively
unkind to Geraldine--but the majority of them left her severely alone,
and the new girl, instead of making friends with her companions, grew
more and more lonely and isolated as the days passed by.

Her own manner helped very largely towards this isolation. She was so
shy and reserved herself that it was difficult for anyone to make
friends with her, and besides she was so absorbed with the longing to
make peace with Jack--who still remained coldly aloof--that she really
did not give anybody else a chance. She simply played into Dorothy's
and Phyllis's hands by her misery and shyness.

"She's so stuck up and superior--she doesn't _want_ to make friends,"
was Phyllis's frequent assertion. And the rest of the form, not being
possessed of any very great discernment, were quite content to accept
this version of the case and to leave Geraldine severely to herself.

But if she did not get on well in the social life of the school,
Geraldine was quite at home where lessons were concerned. She really
possessed abilities considerably above the av