_Kate Lancaster's Plan_


I had been spending the winter in Boston, and Kate Lancaster and I had
been together a great deal, for we are the best of friends. It happened
that the morning when this story begins I had waked up feeling sorry,
and as if something dreadful were going to happen. There did not seem to
be any good reason for it, so I undertook to discourage myself more by
thinking that it would soon be time to leave town, and how much I should
miss being with Kate and my other friends. My mind was still disquieted
when I went down to breakfast; but beside my plate I found, with a
hoped-for letter from my father, a note from Kate. To this day I have
never known any explanation of that depression of my spirits, and I hope
that the good luck which followed will help some reader to lose fear,
and to smile at such shadows if any chance to come.

Kate had evidently written to me in an excited state of mind, for her
note was not so trig-looking as usual; but this is what she said:--

Dear Helen,--I have a plan--I think it a most delightful plan--in
which you and I are chief characters. Promise that you will say
yes; if you do not you will have to remember all your life that you
broke a girl's heart. Come round early, and lunch with me and dine
with me. I'm to be all alone, and it's a long story and will need a
great deal of talking over.

K.