'I say, look here,' began Babs, impetuously; 'I thought you'd made it up, and it's a shame!'
'What are you talking about?' demanded Jean Murray. 'I have made it up, long ago.'
'Then whose fault is it that all those girls keep bothering me?' exclaimed Barbara, growing more indignant as she went on. 'I haven't had a moment's peace all the morning, and it makes me feel silly. I don't like being made to feel silly. Why don't you tell them to leave me alone?'
'But I don't know what you're talking about,' said Jean. 'How are they making you feel silly?'
'They keep on telling me how clever I am,' grumbled Barbara, in a tone of the deepest contempt. 'Me clever! Just think of it! And they say I'm going to get to the top of the class, and all that rot. What do they mean by it? That's what I want to know. I was just beginning to get used to girls, and I told Kit only yesterday that they were not so bad after all, because they left you pretty much to yourself; and now--look at them! It's enough to make any one feel silly. Well, what's the joke?'
Jean was laughing heartily. It was the first time that morning she had been able to forget her own feelings of 'silliness'; and it cheered her considerably to find that some one else was in the same plight as herself. 'You _are_ queer!' she declared. 'Why, they are doing all that to show that they want to be nice to you, of course.'
Barbara stared at her aghast. 'Oh!' was all she said at first. After a pause for reflection, she added suddenly, 'Then what were they trying to be all the time they left me alone?'
Jean stopped laughing, and began kicking at the window-seat by which they stood.
'Was that their way of being nasty?' proceeded Babs, in a puzzled tone.
'I--I suppose so,' muttered Jean, looking away from her.
There was another pause, and then Jean made an immense effort. 'I made them leave you alone,' she jerked out. 'I hated you. It--it was because of Margaret Hulme.'
Barbara's puzzled look vanished. When she did begin to understand a thing, she was generally pretty quick about it. 'I'm beastly sorry,' she said softly. 'A little while ago, I thought Jill was going to make the boys like her better than me; and I felt just like that. What a pity you didn't tell me sooner!'