how you figured. You knew how late it was. You knew it would be
nip and tuck if I got a school at all."

"Of course we did! We thought you couldn't possibly get one, this
late, so we fixed up the scheme to let you have my school, and let
me sew on my linen this winter. We thought you would be as
pleased as we were."

"I am too sorry for words," said Kate. "If I had known your plan,
I would have followed it, even though I gave up a better school at
a higher salary. But I didn't know. I thought I had to paddle my
own canoe, so I made my own plans. Now I must live up to them,
because my contract is legal, while Father's is not. I would have
taught the school for you, in the circumstances, but since I
can't, so far as I am concerned, the arrangement I have made is
much better. The thing that really hurts the worst, aside from
disappointing you, is that Father says I was not honest in what I
did."

"But what DID you do?" cried Nancy Ellen.

So Kate told them exactly what she had done.

"Of course you had a right to your own letter, when you could see
the address on it, and it was where you could pick it up," said
Robert Gray.

Kate lifted dull eyes to his face.

"Thank you for so much grace, at any rate," she said.