"That describes her to a T, doesn't it, Howes?" grinned the imperturbable Griffin. "That's the way we find her--so sweet that she is sickening, eh?"
"Hush, she'll hear you!" warned Howes, laughing a little, nevertheless, whereupon Patricia instantly decided that she had been mistaken in Margaret Howes' character, and that she was less open-minded and warm-hearted than she had believed.
"I can't see why you should pitch on her," insisted Patricia, kneading her cake into pills in her agitation. "What could she have against Elinor?"
Griffin yawned elaborately and then addressed Margaret Howes with lifted eyebrows.
"This young person, though evidently of an investigating turn of mind, has not quite fathomed the nature of the reigning beauty of our little coterie. Being of a candid and affable nature herself, she fails to comprehend how the fangs of the green-eyed monster, once fastened in the tender heart of said beauty, make the said beauty so mortally uncomfy that she's bound to take it out on somebody--and who so natural or convenient as the critter who sicked the serpent on her."
"You mean that she is jealous of Elinor?" asked Patricia, opening her eyes very wide. "Why, Elinor is only a beginner, and _she's_ studied abroad!"
"All the same, she sees that Kendall Major is about to snatch the laurel wreath from all our heads, and she doesn't want to do without any of her ornaments."
"But Elinor didn't even get a criticism in the head class yet," protested Patricia, unconvinced. "Mr. Benton didn't get around to her this morning, and she doesn't get any criticism in the night life till tomorrow afternoon. I don't see how she could be jealous."
Griffin made a face over a sip of over-heated cocoa. "Just as you please," she murmured benevolently. "Make the best of it, like a good child. Charity is the chief Christian virtue and an ornament to all. Are you going in for the prize design, Howes? I hear that it's open to the whole class."
"Haven't heard of it," replied Margaret Howes, with eager interest. "What is it? And who's giving it?"
"Roberts, the big New York decorator. He's offering a hundred dollars for the best design for a panel for a library--originality to be the chief feature. Popsy Brown told me. I thought it had been announced."