"Shall I help you? I used to cobble for old nurse when I was at home."

"But I shouldn't like you to cobble these."

"Oh, I can darn, you know."

"Then do, Kathleen. I should take it very kindly if you would. Here is
worsted, and here is a needle. Will you sit by me and tell me about your
home?"

Kathleen certainly would not have believed her own ears had she been
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."