id Kathleen in her blunt way.

Mrs. Weldon looked a little startled.

"Do you know my daughter?" she asked.

"She is much too interfering, and she is frightfully stuck-up. Please
forgive me, but I am always very plain-spoken; I always tell the truth.
I don't want her. I like you, and wish that I lived with you, and that
you'd have Ruth Craven instead of your own daughter in the house. Then
I'd be perfectly happy. I always did say what I thought. Will you
forgive me?"

"I will, dear, because at the present moment you don't know my girl at
all. There never was a more splendid girl in all the world, but she
requires to be known. Ah! here she comes, and your little friend, Miss
Craven, with her."

Ruth, looking very pretty, with a delicate flush on each cheek, now
entered the room in the company of Cassandra. Kathleen sprang up the
minute she saw Ruth, rushed across the room, and flung one arm with
considerable violence round her neck.

"You have come," she said. "I have been hunting the place for you. How
dared you go away and hide yourself? Don't you know that you belong to
me? The moment I saw you I knew that you were my affinity. Don't you
know what an affinity means? Well, you are mine. We were twin souls
before birth; now we have met again and we cannot part. I am ever so
happy when I am with you. Don't mind those others; let them stare all
they like. I am going to take you foundation girls up. I have made up
my mind. We will have a rollicking good time--a splendid time. We will
be as naughty as we like, and we will let the others see what we are
made of. It will be war to the knife between the foundation girls and
the good, proper, paying girls. Let the ladies look after themselves. We
of the foundation will lead our own life, and be as happy as the day is
long. Aren't you glad to see me, dear, sweet, pretty Ruth? Don't you
know for yourself that you are my affinity--my chosen friend, my
beloved? Through the ages we have been one, and now we have met in the
flesh."

"I think," said Cassandra, at last managing to get herself heard, "that
you have said enough for the present, Miss O'Hara. Ruth Craven has come
to spend the day with me. I know that you are an Irish girl, and you
must be lonely. I shall be very pleased if you will join Ruth and me in
our walk. We are going for a walk across the common.--We shall be in to
tea, dear mother. Will you have it ready for us not later than five
o'clock? And I am sure yo