"Oh, often."
"What do they say of us?"
"Why, they say Miss Adams is a perfectly sweet old lamb,—they do not mean to be disrespectful. And they say Professor Duke is the dearest duck! They almost swear by 'Professor Duck'!"
"And what do they say of me?"
Prudence hesitated, thinking hard.
"Come now, what do they say? We must get to the bottom of this."
"Why, they have said that you are very pretty, and most unbelievably smart."
"Oh! Quite a difference between sweet old lamb, and the dearest duck, and being very pretty and smart! Do you see it?"
"Yes," confessed Prudence reluctantly, "but I hadn't thought of it before."
"Now, what is wrong? What have I done? Why, look here. The twins think everything of Professor Duke, and I am sure Carol deliberately neglects her science lessons in order to be kept in after school by him. But though she hates mathematics,—my subject,—she works at it desperately so I can't keep her in. She sits on Mr. Duke's table and chats with him by the hour. But she passes me up with a curt, 'Good night, Miss Allen.'"