; it is a question of necessity. I love you.
Kathleen--I will always love you and be faithful to you--but I can't
give up the scholarship."

"I don't want you to," said Kathleen; "but why shouldn't you belong to
me and yet take the scholarship? I don't want you to be with me all the
time. You can go to that horrible, detestable girl when it is necessary,
and have your odious coach to post you up. But I want you more than
anybody else. Don't you know how I love you? Can't you do both? Think it
over, Ruth."

"I have thought it over, and I can't do it. I would if I could, but it
isn't to be done. It wouldn't be right to you, nor right to Cassandra."

"Well, I think you are very mean; I think I hate you."

Kathleen turned aside. She was impulsive, high-spirited, and defiant,
but where her passions were concerned her heart was very soft. She burst
into tears now and flung her arms around Ruth's neck.

"I like a lot of people," she said--"I like Mrs. Tennant, and even Susy,
although she's not up to much, and two or three other girls--but I only
_love_ you. In the whole of England I only love you, and you are going
to give me up."

"No; I will still be your friend."

"But you have refused to join my society; you have refused to belong to
the Wild Irish Girls."

"I can't help myself."

"But you promised."

"I know I did. I made a mistake. Kathleen, there is no help for it. I
shall love you even if I don't belong to the society. Now there is
nothing more to be said."

Ruth disentangled herself from Kathleen's embrace, and putting wings to
her feet, ran in the direction of the school. Kathleen stood just where
she had left her; over her face was passing a rapid and curious change.

"Do I love her any longer?" she said to herself. "Oh, I think--I think I
love her still. But she has slighted me. She will be sorry some day. Oh,
dear! The only girl in the whole of England that I love has slighted me.
She has thrown ridicule upon me. She said that she would be my Prime
Minister, and she has resigned everything for that horrible Cassandra.
She will be sorry yet; I know she will."

CHAPTER XV.

THE SCHOLARSHIP: TROUBLE IS BREWING.

Over some of the girls of the Great Shirley School there passed that
morning a curious wave of excitement. Those girls who had joined
Kathleen's society were almost now more or less in a state of tension.
Once a week they were to meet in the quarry; once a week, whatever the
weathe