"I am, for one," said Val Barnett, "and I think a good many of the Form will be there. Helen Walker, and Joyce Hickson, and Annie Gray are asked, I know."
"Are you going, Dorothy?" enquired Hope, with a taunt in her tone.
"Dorothy never goes anywhere!" laughed Blanche Hall.
Dorothy buried her head in her desk and took no notice; but her silence was pain and grief to her.
"Hope's too mean for anything!" whispered Ruth Harmon to Noëlle Kennedy. "I'm sorry for Dorothy."
"And Pittie's too bad. It's not worth while preparing one's work if Hope gets all the praise for nothing. Why is Pittie always so hard on Dorothy?"
"Oh, because Dorothy doesn't flatter her up; besides, she loves presents. I wonder what she'd say if she could hear what her darling Hope says about her sometimes?"
"She can't, unless someone tells, and I hate sneaks."
"Well, I'm really sorry for Dorothy Greenfield. Hope and her set seem to have taken a spite against her. I don't mind if her dresses are shabby, and if she's the only girl in the Form who doesn't own a watch. I vote we make up a special clique to be on her side."
"All right; I'm your man! I admire Dorothy she's so 'game'--she never gives way an inch, whatever Hope says she just sticks her head in the air and looks proud."
"Well, I don't blame her. I like a girl who won't be kept down."
"What could we do to boost Dorothy up a little in the Form? Most of the girls are like sheep; if anyone leads hard enough, they'll follow."
"You know Dorothy's splendid at acting. She ought to take a principal part in our Christmas play."
"But she can't rehearse. She's barred the gym. and tied to the classroom for the rest of the term."
"That's my point. I think Dorothy got much too hard a punishment. Miss Tempest was angry because she answered back, and never took into account that she had owned up about going to that wedding, and that it was honest of her to tell."
"Yes, 'The Storm-cloud' was savage because Dorothy was cheeky, but I think she's got over it a little now; she's been far nicer to her lately."
"Have you noticed that too? Well, I believe Miss Tempest knows she treated Dorothy severely, and she's sorry, only she doesn't like to eat her own words. My plan is that we get up a deputation, go to the study, and beg her to let Dorothy off for rehearsals. She knows what a point we make of the play."