"We'll do our best, Miss Thompson," declared Adah, Isobel, Consie, and Joyce in an obedient chorus.
And doubtless they really meant to do their best; but schoolgirls are prejudiced beings, and apt to be conservative to the core. They had decided beforehand that the former pupils of Silverside, and the boarders in particular, had the sole prerogative of high ideals, culture, and gentility, and that such refinements could not, and did not, exist among those who had come from The Hawthorns. In their minds the division was as complete as that between the sheep and the goats. They looked upon the Hawthorners as heathen, and upon themselves in the light of missionaries. They set to work very patronizingly to make their influence felt. Now, there is nothing which most people resent so much as patronage. The Hawthorners had been happy enough in their old school, and they were keenly insulted at being given to understand that they were regarded by the Silversiders as inferiors. They held indignation meetings of their own on the subject.
"Why should those stuck-up things lord it over us?" exploded Annie Broadside.
"They're not as clever as we are. We beat them easily in class," added Gladys Wilks.
"I should just think we do. They're simply not in the running at maths.," declared Gertrude Howells.
"And yet they're prefects, if you please."
"At The Hawthorns prefects were always chosen from those who got the highest marks in the examinations."
"You were top last term, Annie, and would have been head girl if the school had gone on."
"You were only two marks behind me, Gladys, and you know Miss Perry hadn't counted the botany papers. It was really a toss-up between us."
"Well, we're both out of it now."