in a bad temper. I think you will be handsome, too, although you are pretty
hopeless at present; but of course you will never have anything like
Mortimer's looks. He is the living image of the painting of your
Great-great-great-grandfather Dwight that used to hang in the dining-room
in Utica, and who was in the first Congress. Now, do try and make friends
with the nicer of the children."

But Gora's was not a conciliating nor a compromising nature. Her idea
of "squaring things" was to become the best scholar in her classes and
humiliate several young ladies of her own age who had held the first
position with an ease that had bred laxity. Greatly to the satisfaction
of the teachers an angry emulation ensued with the gratifying result that
although the girls could not pass Gora, their weekly marks were higher, and
for the rest of the term they did less giggling even after school hours,
and more studying.

But Gora would not return for a second term. She had made no friends among
the girls, although, no doubt, having won their respect, they would, with
the democracy of childhood, have admitted her to intimacy by degrees,
particularly if she had proved to be socially malleable.

But for some obscure reason it made Gora happier to hate them all, and when
she had passed her examinations victoriously, and taken every prize, except
for tidiness and deportment, she said good-by with some regret to the
teachers, who had admired and encouraged her but did not pretend to love
her, and announced as soon as she arrived at home that she should enter the
High School at the beginning of the following term.