"I took the ones that played well and whom I thought had a right to be substituted."
"Answer me this." Hester walked directly before her roommate. Standing so, they looked into each other's eyes. "Answer me this. Do I not play a better game than either Louise or Emma? Have I not made the score when their fouls would have brought it down?"
"Yes, you have. You are a better player than either. To do you justice, Hester, you play as well as any girl on the first team."
"I do, and yet you passed me over for an inferior player. Is that justice to either the team or me?"
"It does not appear so. Yet one cannot judge from appearances alone. I believed that I did what was fair and honorable."
"I fail to see it that way," said Hester proudly.
"We do not see it from the same point of view."
"Evidently not. But this much I insist upon. I must know the reason why you ignored me when you have acknowledged that I was the best player. I demand the reason."
"Don't you know, Hester Alden? Don't you really know?"
"I do not. There is something else I do not know or understand; that is your treatment of me for the last three weeks. Do not for a moment think that I am begging for either your love or friendship. I wish nothing that does not come to me of its free will. But it was you who first wished to be friends. It was you who always made the first advances. Time and time again, you told me that I was nearer to you than any friend you had ever had and that I seemed more like a sister to you."