round every bit of you? Answer me: did you?"

"I can't answer you, Miss O'Hara. You are a very naughty, rebellious
girl. You have come to school to be disciplined. Go back immediately."

For a minute Kathleen thought of rebelling, but then she said to
herself, "It isn't worth the fuss," and returned to her place once again
in the centre of the class.

"I have been called back," she said in a whisper to her little
peppermint companion. "I was naughty to go out, and I am called back. I
am in disgrace. Isn't it a lark?"

The little girl felt quite excited. Never was there such and big and
fascinating inmate of the lower fifth before. It was worth coming to
school now to be in the vicinity of one so handsome and so gay.

The weary morning came to an end at last. The girls seldom returned for
afternoon school, generally doing their preparations at home. Alice
Tennant, however, sometimes preferred the quiet school to the noisy life
she lived with her brothers at home. She looked now eagerly for
Kathleen, who had shunned her from the instant they had entered the
school; she stood just by the gate waiting for her. Kathleen, on her
part, was looking for Ruth Craven. Ruth had been monopolised by
Cassandra Weldon.

"You must come home with me," she said.

"But my grandparents will be expecting me," said Ruth.