Katie forgot that her question had not been answered, but Jeanette remembered it.
"You asked what my cousin"s name is," said Jeanette; "her name is Lola Blessington."
"Is she a peacemaker?" asked Reginald, who still remembered the morning"s verse. "Well,--no, I mean not _exactly_," said Nina, who hastened to reply before Jeanette could do so.
"What"s she like?" asked Reginald.
"Oh, you"ll know when you see her," said Jeanette.
"And we shall see her next week," Katie said.
The sunny days slipped by, and nothing unusual happened at the little school.
In that first week the other pupils learned that there was but one way to get on peaceably with Arabella.
At first they followed Dorothy"s example, and urged Arabella to join them in their games, but games which they chose never pleased her, and when Friday came, Reginald spoke his mind. They were walking home from school, and Arabella, as usual, had turned from her playmates, preferring to go home alone.
Reginald looked after her frowning.
"She"s just an old _fussbudget_!" he said.
"Oh, hush!" said Katie, "don"t you know that we all promised Dorothy we"d be kind to Arabella?"
"Well, I didn"t say it _to_ her," said Reginald, "but I"d like to."
"Now, Reginald," said Katie, "you know mamma said that you were always to be a gentleman, and that you must be "specially polite and gentle if you were to be in a cla.s.s of girls."
"Well, what did I _do_?" he asked with wide open eyes. "I haven"t touched Arabella; if she"d been a boy I would have shaken her this morning, when she sneered and called me a pretty boy. Boys aren"t ever pretty; only girls are pretty, and any boy would hate Arabella for saying it."
They tried not to laugh, but the handsome little fellow was so angry, and all because Arabella had called him pretty. Reginald, who never could be angry long, joined in the general laugh which could not be controlled.
Early Monday morning Dorothy and Nancy were skipping along the avenue on their way to school.
Every day of the first week had been sunny, and here was Monday with the bright blue sky overhead, and the little sunbeams dancing on the road.
"We had every lesson perfect last week," said Dorothy, "and I mean to get "perfect" this week, too."
"So do I," said Nancy, "and I can, if Arabella doesn"t make me do half her examples!"
"I don"t think she ought to," Dorothy said.
"She doesn"t _really_ ask me to," said Nancy, "but it"s almost the same.
She says she can"t do them, and says she could if some one was kind enough to just show her how. Then I can"t seem to be unkind, and the minute I say I"ll _help_ her, she pushes her slate and pencil towards me. "You can do "em easier than I can," she says, and instead of _helping_ her, I do them all."
"Does Aunt Charlotte like to have you?" asked Dorothy.
"I don"t know; I haven"t told her about it yet. I don"t want to be a telltale," Nancy said.
"Of course you don"t," agreed Dorothy, "but you know Aunt Charlotte says that we are to be independent, and Arabella"s anything but independent when she doesn"t do her examples herself. It"s puzzling, though; mamma says we mustn"t notice her queer ways, and that we must be kind to her, and it doesn"t seem kind to refuse to help her with her lessons."
"Wait for us!" called a merry voice, and turning, they saw Nina and Jeanette running toward them. A third girl clasped their hands, and Dorothy knew that she must be their cousin, Lola Blessington.
She was very pretty, and she seemed so friendly that Dorothy was really glad that she was to join the cla.s.s, and Nancy was quite as pleased. It was early for school, and Nina proposed that they sit on the wall, and wait for Katie and Reginald.
They seated themselves upon the stone wall, and like a row of sparrows, they chattered gaily.
Lola seemed full of fun, and she told of some fine games which she had played at the school where she had been a pupil, and they were all very glad that she was to be a member of the private cla.s.s.
And now a thin little figure made its way across the street, just a little way from where they were sitting.
Nina reached behind Lola, and touched her sister"s sleeve; Jeanette nodded, and looked toward the girl who walked along, looking down upon the ground.
Dorothy saw her, and called to her kindly:
"Arabella! Arabella! Won"t you come and meet our new playmate?"
Arabella turned, paused just a second to stare at the new pupil. Then turning toward the stone cottage, she said:
"I can"t stop to talk; I"ve got to go to school."
"Why, how--" Nancy would not finish the sentence.
She was grieved that Arabella should be so rude to Dorothy, and vexed that their new friend should be unkindly treated.
"Who is she?" Lola asked.
"She"s Arabella Corryville," said Nina, "and she"s in our cla.s.s, and I wish--" she stopped as short as Nancy had a few moments before.
Lola turned to look at Nina.
"What were you going to say?" she whispered.
"I was going to say that I wished she wasn"t."
CHAPTER III
THE DIALOGUE
Lola received a cordial greeting from Aunt Charlotte, and at recess time she declared that she was now in the nicest school that she had ever attended.
"Why, how many have you been in?" asked Mollie; "this is the only one I"ve ever been to, and you aren"t any older than I am."
Lola laughed.
"I"ve been in three schools," she said. "Last year I commenced in one school, but we moved, and I had to go to another one. This makes the third, and I know I shall like it best of all."