"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.