The patricians flourished in grand style. It would have been really laughable to sensible people to see how one after another copied Belle Hadden's airs and graces, and how the gulf widened in school. Several of the girls asked to have their seats changed, until the plebeians were left quite to themselves.
And yet the matter worked out a very odd and rather mortifying retaliation. One afternoon Dick Grayson overtook Emma Lauriston walking homeward. He had that day received a letter from her brother Fred, and repeated some of the contents.
"Are you going to Belle Hadden's party?" he asked, presently.
"I have not had any invitation." Emma's tone was rather curt.
"No?" in the utmost surprise. "What has happened among you girls? You and Kathie were not at the tableaux. Is there a standing quarrel?"
Dick and Emma were excellent friends in boy-and-girl fashion.
"There is something very mean and foolish. I wish somebody could look at it with clear eyes and give Belle Hadden a lesson!"
Emma's usually soft voice was indignant, and her face crimsoned with excitement.
"But how did Kathie Alston come to get mixed up with it. It seems to me that she is the last one to quarrel."