perfect. I'll model myself on you, dear; that I will. Will you teach me
your manners, Bessie Challoner?"

"I'll do all I can to help you, Kitty."

"And you'll be my real faithful friend?"

"Yes, only please not--"

"I won't, dear, I won't to-night; but when I meet you to-morrow you'll
allow me just once?"

"Well, if it will break you in."

"It will, it will. It will enable me to bear Alice. I am not the sort to
hate people; but I'll soon get to hate her. It's an awful affliction
that I have got to live with the Denvers; not that Mrs. Denvers is bad,
nor Mr. Denvers, poor dear, nor Fred, but Alice! I'd like to get Alice
over to Ireland, to Castle Malone. I could punish her a bit if I put her
into Laurie's hands. But there!"

"Well, Kitty, time is going," said Bessie. "It is a bargain that I help
you to learn some of our English ways, and that you, in order to pay me,
try to be gentle yourself, and to restrain some of your wild words."

"I'll try. I'll do my very, very best. You'll see when I get to
Middleton School what a proper, respectable sort of girl I'll become."

"And you'll work hard too, won't you, Kitty? For I know it will do you a
great deal of good, and I am sure you are very intelligent."