"It doesn't make you like me any less because--" "Because what?" "Because the girls at school don't like me...." Paul looked at her severely. "You can't think much of me if you think I'd stop liking you just because a few silly girls in school haven't any sense. If they don't like you, it's because they don't know you. That's all." "It's funny," Flip said, "how you can know someone for years and years and never know them and how you can know someone else all at once in no time at all. I'll never know Eunice. I'll always feel funny with her. But the very first day I saw you I felt as though I knew you, and when I'm with you I can talk.... I'd better go now. It's getting awfully late. See how dark the towns are getting down by the lake." "Can you come back tomorrow?" Paul asked. "Yes. I know they'll catch me sooner or later and then it'll be awful, but I'll come till they catch me." "They wouldn't give you permission to see me if you asked?" "Oh, no! Nobody except seniors are allowed to see boys--except brothers." "Well--I'll think of something." Paul sounded so convincing that Flip almost believed he really would be able to work out a plan. "Come on," he said. "Ariel and I'll walk as far as the woods with you but I think it would be dangerous if I went any further. We mustn't run any risk of being seen together." As she followed Paul down from the tower Flip felt so happy over their friendship that she almost wanted to cry, it was so wonderful. She said good-bye to Paul at the edge of the woods and was nearly back at school when something terrible almost happened. She had cleared the ring of trees and was scurrying across the lawn, when Martha Downs and Kaatje van Leyden came around the corner of the building. Flip saw them and started to hurry towards the side door, but Martha called her. Flip was awed by both of them at the best of times--Martha, the beautiful and popular Head Girl of the school, and Kaatje, the equally popular and formidable Games Captain and Head Monitor; and Flip knew that this was anything but the best of times. She felt as though her guilt were sticking all over her like molasses. "Where are you off to in such a hurry?" Martha asked. "Nowhere," Flip answered. "I just went for a walk." "All by yourself?" "Yes." "Couldn't you find anyone to go with you?" "I wanted to be by myself," Flip said. "That's all right," Kaatje interposed kindly. "We all like to be by ourselves once in a while. She wasn't breaking any rules." Flip was sure that they would ask her where she had been, but Martha said instead, "You're Philippa Hunter, aren't you?" Flip nodded. "I'm glad we bumped into you," Martha told her. "I've been meaning to look you up. I had a letter a few days ago from a friend of my mother's, Mrs. Jackman." "Oh," Flip said. "And she asked me to keep an eye on you." "Oh," Flip said again. Why did Eunice have to pursue her even at school?