the next day there was a whisper through the school that kitty malone was about to do public penance. she had already made more or less sensation in that part of the school where she worked. in her own class the girls, as has already been stated, adored her; but the other girls also looked at her with interest. they admired her dress, her free, careless gait, her upright, erect figure, and the bright, happy glance in her eyes. they all thought her charming, and the expression of her face was often so comical, the shrug of her shoulders so ludicrous, that at a glance she set the girls tittering.
on this special occasion she sat down between her favorite mary davies and agnes moore, and whispered to the former:
"ah, then, darling, it is not your place i'll be taking to-day; sure my head is bothered entirely. but i have got all kinds of nice things about me. do you know that i sat up late last night putting a pocket in the left side of my dress as well as the right, so now the girl on each side of me can have as many chocolates as she has a fancy for? you dive in your hand whenever you feel the least bit inclined for a sweetie, agnes; and you do the same, mary davies; and, mary, you might pass one on now and then to that poor, little, thin katie trafford at the other end of the class."
it was certainly impossible for a girl like kitty malone not to be popular; and the other girls valued her, and thought themselves highly privileged to be in the same class with her, dunce as she was.
kitty had learned her lessons a little better, but the thought of the public confessions which she was about to make rested heavy on her soul. it made her restless; and her lessons, although they had been better prepared, gained her no more marks than on the previous day.
"i wonder how i ought to do it," she whispered more than once to agnes
moore.
"to do what?" asked agnes, who was a very earnest little student, and whose dream was that she might get a remove at the end of the term. "about what, kitty? i wish you would not interrupt me."
"oh, bother it, dear. have a chocolate, won't you? what are your lessons compared to my perplexities? what ought i to say? ought i to drop a courtesy or go on my knees? there was an old romance which i found in the garret at home; and when the heroine did wrong she always dropped upon her knees and folded her hands, and raised her eyes toward heaven—is that the way i ought to do it?"
"don't, don't, kitty; you'll make me laugh, and then i'll be sent down.
please, don't talk to me any more."
kitty turned her attention to mary davies.
"would you, mary, go on one knee or on two? if you dip your hand down to the very bottom of my pocket, you'll find some caramels—some people like them better than chocolate creams."
"you must not talk to me any more or i'll get into disgrace," whispered mary in a low, frightened voice. "look, miss worrick has come into the room. now do open your history book, there's a dear girl."
kitty bent her curly head over her book. she was really interested in the cruel fate of the martyr-king, but at that moment she saw nothing but the picture she was conjuring up each moment before her excited imagination—the tall girl asking pardon of the little teacher. was the girl to go on her knees?
"it really would be better," thought kitty. "i'd be lower than her then. it does seem ridiculous that the big should ask pardon of the little, and—oh, miss worrick, i beg your pardon; were you speaking to me?"
"i was, kitty. stand up; i am just going to lecture."
the history lesson began. kitty did no better than yesterday. it came to an end. the mathematical teacher took her class, and then the great bell was rung for recess. just at the moment when its last note echoed through the vast school miss worrick came a step forward into the room, and held up her hand to arrest the movement of the classes. she looked at kitty with an expectant expression. kitty returned her gaze, and said nothing. kitty malone felt glued to her seat. for a moment every nerve seemed paralyzed, her face became crimson, her eyes filled with ready tears, she looked down, the great tears splashed upon the desk before her. at that instant she encountered the vindictive and delighted glance of alice denvers.
kitty had confided all her trouble to alice on the previous night, and alice at the time had pretended to give a little sympathy; but where was her sympathy now?
"i hate her," thought the irish girl. "no one else would be glad to see me so miserable."
"you have something to say to me, have you not, miss malone?" said miss
worrick in her stiff, precise voice.
kitty staggered to her feet.
"i don't want to say it a bit," she grumbled.
"come forward, my dear; come forward."
kitty left the protection of her desk, and staggered across the room. miss worrick had mounted a little platform, all the other teachers stood waiting, and the girls waited also. kitty looked round, the eyes in each face seemed multiplied fourfold—the room seemed to be all eyes. she longed for the mountains, for her father, for laurie, for the old home. she hated the school, she hated england. why was she to be publicly disgraced?
"oh, it is very wrong indeed to ask me to do it," she cried. then the following words rushed out: "miss worrick, i am sorry i disobeyed you yesterday, and i'll stay in class to-day. yes, i will stay; but i hate every one of you, and i hate england, and i wish i was back again in dear old ireland. oh, dear! oh, dear! oh, dear! why was i ever sent into this horrid, cold, freezing land? oh, my heart is broken! my heart is broken!"
kitty's sobs were distinctly heard across the great schoolroom. she returned to her seat. miss worrick with a wave of her hand dismissed the rest of the girls. kitty bent her head low down upon the desk before her, and sobbed louder and louder. at last she felt a hand resting lightly on her shoulder.
"i know i did it dreadfully, miss worrick," she said; "but it was so bad. why did you make me, why did you make me?"
"there, kitty, it is over now, and you will never disobey your teacher again as long as you live," said a kind voice, and kitty raised her eyes to see, not the face of miss worrick, but that of the head-mistress.
"oh, miss sherrard, how could you make me do it?" she sobbed. "it wasn't in me. none of the malones could beg anybody's pardon, and i couldn't go on my knees when the moment came because they felt stiff, they had no joints in them. i could not do it properly; no, i could not."
"you did it, dear, but not very well. you did it, however, and you have learned your lesson. now come with me into my private sitting-room. you and i will have lunch together, and i will excuse you from any more lessons to-day."
kitty malone never forgot that next hour. miss sherrard was an ideal head-mistress. she had the keenest sympathy with girls. in her long experience she had met girls of every shade of character, the bold, the ambitious, the timorous, the idle, the frivolous, the noble, the earnest. she knew all about the christian girl as well as the pagan girl; all about the girl who had a terrible battle with her own evil pro pensities, and the girl whose nature was so amiable, so gentle, so sweet, that life would be comparatively easy for her. but although she had been head-mistress of the great middleton school now for several years, she had never before met quite such an extraordinary specimen as kitty malone. where, however, others would see nothing but a spirit of frivolity, a love of admiration, dress, pleasure, in kitty, miss sherrard peeped below the surface and discovered some really noble qualities. she determined to be very gentle to this wild, willful girl—to take her, in short, as she was.
"oh, i wonder you care to speak to me," said kitty, when her sobs having ceased, she stood looking half-repentant, half-rebellious in miss sherrard's private room.
"you are not to be the subject of our conversation at all for the present, kitty," said miss sherrard. "lunch is ready, and you must be hungry. would you like to go into my room—it is just next to this—and wash your hands and brush out your hair?"
kitty looked at miss sherrard's small and beautifully-kept hands. she was fastidious to a remarkable degree about her personal appearance.
"i dare say my hair is somewhat untidy," she said. "i might as well take a squint at myself in the glass. i never like to look ugly. is my nose very red, miss sherrard?"
"never mind about your appearance," said miss sherrard, who could not help feeling slightly annoyed at what she considered such a very irrelevant remark.
"i expect i am a fright," said kitty standing up and talking half to herself and half for the benefit of the head-mistress. "crying always spoils me. now, i knew a girl at home, and the more she cried the prettier she got. she used to let her tears roil down her cheeks in great drops, and never attempted to wipe them away, and her nose never got red, and her eyes only got bigger and quite dewy. now, as to me when i cry, my nose——"
"kitty, will you please remember that i am waiting for lunch," interrupted miss sherrard.
"oh, i beg your pardon, ma'am," answered kitty. she ran into the next room, examined herself critically in the glass, arranged her hair, dipped her hands into hot water, and came back looking spruce, bright, pretty, and once more restored to the highest good-humor.
"i said yesterday that i would love you, ma'am," she said, as she seated herself at the other side of the appetizing board. "oh! what a dear little pie! i wonder is it pigeon pie"
"no, it is lamb pie," answered miss sherrard. "will you help yourself?"
kitty cut herself a generous slice.
"i like all sorts of good things," she said. "i am sure i was meant to do nothing in life but dress well, and look pretty, and have the nicest food to eat, and——"
"how dare you?" interrupted miss sherrard. her words coming firm and strong, the expression on her kind face arrested the idle girl's silly remarks.
"what do you mean?" asked kitty.
"i mean this, miss malone, that you are a girl with a considerable amount of ability——"
"oh, now that i have not got."
"with a considerable amount of ability," continued miss sherrard, "and with a great many talents."
"talents! i thought talents meant genius. now, i have always and always been told that i was a dunce of the dunces. it's not joking me you are, is it, miss sherrard?"
"no, kitty; i am in very sober earnest. you have been sent to me to make something of you."
"well, my dear woman, i am afraid you won't make much. the fact is, i am wild through and through. i come of a wild stock. i wish you could see us at home, and laurie, and——"
"you must tell me about your home afterward," said miss sherrard. "but now i have something to say about yourself."
as she spoke, miss sherrard drew her cup of coffee to the side of the table, leaned back, and looked fixedly into the bright and lovely face of the girl who sat opposite her.
"you have read your bible, have you not?" she said.
"my bible!" cried kitty. "yes; i read it every day."
"i am glad to hear that."
"why, you don't suppose we are a lot of heathens at castle malone, do you, miss sherrard? father has prayers every morning, and we all troop in, every one of us, into the big hall. oh, i wish you could see the hall, and the pictures of my ancestors, and——"
"afterward you shall tell me about them," interrupted miss sherrard. "so you do read your bible every day. then i dare say you happen to know the beautiful story, or rather parable, spoken by christ himself about the talents?"
"yes, i love that story; only i don't think it applies specially to me, for i have not got any."
"have not you? perhaps i can find that you have."
kitty gazed at her mistress very earnestly.
"what is it i am good in?" she asked after a pause. "is it my english?
bless you, they tell me it's awfully irish."
"it certainly is, kitty."
"then, i don't know any music, although i can sing and whistle. oh, i can whistle anything. there's not an air that laurie plays (it's he that has the genius for music, bless the boy)—but there's not an air he plays that i can't whistle it right up and down, and with variations too."
"yes, my dear, yes; but i was not thinking of this special talent. now, let me tell you something that you have got."
"what? please speak."
"you have plenty of money."
"i never thought that was a talent," cried kitty.
"i should think it a very great and responsible talent. you have been given that money to do something for god. he wants you to use it for him. then, also, you have a very bright, attractive, loving manner."
"oh, i feel every word i say. it's not manner," said kitty. "you don't suppose i'm a hypocrite, do you?"
"no, i think on the contrary you are very sincere. we will now admit that you have got two talents; you have got money and you have got a pleasant manner. i think also that you have got a third, and i may be able to prove to you that you have got a fourth."
"dear me, this is most entertaining!" exclaimed kitty. "so i have really got two talents, and you think i have more. what is the third?"
"i don't wish to make you vain; but you have—yes, i must tell you—a remarkably pretty face."
"ah, now, what a darling you are! i always thought you were sweet. what part of me do you admire most, the eyes or the mouth? i have the real irish eyes i know—gentian-blue, yes, that's the color—and my eyelashes—aren't they long?"
"we need not discuss your beauty piece by piece," said miss sherrard. "you are pretty, and i am willing to admit it. now, a bright face like yours, with an attractive manner, is a gift. then, besides, you have—you will be astonished when i say this—lots of becoming dress, which adds to the charm of your appearance. kitty, if you were all you might be—if you would use that money which god has given you, that beauty which god has given you, that attractive manner which god has given you, all for his service—why, you could do a great deal in the world. you could make it a better place, a brighter place, a happier place. now, my dear child, your father has trusted you to me. he wrote to me a great deal about you before you came to middleton school——"
"dear old dad!" cried kitty.
"he loves you with all his heart."
"i should think so, the darling blessed man—may the saints preserve him!"
"as your father feels so strongly about you, and as i promised him to do what i could for his child, will you help me, kitty? will you remember that you are equipped for the battle of life much more bravely, much more strongly than most of the other girls in middleton school? use your beauty for him, dear; use your attractive manner for him."
"you make me feel very solemn," said kitty. she rose. "i will try and think about it," she said. "i wish i was not quite such a giddypate; but i'll try and think about it."
miss sherrard kissed her.
"and now i want you to do something more," she said. "you won't be able to be a better girl than you were in the past if you don't pray to god to help you; and when you pray, kitty, ask him to teach you to restrain your feelings a little, not to let them all rush to the surface, to keep a little back. thus you will gain strength of character, and—and be all the better for it, my child."
"you are very good to me," said kitty. "i don't mind what i do for those i love. i suppose now you would wish me to learn my lessons perfectly every day?"
"i certainly should."
"and to—to turn poor little agnes moore from the head of her class?"
"well, kitty, i cannot say anything about that. ii you do better work than agnes moore you will get to the head of the class and she will go down; but i doubt your being able to do so, for agnes is a very clever and a very diligent little pupil. but i want you, dear, soon to get out of that class, for it is a great deal too young for you. i want you to be with girls of your own age. we are yet one month to the end of the term. by the end of term i want to be able to tell you that you have got a remove. and now, dear, good-by. remember, i shall watch you, and—yes, i shall pray for you."
"you are very good to me," repeated kitty; and she walked out of miss
sherrard's presence with her head lowered, and a mist before her eyes.
for the next few days kitty was strangely thoughtful. she did not speak nearly so much as usual, she felt inclined to go away by herself, and she was much puzzled about her talents. miss sherrard's words had made quite a deep impression. she learned her lessons with care, and had every chance, so her teachers told her, of a remove at the end of term. even alice found less to say against her. kitty began to look on her school life as something roseate and delightful; but all these things were to come to a speedy end.
on a certain afternoon she got home to find alice out and mrs. denvers seated in the drawing-room with a great basket of mending before her.
"oh, what a lot of work! would you like me to help you?" said kitty.
"very much, dear; but what kept you so late? oh, here is a letter for you."
"a letter!" cried kitty eagerly. "oh, it is from laurie. hurrah! hurrah!"
she forgot all about her offer to help mrs. denvers with her darning, tossed the letter in the air two or three times, and then sank down on the nearest ottoman to read it. these were the words on which her eyes rested:
"dear old kitterkins: i have got into the greatest bother of a mess that ever assailed a poor gossoon, and if you can't help me, old girleen, well, i shall be done brown, as the saying is. the whole matter concerns paddy wheel-about. the poor creature has been getting queerer and queerer lately, and father has been ever so much worried about him. i didn't know a word of this, mind you, at the time, but learnt it afterwards; and it makes my bit of a frolic all the blacker, i can tell you. father got dr. milligan to go and see paddy in his cabin at the top of sleeve nohr, and the doctor said that the poor old boy was going off his head as fast as he could, and we must be careful not to give him any shock. well, but to come to my part of it. you know that coat of his, and what diversion we have had out of it from time to time? you made one of the patches yourself, don't you remember, kitty? we always told him that in each patch he had concealed a sovereign. well, hot as the days are, he has been wearing that coat, and a figure of fun he did look. the mahoney boys and pat and i thought we would take a rise out of him; so one night when he was asleep we stole up to his lair and got hold of the precious coat. we bundled it up and were off with it. we had to cross the lake, in the old boat with a hole in the bottom, in order to get home in time, and what do you think happened? up came a squall, the boat was upset, and paddy's coat sank to the bottom of the lake. we swam to the shore and thought it would be an easy matter to fish up the old coat on the following morning; but although we dragged and dragged, and pat and i both dived down to the bottom a good dozen of times, the coat had sunk in the deep mud and we could not find it, no nor a sign of it. well, of course, our one hope was that no one should know; but what was our horror to be confronted by no less a person than wheel-about himself. you know that craze he has about never speaking. well, he spoke to us and pretty sharp too, and told us he knew we had taken the coat, and didn't he look thunders and daggers at us, and we funked it so awfully—yes, i will confess it, kits, your brave laurie funked it like anything—for wheel-about did really look like a roadman; at last there was no help for it—we had to out with the truth. oh, didn't he raise a yell louder than anything you ever heard, and then i told him that if i could not get back the coat i would give him ten pounds for certain by saturday next. he said if i did he would lie quiet for a bit and not tell the governor, so i want you like a blessed girleen to lend me the money. send it off the very instant you read this; for if you don't the saints alone know what will happen. we are certain to be sent to a school in england, at least i am. from what you tell me, kitterkins, of that place, i should think it would break our hearts to smithereens. now look sharp and send the money. your loving brother,
"laurie."
"oh, dear!" exclaimed kitty starting to her feet. "do you mind my going out at once, mrs. denvers?"
"certainly not, my love. tea will be ready at five o'clock. are you going far?"
"only to elma lewis' house. i want to see her; it is awfully important."
"but elma lives quite two miles from here."
"oh, that does not matter. i am sure to find my way. it is most urgent," said kitty.
she rushed out of the room, pinned on her hat, and a moment later was walking down the street as fast as she could go. she crossed a field and a common, and after a time got into that part of the town where elma lived. by dint of asking half a dozen children and three or four policemen she at last reached constantine road, and presently found the right house. she ran up the steps and sounded a rattling rat-tat on the knocker. the moment she did so a girl with a mop of untidy red hair peeped up at her from the area below.
"come and open the door at once," called kitty. "why do you keep a lady waiting?"
the girl soon appeared, tying on her cap and apron as she did so.
"i thought as they was all out for the day," she began, "—oh, miss, i beg your pardon."
kitty, notwithstanding her rather rude words, presented a very charming spectacle as she stood on the steps. she was dressed not only in the height of the fashion, but wore such a perfectly captivating little toque at the back of her head as to fire the fancy and take the little wit which she possessed out of mrs. lewis' maid-of-all-work.
maggie had never seen anything so captivating nor so ravishing. a wild desire to make a toque like it to put on her own towzled locks on the following sunday caused her to stare so hard at kitty with her mouth wide open that she did not hear a word that young lady was saying.
"are you in a dream?" asked kitty malone. "i want to see miss elma
lewis. is she at home?"
"miss helma? no, miss, that she ain't," replied maggie. "oh, i beg your pardon, miss; but it's it's the bonnet at the top of your head."
"my bonnet?" said kitty.
"yes, miss. oh, i do beg your pardon, miss—i was took all of a heap. yes, miss, i'm attending now. but oh, if you would just turn your head a little."
"you must be mad," said kitty. but her eyes began to sparkle.
"do listen to me," she continued; "it's most important. is miss elma not at home?"
"no, miss; she's out for the day, and so is the missus and miss carrie. they're all out a-pleasuring in their different ways, and they has left me at home to drudge. i'm the household drudge, miss, and no wonder i'm took with anything so pretty. do you mind telling me, miss, if them wiolets is real?"
"oh, the violets in my toque—are those what you are staring at?" said kitty. "well, now, i'll tell you what i'll do—i'll give you the whole bunch if you'll let me come into the house and write a letter to elma, and if you'll further faithfully promise that you will give it to her the instant she comes home."
"to be sure i will, miss. come right along in. oh, what a beautiful young lady you is!"
"every one tells me i am beautiful," thought kitty. "it really is very pleasant. i am more flattered here than i was in ireland. people told me there i had a face like cream and roses, or cream and strawberries, and father used to say that i had washed it in the fairies' dew, and laurie would tell me that i was a bouncing girl and no mistake; but then aunt honora was always saying: 'kitty dear, beauty is only skin deep, and don't be set up by it, child. handsome is that handsome does, kitty.' oh, how she would deave me with that old proverb. but here they seem to think beauty is a talent, and i ought to be desperately proud of it. oh, faith, but why do i think of these things when my precious duck of a laurie is in the mess he has got into. he go to england to break his heart, the darling! not a bit of it; not while his kitty has her wits about her."
meanwhile maggie conducted this ravishing and welcome visitor into the tiny sitting-room, furnished her with pen, ink, and paper, and then began to hover about near the door in order to get another view of the lovely cap.
kitty bent her head over the sheet of paper and indited a letter in hot and furious haste:
"dear elma: i am so sorry, but i must ask you to return that eight pounds to me immediately. i want it for laurie. he has got into trouble and requires it; so don't keep me waiting a single minute if you can help it. i am so sorry you are out; but will you bring it to me the instant you return home? it is of the most vital importance. i am in dreadful trouble, and nothing else will save laurie. yours in great haste, kitty malone."
having written the letter, kitty looked round for an envelope; maggie also searched to right and left, but could not find one.
"but it will be all right, miss," she said. "i'll lay it just as it is flat out on the table, and miss helma will see it the moment she comes in."
"thank you," answered kitty. "and now i must go. be sure you give it to her her the instant she returns, and tell her to come straight to me with the money, for i must send it off to-night whatever happens. it is a money transaction; and you understand, don't you? what is your name?"
"maggie, miss."
"well, you understand, maggie, that any transaction connected with money is very important."
"like the bank of england, miss?"
"yes, to be sure, and—"
"oh, miss, forgive me; but you promised me them wiolets."
"to be sure i did."
kitty snatched them from her toque, flung them to maggie, who caught them in an ecstacy, and a moment later was running home as fast as she could.
