"And it is our slide," put in Helen very unwisely.
"That doesn't make any difference," Bess hastened to say; but the mischief was done.
"Then keep your old slide," Elsie cried angrily. "I wouldn't be so selfish. Come, Constance, let's not stay where they don't want us."
"Don't go, Elsie; it is not worth quarrelling about," urged Dora; but she wouldn't listen and walked off with an air of offended dignity, followed rather reluctantly by Constance. Dora wanted to go after her, but Louise held her fast.
"Don't go, Dody; it won't do a bit of good. If she is mad, she can just be mad."
They took a few more slides, finding it not half so much fun as before. Dora looked very sober, for quarrelling was something she was not accustomed to, and after a visit to Carie, who was sick with a cold, she went home feeling exceedingly uncomfortable. Perhaps it would be all right to-morrow, she thought, but that did not prove to be the case.
When they met at school Elsie entirely ignored Bess and Louise, who in their turn treated her with a lofty indifference wonderful to behold.
"I am not at all mad at you, Dora," Elsie said to her; "but I am at Bess and Louise, for they were impolite. I am not going to speak to them till they say they are sorry."
"Oh, dear! I feel as though it were my fault in some way. It will spoil our club and everything," sighed Dora.
How long this unhappy state of affairs might have continued had not the Big Front Door taken matters in hand, it is impossible to say.