Editing These Three (section)

==Plot==
Following graduation, college friends Karen Wright and Martha Dobie transform Karen's [[Massachusetts]] farm into a boarding school. Although new to the area, they are able to find pupils with the assistance of the wealthy Amelia Tilford, who enrolls her malevolent granddaughter Mary and encourages other families to enroll their daughters. Shortly before the school opens, Martha's aunt, Lily Mortar, arrives and forces her way into a teaching position as a way to continue sponging off Martha.

Karen and local doctor Joe Cardin begin to date, unaware that Martha is in love with him. One evening, Joe falls asleep in a chair in Martha's room while waiting for Karen to return to the school. He wakes with a start and breaks a glass, which wakes up Mary Tilford. Before he leaves, he casually refers to his and Karen's plans to marry, and Mary watches from the shadows as Martha sobs quietly once she thinks she is alone.

When Karen punishes Mary for missing classes and lying, Mary acts as though she has a pain and falls to the floor in a faint. Although they are not convinced by Mary's performance, Karen and Martha call Joe to examine her. While Joe and Karen are busy with Mary, Martha decides to finally fire Aunt Lily, who is not a good teacher. Lily feels slighted, even though Martha offers to continue to support her, and they have an argument before she goes, during which Lily confronts Martha with her suspicions about the young woman's true feelings for Joe. Martha hears a noise and discovers Rosalie Wells and Evelyn Munn, who are Mary's roommates, listening at the door. Flustered, she accidentally closes the door on Rosalie's arm, slightly injuring her. Back in their room, Evelyn tells Mary about the argument between Martha and Lily.

Feeling persecuted, Mary decides to run away from the school. When her grandmother Amelia just wants to send her back, she tells Amelia a grossly distorted version both of what she witnessed between Martha and Joe and of the argument between Martha and Lily, suggesting Martha and Joe engaged in an illicit sexual affair. To verify the story, Mary has Amelia talk to Rosalie, who she has brought with her and coerced by threatening to reveal that Rosalie stole another student's bracelet. Mary even says that Martha injured Rosalie's arm intentionally. Amelia is shocked by the revelation of a love triangle between Karen, Joe, and Martha, and alerts the other parents who have girls at the school, all of whom withdraw their daughters.

The trio sue Amelia for [[slander]], but they lose their case. Karen and Martha are unable to enroll any new students, and Joe is fired from his job at the hospital. Lily returns, but Martha resents her for not coming back to testify during the case and tells her to leave. Joe asks Karen to come with him to [[Vienna]], where he has gotten a job. She balks when he mentions that Martha is also invited and finally asks if there was ever anything between Martha and him. Unable to fully believe his denial after what she heard in court, she tells him to go to Vienna by himself.

Once Joe is gone, Martha admits to Karen that she loves Joe, though she says she never told him, and then gets on the same train as Lily. In passing, Lily mentions having seen Mary and Rosalie with the missing bracelet, and Martha realizes what happened. She gets off the train and convinces Rosalie to tell Amelia the truth. Amelia offers Martha compensation, but Martha refuses, asking only that Amelia take Karen a message from her: "stay with Joe, wherever he is." Martha leaves, Amelia talks to Karen, and Karen goes to Vienna to be with Joe.