"Bessie Challoner!--what a pretty name!--Challoner! I like that!"
answered Kitty, looking thoughtful. "And where's her house, aroon? What
part of the neighborhood is it situated in?"

"Come here to the window and I'll show you. When you leave this house
you turn to the right and walk straight on until you come to Cherry
Lodge--that's the name of the house. Bessie and I will be waiting for
you."

"Well, then, off you go, and I won't keep you many minutes."

Alice ran out of the room. She found her mother waiting for her
downstairs.

"Oh, mother," said Alice, "she's too dreadful."

"Come now, no whispering about me behind my back," called a gay voice
over the stairs. "I thought it would be something of that sort. That's
not fair--out with your remarks in front of me, and nothing behind."

"Kitty, Kitty, go back and dress, you incorrigible child!" called Mrs.
Denvers.

"Mother!" said Alice.

"My dear Alice," said her mother, "you will soon learn to like that poor
child. She has a great deal that is good in her, and then she is so
pretty."

"Pretty?" muttered Alice. "Oh, I see you're bewitched like the rest of