Miss Janet smiled. "First of all you may cross off the last," she suggested. "Decidedly. Patsie Sullivan as head girl would be about as suitable as--as----" Miss Kingsley paused for an appropriate simile. "As making Charlie Chaplin Archbishop of Canterbury!" finished Miss Janet with a chuckle. "It's unthinkable! Most of the others are soon weeded out too. Nellie Appleby and Claire Bardsley--good stodgy girls, but quite unfit for leadership--Claudia Castleton, a new girl, so of course not eligible; Audrey Roberts--could you imagine silly little Audrey in any post of trust? It really only leaves us the choice between Lorraine Forrester, Vivien Forrester, and Dorothy Skipton." "In last term's exams these three were fairly equal," commented Miss Janet. "So equal that I shan't take the results of the exams into consideration. It must be a question of which girl will make the most efficient head. Each has her points and her drawbacks. Take Vivien, now: she's smart and capable, and would revel in exercising authority." "Too much so. I should be sorry for the school with anyone so domineering as Vivien Forrester at the head of affairs. She's too forward altogether, and inclined to argue and pit her opinion against that of the mistresses. If she were singled out for special office, I believe she'd grow insufferable. Dorothy Skipton, with all her faults, would be preferable to Vivien." "And Dorothy _has_ faults--very big ones too!" sighed Miss Kingsley. "I never can consider Dorothy to be absolutely straight and square. I've several times caught her cheating or copying, and she's not above telling a fib if she's in a tight place. She's clever, undoubtedly, and decidedly popular, and in that lies the greatest danger, for a popular head girl whose moral attitude is not of the very highest might ruin the tone of the school in a single term. I'm afraid Dorothy is too risky an experiment." "Then that leaves only Lorraine Forrester?" "Yes--Lorraine." Both the sisters paused, with the same look of puzzled doubt on their faces. "She's a child I never seem to have got to know thoroughly," said Miss Janet. "I must say I've always found her perfectly square and a plodding worker. She has given very little trouble in class."