"Oh, now and then. Sometimes she flunks. Polly should worry!"

Here was strange news. One could be smart, devote oneself to study--
be a "greasy grind"--and yet fail of prominence; and one could fail
to pass--"flunk"--and yet climb to the pinnacle of prominence.
Evidently smartness and studiousness had nothing to do with it, and
Missy felt a pleasurable thrill. Formerly she had envied Beulah
Crosswhite, who wore glasses and was preternaturally wise. But maybe
Beulah Crosswhite was not so much. Manifestly it was more important
to be prominent than smart.

Oh, if she herself could be prominent!

To be sure, she wasn't pretty like Polly Currier, or even like her
own contemporary, Kitty Allen--though she had reason to believe that
Raymond Bonner had said something to one of the other boys that
sounded as if her eyes were a little nice. "Big Eyes" he had called
her, as if that were a joke; but maybe it meant something pleasant.
But the High School did not have a Glee Club or Dramatic Society
offering one the chance to display leadership gifts. There was a
basket-ball team, but Missy didn't "take to" athletics. Missy
brooded through long, secret hours.

The first week of September school opened, classes enrolled, and the
business of learning again got under way. By the second week the
various offshoots of educational life began to sprout, and notices
were posted of the annual elections of the two "literary societies,"
Iolanthe and Mount Parnassus. The "programmes" of these bodies were
held in the auditorium every other Friday, and each pupil was due