s he went, a young
aristocrat, to meet his fate.

That night Sissy said her prayers in a rush. She wanted to give her
undivided attention to plans of revenge on Split.

KATE: A PRETENSE

The lesser Madigans meant to stand no nonsense from Kate. Other girls'
big sisters had been known to assume superiority as their skirts
lengthened, and to imply an esoteric something in their experience which
younger sisters could not comprehend, and privileges which they might
not share. But for them, the Madigans, though they were graciously
willing to count Kate out of such outdoor sports as were incompatible
with lengthened skirts, she might come no pretense of young-ladyhood
over them. They were on the watch for the smallest affectation, the
least sentimentality; and as for beaus per se--just let Kate try it!

Kate did, being human, a Comstock girl when girls were in a delightful
minority, and a Madigan. But, realizing the argus-eyed watch put upon
her, and the forthright methods of her sister Madigans, she tried it
secretly.

To be sure, there was old Westlake,--he was at least thirty-five years
old--whose intentions were quite apparent. He came up to play whist at
the house whenever he was in town, upon which occasions Kate was always
his partner; and he scolded her with the same proprietary freedom for
leading a "sneak" suit as Francis Madigan did his sister--a lady who was
never known to know what was trumps, and who smiled and blinked and
blushed and made the same mistakes over and over again with a
complacency that Madigan's fiercest thumps upon the table could not
shake.

But the Madigans forgave Kate her Westlake, for the pleasure she took in
guying him, and the loyal frankness with which she let them into all the
moves of the game. He was "The Avalanche" to her and to them, because of
his avoirdupois, his slow movements, and the imperviousness to a joke
with which he was credited; because he could not take in all the little
infinity of homely facetiae in which the Madigans lived and had their
being. Besides, it was pleasant and exciting, being leagued with Kate
against Aunt Anne, who was known to have positively had the indecency to
speak openly upon the subject, and in favor of it, to her oldest niece!

"Fly, the Avalanche is upon you!" was Sissy's dramatic way of warning
her big sister that her suitor had been spied by the outpost coming up
the steps.

And on such occasions Kate could slip out of the si