“Tell me about them,” said Patty, much interested.
“Well, the Prigs are a lot of stuck-up girls who never do anything wrong. They’re awfully goody-goody, and most fearfully correct in their deportment. They’re on the Privileged Roll all the time. They don’t study so very much, but they’re great on etiquette and manners. Then the Digs are the girls who study like fury. They’re like Kipling’s rhinoceros: they never had any manners, then, since, or henceforward, but they’re most astonishing wise and learned. You can tell them by their looks. They wear two wrinkles over their nose, and a pair of glasses. Then the Gigs are my sort. We giggle all the time, never study if we can help it, and are continually being punished for the fun we have. Which do you think you’ll be?”
“I don’t know,” said Patty, smiling. “I hate to study, so I don’t believe I can be a Dig; I’m sure I haven’t manners enough to be a Prig, and, somehow, to-day I don’t feel jolly enough to be a Gig. Which is Lorraine?”
“She isn’t any of them,” said Clementine; “I don’t believe anybody could classify her.”
Just then luncheon was announced, and the girls all went to the dining-room.
Patty sat next to Lorraine, and was disappointed to see that Clementine was at another table. The dining-room was very pleasant, and the small tables were daintily appointed. Eight girls sat at each table, and though Lorraine introduced Patty to her table-mates, after a few perfunctory sentences to her they began to chat together about matters of which Patty knew nothing.
Poor Patty’s spirits sank lower and lower. The girls were not actually rude to her; they merely seemed to take no interest in her, and had no wish to become better acquainted.
This was decidedly a new experience for Patty. All her life she had been liked by her companions. In Vernondale she had been the favourite of the whole school; and even when she went to school in Boston, the girls though less enthusiastic, had all been pleasant and kind.
She couldn’t understand it at all, but with her usual philosophic acceptance of the inevitable, she concluded that it was the custom of New York girls to treat strangers coolly, and she might as well get used to it.
So, assuming a cheerfulness which she was far from feeling, she addressed herself to Lorraine, and tried to keep up a conversation.