"What sort of temper has she?" "Queer, like everything else about her. Not unamiable, you know, but irritable at times, and she has days of deep depression, and moments of extreme elation." "Ah!" Miss Clifford ejaculated, and then reflected a little. "Well, be patient with her," she said at last. "If she hasn't exceptional ability of some kind, I am no judge of girls; but she is evidently unaccustomed to school work, and is suffering from the routine and restraint, after being allowed to run wild. She should have been sent here years ago." CHAPTER XXXI From the foregoing it will be seen that Beth made her mark upon the school from the day of her arrival in the way of getting herself observed and talked about. She was set down as queer to begin with, and when lessons began both girls and mistresses decided that she was stupid; and queer she remained to the end in the estimation of those who had no better word to express it, but with regard to her stupidity there soon began to be differences of opinion. At preparation one evening she talked instead of doing her work, and gradually all the girls about her had stopped to listen. "Gracious!" Beth exclaimed at last, "the bell will go directly, and I've not done a sum. Show me how to work them, Rosa." "Oh, bother!" Rosa rejoined. "Find out for yourself! My theme was turned, and I've got to do it again." "Look here," said Beth, "if you'll do my sums, I'll do your theme now, and your thorough bass on Thursday." "I wish to goodness you wouldn't talk, Beth!" Agnes Stewart exclaimed. "We shall all get bad marks to-morrow." "Then why do you listen?" Beth retorted. "I can't help it," Agnes grumbled. "You fascinate me. I should have thought you were clever if I had only heard you talk, and not known what a duffer you are at your lessons." "Well, she's not a duffer at thorough bass anyway," Rosa put in. "She only began this term, and she's a long way ahead even of some of the first. Old Tom's given her a little book to herself." "I began thorough bass with the rest of you," Beth observed. "It's the only thing we started fair in. You are years ahead of me in all the other work." The girls reflected upon this for a little. "And you can write themes," Rosa finally asseverated. "Oh, that's nothing," Beth protested. "Themes are easy enough. I could write them for the whole school." "Well, that's no reason why you should put your nose in your cup every time you drink," Lucy Black, the sharpest shrimp of a girl in the class, said, grinning. "I never did such a thing in my life," Beth exclaimed, turning crimson. "You'll say I eat audibly next." "No, you don't do that," Rosa said solemnly; "but you do put your nose in your cup." The colour flickered on Beth's sensitive cheek, and she shrank into herself. "There, don't tease her!" Mary Wright, the eldest, stupidest, and most motherly girl in the school, exclaimed. "How can you drink without putting your nose in your cup, stupid?"