"Yes, my dear, yes; I'm scarcely surprised at that."
"I felt attracted to her the moment I saw her; she was so different from the other girls. Of course, she didn't know the meaning of rules, but there was something about her wonderfully fresh and pleasant, and I and my friend Dorothy Collingwood would have done anything in our power to make school life easy to her."
"You don't mean to tell me that it wasn't easy? Why, she's about as clever a bit of a thing as you could find."
"I don't think anyone denies that; she has not been taught in the ordinary way, so, of course, she could not get into a high class; but that is not the point. I'd have been friends with her, the best of friends, if she hadn't repulsed me."
"Biddy repulse you! She never repulsed mortal in her whole life, the poor darling!"
"I don't think it was her fault; indeed, I am sure it was not, but—and this is the thing that I don't at all like to say—she was, I am convinced, influenced against me by another."
"By another? Who? If you have a nasty sort of girl at the school, she ought to be got rid of. Whom do you mean?"
"I can't bear to tell you, and I may be wrong, but we do think, Dorothy and I, that Biddy would be much, much happier at Mulberry Court but for Janet May."
"Phew!" the Squire drew a long breath; "that pretty little visitor of mine? Lady Kathleen invited her and seemed much taken with her. She told me that Janet was Biddy's dearest friend; but, now that you mention it, I do not see the colleen much with her. You don't mean to tell me?—oh, but I mustn't hear a word against one of my visitors."