ame at last, a tall lamp-post of
a girl, with blue serge skirt blowing back from long brown legs, a plaid
Tam O'Shanter perched on the top of chestnut locks, and a bundle of
books tucked beneath the arm of a corduroy jacket. Christabel banged an
eager fist upon the window, and rushed downstairs in a whirl of
excitement to meet her friend, and carry her off to the schoolroom.

"My deah, such news! You'll never guess! It's perfectly charming!
You'll go wild when you hear it!"

Kitty sat down in a chair and gazed calmly around. Whether she would
"go wild" or not when the news was unfolded remained to be seen; but in
the meantime her composure showed not the slightest sign of being
disturbed.

"Um!" she ejaculated, and began to divest herself of her outdoor
garments, as if nothing more important engrossed her attention. She
tugged at the fingers of her deerskin gloves, and let them fall
indiscriminately at either side of her chair; she sent her cap flying
across the room, wriggled out of her jacket, kicked her overshoes
beneath the table, then folded her arms and seemed to feel that she had
no further responsibility in the matter. The art of putting away
outdoor clothes was one, indeed, which Miss Kitty seemed powerless to
master. In vain her mother exhausted herself in objurgation, and grew
alternately pitiful and angry; Kitty kissed her fervently and vowed
amendment, but the next day there was the jacket as usual, hanging over
a dining-room chair, and the other garments dropped in as many odd
places about the house. This method of procedure was, no doubt, a
saving of trouble in the first instance, but retribution followed when
it came to starting out again after lunch, when Miss Kitty might have
been seen plunging wildly about the room in search of a missing glove or
tie, while groans of despair attended every movement.

"Where _can_ it be? Wish my things could be left alone! Always stuck
out of the way! Shall be late again now, and get bad marks. Not my
fault. Horrid old servants! Wish they'd do their own work, and leave
my things alone." So on, and so on, until at last the missing article
was found, folded up in a magazine, or thrust beneath a fern-pot, when
Kitty would seize it resentfully, and stalk down the garden-path on her
long brown legs, puffing and fuming, and feeling herself the most ill-
used of mortals. On the present occasion Elsie and Agatha entered the
room as she finished undressing,