"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