“Well, you might as well say what you like, Dolly. I believe she wants a good quarrel with someone–and it might as well be you.”
“You mean you think she likes me to get angry?”
“Of course she does! There wouldn’t be any fun in it for her if you didn’t. Can’t you see that?”
Dolly looked very thoughtful.
“Then I won’t give her the satisfaction of getting angry!” she declared, finally. “Of course you’re right, Bessie. If we didn’t pay any attention at all to her it wouldn’t do her a bit of good to get angry, would it?”
“I wondered how long it would take you to see that, Dolly.”
They were walking back to their own tents as they spoke. Once arrived there, neither said anything about the spirit Gladys had shown. They both felt that it would be as well to let the other girls think that Gladys shared the friendly feelings of the other Halsted girls. And since Bessie and Dolly happened to be the only ones who knew that Gladys had been the prime mover in the trouble that had been made at Lake Dean, it was easy enough to conceal the true facts.
“She can’t do anything by herself,” said Dolly. “Up at Lake Dean nothing would have happened unless the rest of those girls had taken her part against us.”
“I’m going to try to forget about her altogether, Dolly,” said Bessie. “I’m not a bit angry at her, but if she won’t be friends, she won’t and that’s all there is to it. And I don’t see why I should worry about her when there are so many nice girls who do want to be friendly. Why, what are you laughing at?”
“I’m just thinking of how mad Gladys would be if she really understood! She’s made herself think that she is doing a great favor to people when she makes friends of them–and, if she only knew it, she would have a hard time having us for friends now.”