k, and ran lightly upstairs. She
escaped the treacherous second step, and entered her bedroom without
waking Alice. The bolster carefully manipulated had done its work; it
had never occurred to Alice that the form in the bed was anything but
the living form of Kathleen O'Hara. She had shaded the light from what
she supposed to be the sleeping girl, and got into bed herself feeling
tired and sulky. She had dropped asleep immediately.

Kathleen's first step, therefore, towards the formation of a secret
society in the Great Shirley School was marked with success. The idea
which she had formulated in the old quarry spread like wildfire amongst
the foundationers; but Kathleen was determined not to have another
meeting for nearly a week. She wished to hear from her father; she
wanted to have money in hand.

"They are all poor," she thought. "If I appear just as poor as they are,
I shall never be able to keep my exalted position as queen. We cannot
have our next meeting until I have drawn up the rules, and I should like
Ruth Craven to help me. She has got sense. I don't want the thing to be
riotous, nor to do harm in any way. I just want us to have a bit of fun,
and to teach the horrid paying girls of the school a lesson."

The thought of her secret society kept Kathleen in a fairly good humor,
and she worked at her lessons so well that Alice began to have hopes of
her. About a week after her arrival at Myrtle Lodge the box which Aunt
Katie O'Flynn was sending from Dublin arrived. It came when the girls
were at school. When they returned to early dinner they saw it standing
in the front hall.

"Whatever is this, and why is it put here?" said Alice, springing
forward to look at the address:

"Miss Kathleen O'Hara, care of Mrs. Tennant, Myrtle Lodge."

"Golloptious!" cried Kathleen. "It's my own. It's my clothes--my sort
of a kind of a treasure. Oh, what delicious fun! Now you will see how
smart I can be. Maybe there will be something here to fit you, Alice.
Wouldn't you like it? We are going to tea to-night to Mrs. Weldon's, and
Ruth Craven is to be there. The darling girl--I will give her something.
I should love to make her look just as beautiful as she can look. I am
not a bit a stingy sort of girl; you know that, Alice. I want to be
quite generous with my lovely things."

"Well, do stop talking," said Alice. "I never came across such an
inveterate chatterbox. I suppose you'd like to have the box taken up to
our room