"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 the door. She heard
Alice's step, and she felt a certain vindictiveness as she turned the
key in the lock. Alice presently took the handle of the door and shook
it.

"Let me in at once, Kathleen," she said. "I really can't put up with
this sort of thing any longer. I want to get into my room; I want to