"Muriel! Why are you crying? What is it?"
Muriel started as though she had been stung, and shook off the other's hand impatiently.
"What do you want?" she demanded, in pettish tones. "Why can't you leave me alone? I don't want you bothering me with questions, just as if you cared!"
"I—I thought you were crying," Marigold explained, "and—and I wondered if I could help you in any way."
Muriel raised a hot, tear-stained face and gazed at her companion with blurred blue eyes.
"I suppose you're mocking me!" she cried angrily. "Why don't you go away and leave me in peace? You're glad to see me like this, I know!"
"Indeed I am not, and you're very wicked to say so!" Marigold protested warmly. Then, her pity at the sight of Muriel's woebegone countenance getting the better of her indignation, she added more quietly, "Don't be silly! You know very well I'm not mocking you! Tell me what's wrong, do!"
"Do you really want to know? But no, of course you don't! You'll tell the other girls, so that they may jeer at me!"
"I hope I should not treat anyone so badly as that!"
"Well, Miss Smith has kept me in because I worked my sum all wrong," Muriel condescended to explain, speaking in a sulky tone, "and I haven't the faintest idea how to do it."