Page:George Weston--The apple-tree girl.djvu/37

 students, because the young male students left Charlotte severely alone—that is, all except one poor boy, and he doesn't count, as you will very soon see.

Perhaps, too, if you reverse these reasons, you will know why Margaret was backward in her studies. Her dominant thought wasn't "How much can I learn?" but "How pretty I am!" And even if she had wished to study, the young men of Penfield would have made it difficult, so strong was the competition to walk home with her, to take her out riding, or to call in the evening and sing ballads of such a sentimental quaver that they quite harrowed the feelings of Charlotte who was studying upstairs—Charlotte was already among the leaders of her class, who had made up her mind to stand at the head or know the reason why.

"Great silly things!" she thought one night. "You'd think they'd have more sense. As if a girl doesn't amount to anything unless she's beautiful!"