Prudence hesitated, thinking hard.

“Come now, what do they say?  We must get to the bottom of this.”

“Why, they have said that you are very pretty, and most unbelievably smart.”

“Oh!  Quite a difference between sweet old lamb, and the dearest duck, and being very pretty and smart!  Do you see it?”

“Yes,” confessed Prudence reluctantly, “but I hadn’t thought of it before.”

“Now, what is wrong?  What have I done?  Why, look here.  The twins think everything of Professor Duke, and I am sure Carol deliberately neglects her science lessons in order to be kept in after school by him.  But though she hates mathematics,—­my subject,—­she works at it desperately so I can’t keep her in.  She sits on Mr. Duke’s table and chats with him by the hour.  But she passes me up with a curt, ’Good night, Miss Allen.’”

“And Larkie, too?”

“Lark is worse than Carol.  Her dislike is deeper-seated.  I believe I could win Carol in time.  Sometimes I waylay her when she is leaving after school, and try my best.  But just as she begins to thaw, Lark invariably comes up to see if she is ready to go home, and she looks at both of us with superior icy eyes.  And Carol freezes in a second.  Ordinarily, she looks at me with a sort of sympathetic pity and wonder, but Lark is always haughty and nearly contemptuous.  It is different with the rest of the class.  It is nothing important to them.  The twins are popular in the class, you know, and the others, realizing that they dislike me, hold aloof on their account.”

“I can’t fathom it,” said Prudence.

“Now, Professor Duke is very brilliant and clever and interesting.  And he does like Carol tremendously,—­Larkie, too.  He says she is the cleverest girl he ever knew.  But Carol is his favorite.  But he does not like teaching, and he has not the real interests of the scholars at heart.  Next year, he is to begin some very wonderful research work at a big salary.  That is what he loves.  That is where his interests lie.  But this year, being idle, and his uncle being on the school board here, he accepted this place as a sort of vacation in the meanwhile.  That is all it means to him.  But I love teaching, it is my life-work.  I love the young people, and I want to help them.  Why won’t the twins give me a chance?  Surely I am as attractive as Professor Duke.  They are even fond of Miss Adams, whom most people consider rather a sour old maid.  But they have no use for me.  I want you to find out the reason, and tell me.  Will you do it?  They will tell you if you ask them, won’t they?”

“I think so.  It is partly my fault.  I am very strict with them about saying hateful things about people.  I do not allow it.  And I insist that they like everybody,—­if they don’t, I make them.  So they have just kept it to themselves.  But I will do my best.”