told an hour ago that she would end her first fit of desperate
naughtiness by darning stockings for the Tennant boys. She did not darn
well; but then, Mrs. Tennant was not particular. She certainly--although
she said she would not--did cobble these stockings to an extraordinary
extent; but her work and the chat with Mrs. Tennant did her good, and
she went upstairs to dress for supper in a happier frame of mind.

"I will stay here for a little," she said finally to Mrs. Tennant,
"because I think it will help you. You look so terribly tired; and I
don't think you ought to have this horrible work to do. I'd like to do
it for you, but I don't suppose I shall have time. I will stay for a bit
and see what I can make of the foundation girls."

"The foundation girls?"

"Oh, yes; don't ask me to explain. There are a hundred of them at the
Great Shirley School, and I am going--No, I can't explain. I will stop
here instead of running away. I meant to run away when my affinity would
have nothing to do with me."

"Really, Kathleen, you are a most extraordinary girl."

"Of course I am," said Kathleen. "Did you ever suppose that I was
anything else? I am very remarkable, and I am very naughty. I always
was, and I always will be. I am up to no end of mischief. I wish you
could have seen me and Rory together at home. Oh, what didn't we do? Do
you know that once we walked across a little bridge of metal which is
put between two of the stables? It is just a narrow iron rod, six feet
in length. If we had either of us fallen we'd have been dashed to pieces
on the cobble-stones forty feet below. Mother saw me when I was half-way
across, and she gave a shriek. It nearly finished me, but I steadied
myself and got across. Oh, it was jolly! I am going to set some of the
foundation girls at that sort of thing. I expect I shall have great fun
with them. It is principally because my affinity won't have anything to
do with me; she is attaching herself to another, and that other is
little better than a monster. Your Alice won't like me; and, to be frank
with you, I don't like her. I like you, because you are poor and
worried and seem old for your age--although your age is a great one--and
because you have to cobble those horrid socks. There! good-bye for the
present. Don't hate me too much; I can't help the way I am made. Oh; I
hear Alice. What a detestable voice she has! Now then, I'm off."

Kathleen ran up to her room, and again she locked t