"I agree with you there—she'd have turned the place upside down. Here she comes, in a tantrum by the look of her."
Vivien, judging by the way she slammed down her new books, was certainly not pleased with the turn affairs had taken. Though she and Dorothy were generally on terms of flint and steel, she sought her now to air what she considered a common grievance.
"I couldn't have believed it of Miss Kingsley!" she began. "Why Lorraine, of all people in the world? She's two months younger than I am, and her marks weren't as good as yours in the exam, if it hadn't been for that absurd essay that counted extra. How she's ever going to manage to run the societies, I can't imagine! I'm sorry for the school!"
Dorothy was adjusting her attractive hat in front of the mirror. She put in the pins carefully before replying.
"It's a rotten business!" she sighed.
"Disgusting! To have Lorraine set over us, while you and I are just ordinary common monitresses, the same as Audrey Roberts or Nellie Appleby. I'm fed up with it! It's going to be a hateful term; I shan't take an interest in anything! I wish I'd asked Father to send me to a boarding-school. I'm sick of The Gables!"
Patsie, whose shoe-lace was now triumphantly mended, chuckled softly.
"Poor old Gables!" she remarked. "I don't know that you'd find a 'better hole' so easily. It's a very decent kind of school. I intend to have some fun here this term, if you don't. When's that rhythmic dancing that Kingie talked about going to begin? I saw some in London, and I'm just wild to do it. This is how it goes!"
And Patsie, flinging out her arms and swaying from side to side, made a series of most extraordinary gyrations. Vivien and Dorothy burst out laughing.
"If that's what you call rhythmic dancing, give me the good old-fashioned sort!" hinnied Vivien. "You look about as graceful as an elephant!"