"Oh, well," quietly replied Mattie, "I suppose, of course, that was the only reason she didn't ask you."
"The idea of her having Rachel Drayton," continued Georgie, ignoring Mattie's remark; "she has hardly treated her decently since she's been here, and to start out all of a sudden, and be so dreadfully intimate as to invite her into her room with a select party of friends, is really too absurd—or would be if it wasn't so easy to see what she is after!"
"See what she is after! Why, what in the world do you mean?" asked Mattie. "I don't imagine she's after anything."
"Oh, no! I suppose not," scornfully laughed Georgie, tossing her head still higher. "Of course not! you know the old saying, Mattie, 'None so blind as those that won't see.'"
"What in the world do you mean, Georgie Graham? I don't believe you know yourself!"
"Don't I, though? Well, now, do you suppose that Marion Berkley, who holds her head so high, and doesn't condescend to take any notice of us girls, would have whisked round all of a sudden, and been so very sweet on Rachel Drayton, if she hadn't an object in view?"
"You certainly are the strangest creature I ever saw," indignantly replied Mattie. "As if Marion ever had been sweet on Rachel! No one but you would ever have thought of such a thing! I presume she invited her, because she is a friend of Flo's."
"No such thing," replied Georgie, leaning across the table and speaking every word slowly and distinctly. "She invited her because she is an heiress, and Marion intends to toady round her until she gets into her good graces."
"I don't believe it," flatly declared Mattie.
"She told me so herself."