"If they think we're going to knuckle under to them they're very much mistaken." "Giving themselves such airs about being old Silversiders, and treating us like inferiors!" "Can't we do anything?" "Let's form an 'Old Hawthorners' Guild', and vow to stick to one another. There are more of us than of them, and we'll beat them in lessons and at games, and let them see who's inferior." "Right you are! You shall be captain, Annie." "Then you shall be secretary, Gladys." "I know everybody will be only too delighted to join." "They will. But don't let those Silversiders know one single word about it." "They shan't, indeed!" "We're here, and the school is as much ours as theirs!" "Our old set will follow us, and not care a toss about the prefects!" Adah and her fellow-officers had indeed made a terrible mistake by their superior and patronizing ways. Instead of welding the school into one, as Miss Thompson had hoped and intended, they had entirely alienated the new element and had set up a most unhappy barrier of division. Silverside resolved itself into two parties, each apparently determined to misunderstand the other, and obstinately resolute not to mix. Miss Thompson, anxiously watching the result of her experiment, saw only the surface of things, for most of the trouble lay below, deeper than the ken of head mistresses. The teachers were aware of an undercurrent of discontent, but could not absolutely discover the reason. Only the girls themselves knew that the school was split into rival factions, between whom there was going to be war. CHAPTER III Walden As Avelyn Watson is one of the central figures of this story, it will be well to go back some months, and follow the events which preceded her appearance at Silverside. Though apparently trivial enough, they are important, because if they had not happened, she would have come to school as a day girl instead of a boarder, and the part which fate put into her hands to play could never have been acted. It all began with Daphne forgetting to change her wet stockings. Daphne had done many imprudent things before, and had suffered more or less from them. This time Dame Nature, tired of having her laws flouted, determined to teach her a lesson. The specialist who was called in to consult with the family doctor made an exhaustive examination of the case, then pronounced his verdict. "She mustn't live in the town. If you want her to grow up into healthy womanhood, a year or two in the country is an imperative necessity."