The listeners, now really interested, nodded, and Glenda remarked feelingly: "I guess I should have felt rather like it myself."
"In a very short time," Allison went on, "her aunt despatched her to a boarding-school, still a rebel, and there Alice had a brief but hectic career, which ended in her being expelled for cheating. Everybody cheated in this life when it served their purpose, Alice had decided, so why shouldn't she? As for being expelled, nobody wanted her at the school, so what did it matter?"
At this point in Allison's story the girls, who were now listening with close attention, began to steal glances at each other, then to look round the room as if in search of someone. Monica, who had been sitting in the farther-most corner, near the door, flushed and stirred uncomfortably.
"I say, this girl Alice——" Glenda was beginning, but Allison broke in peremptorily.
"Now, Glenda. You know you promised not to interrupt. Fill your mouth with a chestnut instead."
"Sorry, Allison," said Glenda meekly. "I won't transgress again. Hurry up and tell us what happened to Alice after that."
"Let me see, I had just got to where Alice left her first school. Well, her aunt was naturally extremely annoyed, and I don't quite know what would have happened to Alice if a former great friend of her mother's had not offered to have her at the school of which she was Principal. This lady wanted Alice to have a fair and square start at her school"—here someone was heard to murmur "St. Etheldreda's" under her breath, but Allison took no notice and went on as if she had not heard—"so she purposely ignored the aunt's warnings that her niece must be dealt with very firmly indeed or she would be quite unmanageable. She told no one that Alice had been sent away from one school, only asked the other mistresses to make allowances for her at first, because she had not been accustomed to school life and school rules. Unfortunately, the story leaked out——"
"Glenda had a letter," Ida interjected, hastily, but at Allison's frown she apologized quickly: "Sorry, Allison. I forgot."
"The story, as I said, leaked out, and Alice, who by this time was beginning to feel that perhaps she had made a mistake in judging everybody by the actions of her uncle, and that there were plenty of people in the world who were kind and generous and honourable, learnt straight away that she was not to be given another chance and that all the girls, as she thought, had been carefully warned against her. Once again she felt hurt and sore, and in that 'don't-care-a-hang' mood."
Allison paused, looked round her little circle of listeners to see if they were following her, then added impressively: