Betsy curled her lip scornfully. “Oh yes, we’re very well pleased with ourselves, aren’t we? Wait till you have to do your arithmetic alone and you won’t be so pleased at having quarrelled with Elizabeth.”
“I don’t care,” replied Bess with an air of supreme indifference. “I’m not the only one who did the quarreling; you were as bad as I.”
“You began it.”
“But I only said things about girls and you said about boys; that was a great deal worse.”
“I didn’t mean it; I was mad,” Betsy repeated.
Bess was not ready to acknowledge that much. Elizabeth’s remarks still rankled and as anything relating to her personal appearance was a tender subject with Bess she could not forget very soon. “I’m not going to apologize, are you?” she said. “She ought to apologize first. If she doesn’t, I’ll take you for my first best friend, Betsy.”
“Indeed you won’t, then,” returned Betsy. “If I can’t have Elizabeth I don’t want anybody.”
“Oh, very well,” responded Bess with a haughty air. “Nobody wants you, I’m sure.” And she walked off, leaving Betsy torn by varied emotions.
For two whole days the three girls did not speak to one another. Each went her own way. Betsy moped by herself. Bess selected Flo Harris as a companion. Elizabeth sought out the older girls, and it must be said that, in defiance, she was more friendly than usual with the boys.
Then appeared upon the scene Corinne Barker, a city girl, who dressed stylishly and accepted attentions with the air of one conferring a great favor. Her parents had gone abroad and she was to spend the months of their absence with her aunt and uncle. She was a little older than Bess though somewhat younger than Leonora Stayman and Maria Black. Bess was ready to make overtures at once. Corinne’s real coral necklace, her flashing ring which far outshone Elizabeth’s modest little turquoise, her gold bangle, all these won Bess’s admiration, and it must be said that there were others who looked with envious eyes at these possessions. In imitation of Corinne, Bess changed the style of wearing her hair and presented herself with her usually smooth locks pulled down in scraggy loops over her forehead and bound down with a fillet. It was not becoming, but Bess prided herself upon its being in the latest style. Within the next twenty-four hours nearly every girl had followed the new fashion. Betsy arose early, had breakfast before her aunt and uncle and so escaped detection. Miss Emily would never have approved, Betsy well knew. When she took her place by Elizabeth’s side, her desk-mate gave her an amused, supercilious glance which did not escape Corinne’s eye. Elizabeth, be it said, had made up her mind not to ape the new pupil, for she had taken a dislike to her from the first. Corinne, recognizing in Elizabeth a leader, was ready to make war against her, and so matters stood after the second day of Corinne’s coming.