"This minute!" he cried.

"All right. You will be surprised at how quickly I can go," said
Kate.

She set down the telescope and gathered a straw sunshade and an
apron from the hooks at the end of the room, opened the dish
cupboard, and took out a mug decorated with the pinkest of wild
roses and the reddest and fattest of robins, bearing the
inscription in gold, "For a Good Girl" on a banner in its beak.
Kate smiled at it grimly as she took the telescope and ran
upstairs. It was the work of only a few minutes to gather her
books and clothing and pack the big telescope, then she went down
the front stairs and left the house by the front door carrying in
her hand everything she possessed on earth. As she went down the
walk Nancy Ellen sprang up and ran to her while Robert Gray
followed.

"You'll have to talk to me on the road," said Kate. "I am
forbidden the house which also means the grounds, I suppose."

She walked across the road, set the telescope on the grass under a
big elm tree, and sat down beside it.

"I find I am rather tired," she said. "Will you share the sofa
with me?"

Nancy Ellen lifted her pink skirt and sat beside Kate. Robert
Gray stood looking down at them.