“I could tell them lots of things better than an L—­some new dresses for Mrs. Crump and Mrs. Albright and Miss Crilly.  They’ve been here longest and look the worst.  That brown one of Mrs. Crump’s is just full of darns.”

“Same as mine will be when I’ve been here as long,” added Miss Sterling.

“Strange, when they have so much money, they don’t give the ladies nice things to wear,” mused Polly.  “Perhaps that is what makes Mrs. Crump so cross-grained.  Mrs. Albright isn’t.  She’s sweet, I think.”

“She is a dear,” Miss Sterling agreed.  “But she’s had enough trouble to crush most women.  I wonder sometimes if anything could make her blue.”

“Miss Crilly’s cheerful,” observed Polly.  “I like her pretty well.”

“She is kind-hearted.  If only she weren’t all gush and giggle!  She raves over everything, cathedral or apron trimming—­it’s all the same to her.”

Polly laughed.  “She’s rather pretty, I think.”

“Too fat.”

“No, you can’t call her fat; only her bones don’t show.  I wish Miss Castlevaine could thin up and show her bones just a little, and I do feel sorry for her because she can’t curl her hair.  She’d look a thousand per cent better with some little fluffs.”

“Why don’t you be sorry for me?”

“Oh, you don’t need curly hair as the rest do!” answered Polly comfortably.

“Need it!  I’m a scarecrow with my hair straight!”

Polly took the smooth head between her two palms.  “You’ll never be a scarecrow if you live to be a hundred and fifty!” she declared.  “But the dear homely ones—­it is hard on them.  What do you suppose is the reason Miss Sniffen won’t let them curl their hair just a mite?”

“Walls are said to have ears,” replied Miss Sterling, with a little scornful twist to her pretty mouth.  “It wouldn’t be safe for me to express my opinion.”

Polly smiled.  “It’s a shame!  And it isn’t fair when she has curly hair that doesn’t need any putting up.  I just wish hers would straighten out—­straight as Miss Castlevaine’s!”

“You seem to have taken a sudden liking to Miss Castlevaine.”

“Oh, no!  Only I feel sorry for her, she is so fat and fretty, and her hair won’t fluff a mite.  It must be dreadful to think as much scorn as she does.”

“And talk it out,” added Miss Sterling.  “I wish she wouldn’t, for she is really better than she sounds.”

“Oh, if she’d try some of Aunt Susie’s exercises, perhaps they’d make her face thin!”

“I thought they were to make it plump.”

“So they are—­and thin, too, in the right places.  They’d cure her double chin.”

“Anyway, she hasn’t any dewlap yet.  When it comes it will be an awful one.  I can’t imagine her in that exercise you tried on me.”

“Are you going to do it every day?”

“I would if I had any faith in it.”  Miss Sterling sighed—­with a wrinkled forehead.