"How particularly lucid and enlightening!" "It means someone who tries to make herself out of more consequence than she really is," explained Maisie. "Flossie is continually dragging into her conversation the grand things she has at home, and the grand people she stays with." "She doesn't mention them naturally, as anyone might do without being offensive," said Ruth Latimer. "She parades them just to show off, in a particularly obtrusive and objectionable manner." "And we think that very bad taste at Chessington, because, of course, almost all of us have quite as nice homes and friends, only we don't care to boast about them." "It looks as if you hadn't been accustomed to decent things, if you're always wanting to let people know you possess them," added Lettice. "The worst of it is," continued Maisie, "that she's having a bad influence at St. Chad's. The Hammond-Smiths and the Lawsons and the Palmers follow her lead implicitly, and she's completely spoiling Rhoda Cunliffe and Hope Robertson. They used to be quite different before Flossie came. I don't think Jessie Gray and Gladys Chesters have improved either lately. It seems such a pity, because we've always prided ourselves that St. Chad's was the best house in the College, and we don't want this kind of element to creep in." "What can we do?" asked Ruth Latimer. "Suppose we form a league against it! All the nicer girls would join, and if Flossie and her set see that we really vote them bad style, perhaps they'll have the sense to drop it." "All right. Put me down as your first member. What's the name of the Society?" "We might call it the 'Anti-Bounders'. It has a brisk, rolling sound that's rather jolly." "The A.B.S. for short," suggested Honor. "And the rules?" asked Ruth. "Those could be short and sweet--something on these lines: "1. No member is to make an unnecessary or ostentatious display of wealth or valuables. "2. No member is to brag constantly of high connections or titled friends. "3. Members are to consider, not money, but culture, as the standard of public estimation at St. Chad's; and to remember that the essence of good breeding is simplicity. "4. Any member transgressing any of these rules will be blackballed." "Excellent!" said Ruth. "It puts what we mean in a nutshell. Now, we must write that out, and try to get signatures. We might add a fifth rule, about not doing sneaking tricks; it's decidedly necessary." "And our motto could be _Noblesse oblige_," proposed Honor.