Page:George Weston--The apple-tree girl.djvu/38

 A sense of injustice began to rankle in her, that sense of injustice which was ultimately to lead her to her Three Great Sums.

"I guess the books are most to blame," she thought. "They always make their heroines beautiful." Frowning a little she ran over a list of the characters that she could remember. "Dora Spenlow was awfully pretty," she thought, her nose curling a little. "And so was Agnes, and She, and Juliet, and Little Dorrit and Little Nell and Lucy Ashton and Ethel Newcome—yes, and all the others, too."

For a moment she felt a challenge in the situation, and her heart warmed within her, as hearts have warmed since time immemorial at the prospect of leading a forlorn hope against a whole world in arms.

"I don't see why heroines have to be so terribly pretty," she thought. "I don't believe it's anything but a silly