Cassandra now changed her
position, and found herself within a yard or two of Ruth Craven. She was
examining Ruth with great care, but not at all from the unkind point of
view; hers was a sympathetic aspect. That little old serge dress made
something come up in Cassandra's throat, and she longed beyond words to
give her a better dress. Ruth's hat, too, left much to be desired. It
was an old black sailor-hat, which had been burnt to a dull brown. But,
notwithstanding the hat and the dress, there was the face. The face was
most lovely, and the back of the shabby frock was covered by hair as
black as jet, and curling and rippling in the sunshine.

"What wouldn't every other girl in the school give to have such a face
as that, and such hair as that?" thought Cassandra. "I must speak to
her."

She was just bending forward, meaning to touch Ruth on her shoulder,
when there came a commotion near the entrance, and the excited face of
Alice Tennant came into view. Alice was accompanied by a tall, showily
dressed girl. The girl had a very vivid color in her cheeks, intensely
bright and roguish dark-blue eyes, light chestnut hair touched with
gold--hair which was a mass of waves and tendrils and fluffiness, and on
which a little dark-blue velvet cap was placed.

"I am not going to be shy," cried the new-comer in a hearty, clear, loud
voice with a considerable amount of brogue in it. "Leave off clutching
me by the arm, Alice, my honey, for see my new companions I will. Ah,
what a crowd of girls!--colleens we call them in Ireland. Oh, glory! how
am I ever to get the names of half of them round my tongue? Ah, and
isn't that one a beauty?"

"Hush, Kathleen--do hush!" said Alice. "They will hear you."

"And what do I care if they do, darling? It doesn't matter to me. I mean
to talk to that girl; she's won my heart entirely."

Before Alice could prevent her, the Irish girl had sprung forward,
pushed a couple of Great Shirley girls out of their places, and had
taken Ruth Craven by the arm.

"It's a kiss I'm going to give you, my beauty," she said. "Oh, it's
right glad I am to see you! My name is Kathleen O'Hara, and I hail from
the ould country. Ah, though! it's lonely I'm likely to be, isn't it,
deary? You don't deny me the pleasure of your society when I tell you
that in all this vast crowd I stand solitary--solitary but for her; and,
bedad! I'm not certain that I take to her at all. Let me tuck my hand
inside your arm, sweete