"I don't know. I do mind what people think of me. Ruth used to say it was very weak and foolish of me, and I suppose it is."
"I am sure it is." Ann was silent for a moment, then she went on: "The first term I was at Helmsford College—I had a governess before that —the girls put me through a regular list of questions. It seemed they wanted to find out all about father's family—"
"How rude of them!" broke in Violet; "I hope you didn't gratify their curiosity? should have told them to mind their own business!"
"Well, I did nothing of the kind," Ann replied with a smile; "I told them about my grandfather, that he had been a working farmer who had laboured with his hands, and I told them all about dear old Granny, and how father had made his own way in the world—I was very proud to tell them that!"
"And were the girls as nice to you afterwards as they were before?" asked Violet, struck with amazement.
"Oh yes! I have always got on very well with all the girls; they are not so narrow-minded as you think them."
"It was very plucky of you to speak out," said Violet, "I'm sure I could not have done it myself. Oh, Ann, you believe I love father, don't you?"
"Why, of course I do!"
"And yet I've been so ashamed that people should know he was not a prosperous man. That's one point on which Ruth and I have been so different. You're like Ruth. I believe if you knew her you'd like her much better than you do me."
"I don't believe I should. People who are alike never get on so well together as those who are not; I have often heard that remarked, haven't you?"