Her Irish ancestry revealed itself in her warm-hearted willingness to be friends with the girls, and her inherited New England nature made her reserved and sensitive to either real or apparent slights from them. The girls, notwithstanding their inborn good breeding and their past seasons at Hillside Manor, looked at Betty with ill-concealed curiosity. They knew she was an heiress, and that very fact made them hold aloof from her, lest they be suspected of a spirit of toadying to wealth. But Betty did not appreciate this point, and assumed that the girls were not very cordial because they considered themselves her superiors. Each one spoke to her, politely enough, but in constrained, perfunctory fashion, and then, feeling their duty done, they resumed their own chatter about matters unknown to Betty. Miss Price, the teacher, was a pleasant-faced lady, but, after a few courteous words, she became absorbed in a book, looking up only now and then to glance at her young charges. After a time Betty’s spirit of independence became aroused. She wondered if she were excluded from the girls’ sociability because she herself was lacking in cordiality. Smiling pleasantly, she said to Ada Porter, who sat next to her: “Are you in my classes?” “I don’t know, really,” said Ada, not unkindly, but entirely uninterested. “What classes are you in?” “I don’t know,” said Betty, smiling at the absurdity of the conversation. But Ada didn’t seem to think it humorous, and merely stared at Betty, as she said, “How queer!” Betty colored. She felt awkward and tongue-tied, and yet, the more she realized her inability to impress these girls pleasantly, the more she determined to do so. Then Betty bethought herself of a box of fine candies in her satchel, and taking it out, she passed it around to the other girls. Murmuring conventional thanks, each accepted one bonbon, but declined a second one, and then Betty found herself with her box in her lap, gazing out of the window, as much alone as if there had been no one in the car. But at last the three hours’ ride was over, and Betty’s hopeful nature looked forward to finding some among the pupils who would be more friendly than her traveling associates. Omnibuses from the school met them at the station, and by chance Betty was put in with a dozen girls none of whom had been with her in the car. But conditions were no better than before. They nodded diffidently to Betty, and then began to chatter to each other with the gay freedom of old acquaintances. One girl, however, who sat opposite Betty, was also a new pupil. She had coal-black hair and bright black eyes, that darted quickly about, seeming to take in everything. “You’re new, too, aren’t you?” she said at last, leaning over to seize Betty’s hand. “Yes,” replied Betty, grateful for the word spoken voluntarily to her. “So am I. I think the other girls are hateful to ignore us so. But don’t you mind; we’ll show them!”