“But it’s so much your own fault! Have you ever tried, real hard, to be nice to any of the girls? Real up and down nice?”
“No, I’ve been too busy paying them back for the snubs they gave me.”
“That’s just it! And they only snubbed you because they thought you were snubbing them. Oh, I know all about it, Bernice. Don’t you s’pose I’ve heard them talk you over? And the boys. They say you’re a pretty girl and a good dancer, but—well, I’m going to tell you right out, for I believe it will help you,—they call you a lemon!”
“They do, do they? Then I don’t want anything to do with them!”
“Yes, you do! Now, hold on; they call you that, ’cause you are lemony to them! You know yourself that you snip and snap the boys awfully. They won’t stand it.”
“But, Dolly, I haven’t the sweet sunny disposition that you have.”
“Then get it! You can, if you want to. Good gracious, Bernice, if you want to be popular and have a good time, isn’t it just too easy to quit being a sour old lemon and work up an amiable manner? Anybody would think I was asking you to do something hard! Why, it’s easier to be pleasant than not, if you only think so! Now, that’s part of your part. Next, you must invite people here.”
“Give a party?”
“Yes, if you like. I meant ask just a few at a time. But it would be a good scheme to start in with quite a party. Not too gorgeous,—but a nice, right party.”
“It’ll be my birthday week after next, I might have it then.”