t. Mabel got as fond of him as Kittie
was, and they were both wild to help him to get Josephine to marry him;
but she wouldn't, though Kittie finally talked to her long and
seriously. I asked Kittie what Josephine said when she did that, and she
confessed that Josephine had laughed so she couldn't say anything. That
hurt the sensitive child, of course, but grown-ups are all too
frequently thoughtless of such things. Had Josephine but listened to
Kittie's words on that occasion, it would have saved Kittie a lot of
trouble.

Now I am getting to the exciting part of the story. I am always so glad
when I get to that. I asked Sister Irmingarde why one couldn't just make
the story out of the exciting part, and she took a good deal of time to
explain why, but she did not convince me; for besides having the
artistic temperament I am strangely logical for one so young. Some day I
shall write a story that is all climax from beginning to end. That will
show her! But at present I must write according to the severe and
cramping rules which she and literature have laid down.

One night Mrs. James gave a large party for Josephine, and of course
Mabel and Kittie, being thirteen and fourteen, had to go to bed. It is
such things as this that embitter the lives of schoolgirls. But they
were allowed to go down and see all the lights and flowers and
decorations before people began to come, and they went into the
conservatory because that was fixed up with little nooks and things.
They got away in and off in a kind of wing of it, and they talked and
pretended they were _debutantes_ at the ball, so they stayed longer than
they knew. Then they heard voices, and they looked and saw Josephine and
Mr. Morgan sitting by the fountain. Before they could move or say they
were there, they heard him say this--Kittie remembers just what it was:

"I have spent six years following you, and you've treated me as if I
were a dog at the end of a string. This thing must end. I must have you,
or I must learn to live without you, and I must know now which it is to
be. Josephine, you must give me my final answer to-night."

Wasn't it embarrassing for Kittie and Mabel? They did not want to
listen, but some instinct told them Josephine and George might not be
glad to see them then, so they crept behind a lot of tall palms, and
Mabel put her fingers in her ears so she wouldn't hear. Kittie didn't.
She explained to me afterwards that she thought it being her siste