ay by herself, and sit on
a rock and gaze at the sea. Once Miss Ailie followed her and would have
called him a--

"Don't, Ailie!" said Miss Kitty, imploringly. But that night, when Miss
Kitty was brushing her hair, she said, courageously, "Ailie, I don't
think I should wear curls any longer. You know I--I shall be
thirty-seven in August." And after the elder sister had become calm
again. Miss Kitty said timidly, "You don't think I have been unladylike,
do you, Ailie?"

Such a trifle now remains to tell. Miss Kitty was the better business
woman of the two, and kept the accounts, and understood, as Miss Ailie
could not understand, how their little income was invested, and even
knew what consols were, though never quite certain whether it was their
fall or rise that is matter for congratulation. And after the ship had
sailed, she told Miss Ailie that nearly all their money was lost, and
that she had known it for a month.

"And you kept it from me! Why?"

"I thought, Ailie, that you, knowing I am not strong--that you--would
perhaps tell him."

"And I would!" cried Miss Ailie.

"And then," said Miss Kitty, "perhaps he, out of pity, you know!"

"Well, even if he had!" said Miss Ailie.

"I could not, oh, I could not," replied Miss Kitty, flushing; "it--it
would not have been ladylike, Ailie."

Thus forced to support themselves, the sisters decided to keep school
genteelly, and, hearing that there was an opening in Thrums, they
settled there, and Miss Kitty brushed her hair out now, and with a twist
and a twirl ran it up her fingers into a net, whence by noon some of it
had escaped through the little windows and was curls again. She and Miss
Ailie were happy in Thrums, for time took the pain out of the affair of
Mr. McLean, until it became not merely a romantic memory, but, with the
letters he wrote to Miss Kitty and her answers, the great quiet pleasure
of their lives. They were friendly letters only, but Miss Kitty wrote
hers out in pencil first and read them to Miss Ailie, who had been
taking notes for them.

In the last weeks of Miss Kitty's life Miss Ailie conceived a passionate
unspoken hatred of Mr. McLean, and her intention was to write and tell
him that he had killed her darling. But owing to the illness into which
she was flung by Miss Kitty's death, that unjust letter was never
written.

But why did Mr. McLean continue to write to Miss Kitty?

Well, have pity or be merciless as you choose. For several