er immediately after dinner. I thought I'd say so, for I mean to do
it."

"Oh, Kathleen!" said Alice in a distressed voice, "you really mustn't.
You must come back to the school with me. I promised Miss Dove that I'd
see you through your tasks.--You know, mother," continued Alice,
"Kathleen is not very advanced for her age, and Miss Dove wants to get
her into a proper class as quickly as possible; therefore she is to be
coached a little, and I have undertaken to do it.--You will come with
me, Kathleen? I must get back to the school again by half-past two. You
will be sure to come, dear?"

"I think not, dear," replied Kathleen in her most aggravating tone.

"But you must.--Mustn't she, mother?"

"You ought to, Kathleen," said Mrs. Tennant. "You have been sent here to
learn. Alice can teach you; she can help you very much. She means to be
very kind to you. You certainly ought to do what she suggests."

"But I am afraid," said Kathleen, "that I am not going to do what I
ought. I don't wish to be good at all to-day. I couldn't live if I
wasn't really naughty sometimes. I mean to be terribly naughty all the
afternoon. If you will let me have my fling, I do assure you, Mrs.
Tennant, that I will work off the steam, and will be all right
to-morrow. I must do something desperate, and if Alice opposes me I'll
have to do something worse."

"You are a clipper!" said David Tennant, smiling into her face.

"All right, my boy; I expect I am," said Kathleen; and then she added,
springing to her feet, "I have eaten enough, and for what we have
received--Good-bye, Mrs. Tennant; I'm off."

CHAPTER IV.

THE HOME-SICK AND THE REBELLIOUS.

Kathleen O'Hara ran up to an untidy room. She banged-to the door, and
standing by it for a moment, drew the bolt. Thus she had secured herself
against intrusion. She then flung herself on the bed, put her two arms
under her head, and gazed out of the window. Her heart was beating
wildly; she had a strange medley of feelings within. She was
desperately, madly lonely. She was homesick in the most intense sense of
the word.

Kathleen had never left Carrigrohane Castle before. This romantic abode
was situated in the extreme south-west of Ireland. It was a mile away
from the sea, and stood on a rocky eminence which overlooked a very wide
expanse of moor and wood, rushing streams and purple mountains, and deep
dark-blue sea. In the whole world there could scarcely be found a more
lovely vie