ried whisper, "Anyone been in,
Kate?"

Kate nodded. "Go and get your things off, and I will tell you all
about it," she said.

"Oh, I can guess your news, I think; he can get us some orders for the
theatre? Isn't that it?"

"Yes, that and something else," said Kate rather gravely.

"Oh, never mind the 'something else,' that's enough. Kate, it will be
splendid; he always gets orders for the best seats in the first-rate
theatres. You must go."

"I don't know whether I shall, I must talk to you about things first.
How are these orders to be paid for?"

"Paid for? That's nothing to do with you or me either, Kate. Orders
are always presents."

"Yes, but we are expected to make it up, and to rob Mrs. Maple to do
it."

"Rob her? What do you mean, Kate? If you were not my own cousin I'd
make you prove your words," said Marion angrily. "What do you mean, I
say? If you are a thief, begging me to give you her postage-stamps, I
am not; I can buy postage-stamps for myself."

"I did not ask you for Mrs. Maple's stamps," said Kate indignantly; "I
asked you to lend me your own until I could pay you for them."

"Lend you my own! why, you knew I had not got any," exclaimed Marion.
"Where was I to get them but out of the desk?"

"Well, I've kept account of how many stamps I have had, and you shall
put them back. But it was not the stamps I was thinking of, Marion."

"Oh, no, of course not; we never see ourselves as other people see us."

"I told you William came in this afternoon. Well, he ate a good deal
of pastry off the plates, and then gave me twopence for some buns,
expecting half a dozen, I suppose, for he was very much surprised that
I only gave him two, and said he was always served at the wholesale
price, and then went away without paying for anything he had eaten."

"Well, suppose he did?" said Marion, coolly, "didn't he tell you he was
keeping an account with me?"

"He told me to tell you he would settle with you about that."

"Well, what more do you want? How dare you charge me with being a
thief? The idea of your coming here and saying such things of me, who
was here long before you were! It only shows what a bad, wicked girl
you must be, and what you would do yourself if you only had the chance.
I have a great mind to go to Mrs. Maple this minute, and tell her what
a dangerous person she has in her house, and how we have all been
deceived in you."

Marion had almost talked herself out of