t problem to solve in these expensive days. She had
on purpose moved close to the Great Shirley School in order to avail
herself of its cheap education for Alice. The boys went to another
foundation school near by; and altogether the family managed to scrape
along. But the advent of Kathleen on the scene was a great relief, for
her father paid three guineas a week for Mrs. Tennant's motherly care
and for Kathleen's board and lodging.

"Poor child!" thought the good woman. "What a wild, undisciplined,
handsome creature she is! I must do what I can for her."

She sat on for some time darning and thinking. Her heart was full; she
felt depressed. She had been working in various ways ever since six
o'clock that morning, and the darning of the boys' rough socks hurt her
eyes and made her fingers ache.

Meanwhile Kathleen was running along the road. She ran until she was
completely out of breath. She then came to a stile, against which she
leant. By-and-by she saw a girl walking leisurely up the road; she was a
shabbily dressed and rather vulgar girl. Kathleen saw at once that she
was one of the Great Shirley girls, so she went forward and spoke to
her.

"You go to our school, don't you?" she said.

"Yes, miss," answered the girl, dropping a little curtsy when she saw
Kathleen. She was a very fresh foundation girl, and recognized something
in Kathleen which caused her to be more subservient than was necessary.

"Then, if you please," continued Kathleen, "can you tell me where that
sweetly pretty girl, Ruth Craven, lives?"

"She isn't a lady," said the girl, whose name was Susan Hopkins. "She is
no more a lady than I am."

"Indeed she is," said Kathleen. "She is a great deal more of a lady than
you are."

The girl flushed.

"You are a Great Shirley girl yourself," she said. "I saw you there
to-day. You are in an awfully low class. Do you like sitting with the
little kids? I saw you towering up in the middle of them like a
mountain."

Kathleen's eyes flashed.

"What is your name?" she asked.

"Susan Hopkins. I used to be a Board School girl, but now I am on the
foundation at Great Shirley. It is a big rise for me. Are you a poor
girl? Are you on the foundation?"

"I don't know what it means by being on the foundation, but I don't
think I am poor. I think, on the contrary, that I am very rich. Did you
ever hear of a girl who lived in a castle--a great beautiful castle--on
the top of a high hill? If you ever did