But they all knew Hester. She had a certain popularity among some of the girls because of her father’s wealth, and the lavish way in which Hester entertained those girls whom she wished to favor. Money will always bring a certain kind of subservience. Although the general opinion was adverse to Hester, nothing was really done about it.
Laura and Jess, with Chet and his chum, Lance Darby, were sitting on the Beldings’ porch, for it was a warm evening.
“Something ought to be done to that Grimes girl,” drawled Chet, reflectively. “She’s always doing something mean.”
“That’s the worst of you girls,” said Lance, with a superior air. “If one of you gets into trouble, the others either stand off or pick on her.”
“Isn’t that so?” cried Chet. “I saw Bobby walking home from school this afternoon all alone.”
“You bet if she’d been a boy,” said Lance, importantly, “there’d been a crowd of fellows with her.”
“Is that so?” flared up Jess. “Don’t you ever fight, you boys? And do you always stand by one another when one gets into trouble? How about what you did to Pretty Sweet last Saturday? Oh! I heard about it.”
Lance and Chet broke into loud laughter. Laura said, hurriedly:
“Stop! here he comes now. And I believe he is coming here.”
In the twilight they saw a rather tall boy, dressed in the height of fashion, with brightly polished shoes and an enormously high collar, coming down Whiffle Street.