No one knew of the misery of her home life, and she was simply judged as what her schoolfellows thought her--a queer-tempered crank who refused to join in the general fun of the place, and in consequence was left out of most things.
Irene, pleasant and hail-fellow-well-met with all comers, had at once noticed this attitude of the others towards Lorna.

At the drawing of lots in the sorority she had somehow realized that everybody was extremely thankful to have escaped having her unpopular chum as a buddy.
Chance remarks and slight allusions, hardly noticed at the time, but remembered later, had confirmed this.
"They're not exactly unkind, but they're down on that girl," she had concluded.

"I haven't made up my mind yet whether I altogether like her, but I'm going to be decent to her all the same." As the very first who had treated her on a real equality of girlhood Irene had been placed on a pedestal in Lorna's empty heart.

The separation between the two added to the loneliness of the latter's brief half-term holiday.

She had never missed school so much before, or hated her surroundings so entirely.