itor. "I never knew that I was expected,"
she said.

"Has not Kate told you since, that she forgot to deliver my message
when she came home on Sunday? I told her to ask you to call and see me
on Monday morning, for I could not conveniently leave home on that day,
and I had promised Lady Hazeldean she should see you and Kate as soon
as possible."

"And Kate knew that and never told me!" gasped the widow.

"No, no, perhaps if I had explained it all to her she would not have
forgotten it, but I could not do that in school, and so I merely told
her I wished to see you on Monday morning," said Miss Eldon, quickly.

"Kate, how could you have forgotten such a message?" said her mother,
sharply.

But Kate stood with downcast face, and said not a word.

"You must not be angry, Mrs. Haydon; it was excusable, I am sure, if
you had just received these London letters," said the lady, gently.

"I don't see how she could have forgotten such a message," said the
widow, in the same vexed tone. "Did you know what I was wanted for,
Kate?" she demanded, turning once more to her daughter.

But Miss Eldon answered for her: "Oh, no; she could not have known it,
and so I am the only one to blame in this business," she said.

Kate felt very grateful to her teacher for thus helping her out of the
difficulty, and vowed in her own mind that she would never act so
deceitfully again. No, never again would she follow such a crooked
path, and deceive her mother, for it was deceit; now she saw it quite
plainly. But still she was afraid to confess the whole truth about the
matter.

After Miss Eldon had gone, she had an opportunity of doing this, for
her mother said: "Now, Kate, tell me the whole truth about this affair."

"The truth, mother?" repeated Kate. "Teacher told you the whole truth."

"But how could you forget such an important message as this, when you
knew it was just what I was wishing for you to get--a nice quiet place
near home?"

"But teacher did not say a word about the place that Sunday afternoon,"
said Kate, in an injured tone.

"But you might have known--might have guessed--what it was likely to be
about. It is not as though Miss Eldon was in the habit of sending for
me. She never did such a thing before."

"But still, how was I to know she had heard of a place at last? I have
been waiting months and months, and nothing has come."

"I know that; but still how you could forget that Sunday afternoon,
when yo