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, sweetest."

A titter was heard from the surrounding girls. Ruth turned very red,
then she looked into Kathleen's eyes.

"You mean kindly," she said, "but perhaps you had better not. You, too,