Merry found herself turning very red. She remembered Aneta's words on the night of her arrival.
"She has already told you," said Maggie, "that she doesn't like me."
"Oh, you needn't speak. I know quite well," said Maggie.
"The petition I have to make to you is this," continued Maggie: "that at school you will, for a time at least--say for the first month or so--be _neutral_. I want you and Cicely and Molly and Isabel to belong neither to Aneta's party nor to mine; and I want you to do this because--because I have been the person who has got you to Aylmer House. Just remain neutral for a month. Will you promise me that?"
"I don't understand you. You puzzle me very much indeed," said Merry.
"You will understand fast enough when you get to Aylmer House. I wish I were not going away; I wish I hadn't to return to mother. I wish I could go with you all to Scarborough; but I am the last girl on earth to neglect my duties, and my duty is to be with poor dear mother. You will understand that what I ask is but reasonable. If four new girls came to the school, and altogether went over to Aneta's side, where should I be? What chance should I have? But I do not ask you to come to my side; I only ask you to be neutral. Merry, will you promise?"
"You distress me more than I can say," replied Merry. "I feel so completely in the dark. I don't, of course, want to take any side."
"Ah, then you will promise?" said Maggie.
"Let me present a picture to you," continued Maggie. "There are two girls; they are not equally equipped for the battle of life. I say nothing of injustice in the matter; I only state a fact. One of them is rich and highly born, and endowed with remarkable beauty of face. That girl is your own cousin, Aneta Lysle. Then there is the other girl, Maggie Howland, who is ugly."
"Yes, darling," said Maggie, using her most magnetic voice, "really ugly."
"She is ugly," repeated Maggie, speaking with great calm; "and--yes--she is poor. I will tell you as a great secret--I have never breathed it to a soul yet--that it would be impossible for this girl to be an inmate of Aylmer House if Mrs. Ward, in the kindness of her great heart, had not offered her very special terms. You will never breathe that, Merry, not even to Cicely?"