report originated with herself. The young men knew that she was
going to the party if she could turn that pink tarlatan once
more; but they had only the vaguest impression what a tarlatan
was, and cared little on which side it was worn, so long as
Kate was inside.

During these epochs of privation her life, in respect to dress,
was a perpetual Christmas-tree of second-hand gifts. Wealthy
aunts supplied her with cast-off shoes of all sizes, from two
and a half up to five, and she used them all. She was reported
to have worn one straw hat through five changes of fashion. It
was averred that, when square crowns were in vogue, she
flattened it over a tin pan, and that, when round crowns
returned, she bent it on the bedpost. There was such a charm
in her way of adapting these treasures, that the other girls
liked to test her with new problems in the way of millinery and
dress-making; millionnaire friends implored her to trim their
hats, and lent her their own things in order to learn how to
wear them. This applied especially to certain rich cousins, shy
and studious girls, who adored her, and to whom society only
ceased to be alarming when the brilliant Kate took them under
her wing, and graciously accepted a few of their newest
feathers. Well might they acquiesce, for she stood by them
superbly, and her most favored partners found no way to her
hand so sure as to dance systematically through that staid
sisterhood. Dear, sunshiny, gracious, generous Kate!--who has
ever done justice to the charm given to this grave old world by
the presence of one free-hearted and joyous girl?

At the time now to be described, however, Kate's purse was well