g each girl separately if she did not
consider the Dramatic Club ought to be put upon a general basis.
Everybody, except those who were already members, agreed. Many had
thought the present arrangement unfair, and had grumbled loudly,
though nobody had had the initiative to start a revolt. Now Joan
Masters and Elspeth Frazer took the matter in hand seriously, tackled
the clique, and argued the question.

"You may run a private club if you like for your own amusement," said
Elspeth, "but if you're going to call it 'The Fifth Form Dramatic',
and give a performance before the other Forms at Christmas, then it
must be a fair and open thing. Everyone must be eligible for
membership, and officers should be chosen by ballot."

"Half of you wouldn't be able to join," declared Hilda Browne.

"That's our own lookout. The point is that we ought to be able to do
so if we want. If you persist in keeping it all to yourselves, you may
act without an audience, for none of us will come to see you, and
we'll tell the other Forms what the quarrel is."

"I know they'd back us up," said Joan Masters.

Very unwillingly the clique gave way. They knew they had no just
ground for their position, but they had hoped it would not be called
in question.

"It's all the fault of Gwen Gascoyne, with her Lower School notions,"
said Rachel Hunter.

"She needn't think she's going to act!" asserted Edith Arnold.

"Don't want to!" rapped out Gwen, who happened to overhear. "I should
miss the bus if I stayed behind after four. I only wanted to see
things made fair and square."

Though the new arrangements were really owing to Gwen's enterprise,
nobody was willing to accord her any thanks. Joan Masters and Elspeth
Frazer received all the credit for having righted the wrong; and
though a few might remember that Gwen had started the movement, they
were almost ready to agree with Rachel Hunter that it was rather
pushing of an ex-Junior to have taken so much upon herself. They had
not yet forgiven her translation to the Fifth, and only the utmost
humility on her part would have reconciled them. Humility was
certainly not Gwen's characteristic, so she still went by the epithet
of "that cheeky kid" in the Form.

"So much for their gratitude," confided Gwen to Lesbia. "I don't want
to act, but some of those who have got into the play might at least
acknowledge what I've done for them."

"They seem a hateful set!" sympathized Lesbia.

"Detestable!" s