"
"No; I will still be your friend."
"But you have refused to join my society; you have refused to belong to
the Wild Irish Girls."
"I can't help myself."
"But you promised."
"I know I did. I made a mistake. Kathleen, there is no help for it. I
shall love you even if I don't belong to the society. Now there is
nothing more to be said."
Ruth disentangled herself from Kathleen's embrace, and putting wings to
her feet, ran in the direction of the school. Kathleen stood just where
she had left her; over her face was passing a rapid and curious change.
"Do I love her any longer?" she said to herself. "Oh, I think--I think I
love her still. But she has slighted me. She will be sorry some day. Oh,
dear! The only girl in the whole of England that I love has slighted me.
She has thrown ridicule upon me. She said that she would be my Prime
Minister, and she has resigned everything for that horrible Cassandra.
She will be sorry yet; I know she will."
CHAPTER XV.
THE SCHOLARSHIP: TROUBLE IS BREWING.
Over some of the girls of the Great Shirley School there passed that
morning a curious wave of excitement. Those girls who had joined
Kathleen's society were almost now more or less in a state of tension.
Once a week they were to meet in the quarry; once a week, whatever the
weather, in the dead of night, they were to meet in this sequestered
spot. They knew well that if they were discovered they would run a very
great chance of being expelled from the school; for although they were
day scholars, yet integrity of conduct was essential to their
maintaining their place in that great school which gave them so liberal
an education, in some cases without any fees, in all other cases with
very small ones.
Pages:
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203