“She makes fun of so many things, and she tells you words that sound wrong when you pronounce them. I said something yesterday and the girls giggled and Miss Davis thought I did it purposely and I was marked down.”
“It was a very mean thing,” Lilian’s cheek glowed with indignation.
“Then Miss Rosewald tells such funny stories. Four or five of the girls just hang together and they think they are everything. But I guess father is as rich as any of their fathers. Only I wish I was real handsome.”
“Oh, my dear, I would think of my studies instead. Now let us talk them over. What is it that bothers you most?”
“Oh, everything.”
“But you must study. Now, won’t you try this evening. I’ll help you all I can.”
“Oh, I wish I was with mamma. I shall just tell her that I hate school. What’s the use of so much education anyhow? Girls get married.”
Lilian felt that Mrs. Nevins was a very poor mother not to have taught her daughter a little common sense. Then she asked how old Alice was.
“I was fifteen last May.”
“And I will be sixteen in June. I wasn’t quite fourteen when I was promoted to the High School, where I spent two years.”