mean the Merrifields, especially Wilfred, if that is his name."

"Bil--Bil! Oh, he is all very well," said Vera, "if he would not be
always so silly and come after me! As if I cared!"

"And only think," said Paula, "that she was going to have it on the
very day that St. Milburga's Guild has their festival! Just as if it
was on purpose!"

"Did you ask her to keep clear of your engagements?"

"I told her, but I don't think she listened." And as another
grievance suggested itself to Vera, she declared, "And she won't let
us join the Girls' Magazine Club, because she saw one she didn't like
on somebody's table. As if we were little babies!"

"She won't let us order books at the library, but gets such awfully
slow ones," chimed in Paula, "or only baby stories fit for Thekla.
She made me return that book dear Sister Mena lent me, because she
said it was Roman Catholic."

"And hasn't she got Thomas a Kempis on her table? and I'm sure he was
Roman Catholic. There's consistency!"

"You don't understand," began Agatha. "He was a great Saint before
the Catholics became so Roman."

"Oh, never mind! It is anything to thwart us," cried Vera. "It is
ever so much worse than school."