"Then you must tell him not to blush and drop his glasses when the girls tell him I'm nearly ready. They _all_ think he's in love with me." "Well, it doesn't matter," said Miss Ashley, impatiently. "But it does matter," Sylvia contradicted. "Because even if he is going to marry me he's not the sort of lover one wants to put in a frame, now is he? That's why I bought that photograph of George Alexander which Miss Pinck made such a fuss about. I _must_ have a secret sorrow. All the girls have secret sorrows this term." Miss Ashley shook her head gravely, but Sylvia was sure she was laughing like herself. Sylvia's chief friend was Phyllis Markham--the twins were only fourteen--and the two of them headed a society for toleration, which was designed to contend with stupid and ill-natured criticism. The society became so influential and so tolerant that the tone of the school was considered in danger, especially by Miss Primer, who lamented it much, together with the reverses in South Africa; and when after the Christmas holidays (which Sylvia spent with Miss Ashley at Bournemouth) a grave defeat coincided with the discovery that the Worsleys were signaling from their window to some boys in a house opposite, Miss Primer in a transport of woe took up the matter with the head-mistress. Miss Ashley called a conference of the most influential girls, at which Sylvia was present, and with the support of Phyllis maintained that the behavior of the twins had been much exaggerated. "But in their nightgowns," Miss Primer wailed. "The policeman at the corner must have seen them. At such a time, too, with these deadful Boers winning everywhere. And their hair streaming over their shoulders." "It always is," said Sylvia. Miss Ashley rebuked her rather sharply for interrupting. "A bull's-eye lantern. The room reeked of hot metal. I could not read the code. I took it upon myself to punish them with an extra hour's freehand to-day. But the punishment is most inadequate. I detect a disturbing influence right through the school." Miss Ashley made a short speech in which she pointed out the responsibilities of the older girls in such matters and emphasized the vulgarity of the twins' conduct. No one wished to impute nasty motives to them, but it must be clearly understood that the girls of Hornton House could not and should not be allowed to behave like servants. She relied upon Muriel Battersby, Dorothy Hearne, Gwendyr Jones, Phyllis Markham, Georgina Roe, Helen Macdonald, and Sylvia Scarlett to prevent in future such unfortunate incidents as this that had been brought to her notice by Miss Primer, she was sure much against Miss Primer's will.