aky things! There was
one on the parade at the seaside last year, and it irritated me beyond
words! Besides, I don't think it's at all nice to make up to a person
just because he is rich, and might leave you some money. I wouldn't do
it. It's toadying; and if there is one thing I detest above anothah, it
is--"

"I never said I would `make up' to him. I never hinted at such a thing.
We were not supposed to dream that he would leave us anything until he
was dead, and then we would be overcome with surprise. I should hope I
detest toadying as much as you! Toady, indeed!" and Kitty tossed her
head and curled her lip in disdain. Both girls were upset by the sudden
overthrow of their hopes, and therefore inclined to take offence more
readily than usual. Christabel retired to the window in dignified
displeasure, while Kitty wriggled into the corduroy jacket, stuck the
Tam O'Shanter on her head at a rakish angle, and hitched her books under
her arm in preparation to depart. Agatha's expressive frowns and smiles
were of no avail towards a reconciliation, and the parting took place in
forced and chilly manner.

"Good by-ee!"

"Good by-ee!"

Then the door banged, and Kitty went stalking home, to drown her woes in
afternoon tea, and to have her ruffled feathers smoothed down by her
mother's kindly sympathy.

Mrs Maitland regarded the disappointment from a personal standpoint,
for the discovery that there was no Mrs Vanburgh was almost as great a
blow to her as the absence of daughters had been to the schoolroom
party. She agreed with Kitty that it was most officious of a solitary
male to monopolise the Grange, and bemoaned the loss to the
neighbourhood in a manner tragic enough to satisfy even her daughter's
requirements.

"Oh dear! oh dear! and I was looking to her for so many subscriptions!
I had put her down for two five-pound notes, and half a dozen guineas.
I meant her to take half my stall at the hospital bazaar, and to be the
secretary of the Mission. How useful I had made that woman, to be sure!
and now she has vanished into thin air before my eyes. I'm terribly
disappointed, Kit; but we must make the best of it. Poor, lonely old
man! He will be bored to death in that silent house. Lies on his back,
you say, and is wheeled about in a chair? That means paralysis, I
suppose, or very bad rheumatism. It's sad to be old, and ill, and
lonely." Mrs Maitland stared thoughtfully before her, cup in hand, an