I can't keep her in. She sits on Mr. Duke's table and
chats with him by the hour. But she passes me up with a curt, 'Good
night, Miss Allen.'"

"And Larkie, too?"

"Lark is worse than Carol. Her dislike is deeper-seated. I believe I
could win Carol in time. Sometimes I waylay her when she is leaving
after school, and try my best. But just as she begins to thaw, Lark
invariably comes up to see if she is ready to go home, and she looks at
both of us with superior icy eyes. And Carol freezes in a second.
Ordinarily, she looks at me with a sort of sympathetic pity and wonder,
but Lark is always haughty and nearly contemptuous. It is different
with the rest of the class. It is nothing important to them. The
twins are popular in the class, you know, and the others, realizing
that they dislike me, hold aloof on their account."

"I can't fathom it," said Prudence.

"Now, Professor Duke is very brilliant and clever and interesting. And
he does like Carol tremendously,--Larkie, too. He says she is the
cleverest girl he ever knew. But Carol is his favorite. But he does
not like teaching, and he has not the real interests of the scholars at
heart. Next year, he is to begin some very wonderful research work at
a big salary. That is what he loves. That is where his interests lie.
But this year, being idle, and his uncle being on the school board
here, he accepted this place as a sort of vacation in the meanwhile.
That is all it means to him. But I love teaching, it is my life-work.
I love the young people, and I want to help them. Why won't the twins
give me a chance? Surely I am as attractive as Professor Duke. They
are even fond of Miss Adams, whom most people consider rather a sour
old maid. But they have no use for me. I want you to find out the
reason, and tell me. Will you do it? They will tell you if you ask
them, won't they?"

"I think so. It is partly my fault. I am very strict with them about
saying hateful things about people. I do not allow it. And I insist
that they like everybody,--if they don't, I make them. So they have
just kept it to themselves. But I will do my best."

One would have thought that Prudence carried the responsibility for the
entire public-school system of the United States upon her shoulders
that night, so anxious were her eyes, so grave her face. Supper over,
she quietly suggested to Fairy that she would appreciate the absence of
herself and Connie for a time