"I've a jolly good mind to," said Jack, still furious. "I think the way we're all treating her is a beastly mean shame."
"What! Do you mean to say you'd be friends with a kid who got you and Nita into such a row over those chestnuts?" cried Phyllis.
Jack hesitated. Those chestnuts rankled in her mind badly. It was very careless of Gerry! Still, it might have been an accident, and, anyway, Gerry had been punished for it too, even if not quite so heavily as she and Nita. Dorothy saw her hesitation and quickly interposed. She had no wish to see Jack Pym friends again with Gerry. Dorothy had a shrewd suspicion of what Jack's friendship meant to the lonely new girl, and she was determined to prevent any sort of reconciliation if she possibly could.
"Did you think it could possibly have been an accident?" she asked, addressing Nita Fleming, the other unfortunate victim of Gerry's carelessness.
"I don't know," said Nita doubtfully. "At the time I thought it was, but afterwards—well, I really don't see how it could have been quite accidental," she ended up.
"Of course it wasn't an accident!" broke in Phyllis scornfully. "It was just what you would expect of a German sneak. Hasn't she been getting us into trouble all through the term? Have you forgotten the way she stopped your trial for the hockey eleven in the beginning of term, so that Muriel put Gertie Page in, instead? You can't say we haven't given her a chance. We were all quite decent to her after Miss Burton dropped down upon her in class the other day—and now look how she's paid us out! It was principally for her sake that we decided to strike at all, and then, when we're all deep into it, she goes and backs out! It's just what you'd expect of a German Gerry, though," she wound up contemptuously.
This was a way of twisting things round with a vengeance! Jack could not help feeling that it was more than unjust to Gerry. But Phyllis's ability of proving black was white was too much for Jack, who felt quite unable to argue with her. And a remark made by Dorothy clinched matters for the time being.
"If you do make friends with her again, we won't have anything to do with you either," she declared spitefully.
And this was more than Jack was brave enough to stand.
All through her school life Jack had been extraordinarily popular, and the bare thought of being out of favour with her schoolfellows was sufficient to deter her from taking Gerry's part any longer. Not that there was any real danger of her getting into their bad books. In her heart of hearts she knew very well that her standing in the school was strong enough to withstand any attempts Dorothy and Phyllis might make to stir up feeling against her. But Jack could not bear the thought of being unpopular with anybody. And when Nita got up and slipped her arm affectionately round her neck, with a caressing: