"Really, Nag, life is not long enough to attend to all the M.A.'s
little worries."

"Polly, dear, I am afraid we have been on a wrong tack with our
sister. I don't like calling her by that name."

"You began it!" exclaimed Vera, dashing in by the door as she spoke.

"I could not have meant it as a nickname to be always in use."

"Oh yes, you did, I remember"--and an argument was beginning, which
Agatha cut short by saying, "Any way, it is bad taste."

"Nag has been so much among the real M.A. that she is tender about
their title."

"She wants to be one herself," said Vera; "and so she will if she
goes on getting learned and faddy."

"In both senses?" said Paula.

Agatha laughed a little, but added, "No, Polly, the thing is that it
is hardly kind or right to put that sort of label upon a person like
Magdalen--who has done so much for us--and--"

The perverse young hearts could not bear a touch on the chord of
gratitude; and Paula burst in, "Label or libel, do you mean?"

"It becomes a libel as you use it."