her, but
Jane dodged her.

"Oh don't you?" she cried. "What do you mean by using my brother like
you have, letting him dangle after you, and pretending you was going
to marry him, and getting presents out of him?"

Pattie's face flamed.

"It's not true!" she said hotly. "I never got presents out of him, and
I always meant to marry him----"

Jane sneered.

"Very likely!" she said, "he did well enough to play with, till a
richer chap came along, and then you remembered Tom was poor! You're a
mean thing, Pattie Paul!"

"Let me pass!" cried Pattie vehemently, "you've no right to say such
things!"

"No right!" flared Jane, "and me seeing my own brother going thin and
a-fretting for a worthless girl like you! No right!"

But Pattie stayed to hear no more. With a sudden turn of the
mail-cart, she was past her enemy, and running swiftly down the
pavement towards St. Olave's, while little Maud laughed and clapped
her hands with delight; she thought the run was all to amuse her.

And Tom was going thin and fretting!

In the midst of her pride, anger and humiliation, that thought came
back to Pattie over and over again.

But the anger and the pride predominated, and swept away all tenderer
feelings, and she met Sam Willard in the evening with a laugh and a
toss of the head, and wished that Jane were there to see.

CHAPTER XI.

WITH A PURPOSE.

When Gertrude made up her mind to seek out a marriage-portion for
herself, whose chief ingredient should be money, with love as
a secondary consideration, she set herself with her usual cool
forethought to consider the matter of Reggie Alston.

Reggie was a friend, and a friend only he must remain, and to this end
the regular correspondence which he and she had kept up since Reggie
left school, must become irregular and fitful. If only he would take
his summer holiday in the school holidays, Gertrude thought she could
manage somehow to be away when he was at home, and that would break
the continuity of other summer holidays when they two had spent much
time together, cycling and playing tennis. It was a pity for the boy
to set his heart on what could not be. Reggie ought to look out for a
girl with money, or at any rate for a girl who--who--liked being poor.

The result of these cogitations was that many a time when Reggie
confidently looked for a letter, none came, and when the dulness of a
week's work did happen to be enlivened by one of Gertrude's epistles,