blame, at all."

"I warned you that her goody-goody airs were a cloak to hidden
wickedness," said Mable, tossing her head.

"Blood will tell," drawled Lina Darrow, a very fat girl. "Mary Louise
has bad blood in her veins and it's bound to crop out, sooner or later.
I advise you girls to keep your trunks locked and to look after your
jewelry."

"Shame--shame!" cried Dorothy Knerr, and the others echoed the reproach.
Even Mable looked at fat Lina disapprovingly.

However, in spite of staunch support on the part of her few real
friends, Mary Louise felt from that hour a changed atmosphere when in
the presence of her school fellows. Weeks rolled by without further
public attacks upon Gran'pa Jim, but among the girls at the school
suspicion had crept in to ostracize Mary Louise from the general
confidence. She lost her bright, cheery air of self-assurance and grew
shy and fearful of reproach, avoiding her schoolmates more than they
avoided her. Instead of being content in her new home, as she had hoped
to be, the girl found herself more miserable and discontented than at
any other period of her life. She longed continually to be comforted by
Gran'pa Jim and Mamma Bee, and even lost interest in her studies, moping
dismally in her room when she should have been taking an interest in the
life at the school.

Even good Miss Stearne had unconsciously changed in her attitude toward
the forlorn girl. Deciding one day that she needed some new shoes, Mary
Louise went to the principal to ask for the money with which to buy