s ran wildly looking
for a third-class carriage. At last they found one and tumbled into it;
the door was slammed, and they were off. Kathleen wondered--she was not
sure, but she wondered--if she really did see, or if it was only a
dream, a pair of brown eyes looking at her from the station, and the
severe young figure and shocked face of Alice Tennant.

"It must have been a dream; she could not have guessed that I was going
to the station. What a good thing she didn't meet Mrs. Hopkins!" thought
Kathleen. Then she turned to her companions--to the six girls who had
decided to brave all the terrors of their expedition. They were Susy
Hopkins, Kate Rourke, Clara Sawyer, Rosy Myers, Janey Ford, and Mary
Wilkins.

Kathleen sat quite still for a minute until she had recovered her
breath. She looked around her. To her relief, she saw that they were
alone. There was no one else in the compartment.

"Now then," she said, "how is it that all the others have funked it?"

"There has been so much muttering and whispering and suspecting going on
during the whole livelong day that they were positively afraid," said
Susy. "Indeed, if it hadn't been for you, Kathleen, I doubt if any of us
would have come."

"Well, girls, we can't help it," said Kathleen. "If the rest are so
timid, there's more fun for us; isn't that so?"

She looked round at her companions.

"I mean to enjoy myself," said Kate Rourke. "I have been to a theater
twice before. Once I went with my grandfather, and another time with an
uncle from Australia. I didn't go to the pit when I went with uncle. He
took me to a grand stall, and we rubbed up against the nobility, I can
tell you."

It suddenly occurred to Kathleen that Kate Rourke was rather a vulgar
girl. She drew a little nearer to her, however, and fixed her very
bright eyes on the girl's face."

"But we needn't go to the pit, need we?" she said. "I meant to pay for
forty. If there are only six, why shouldn't we have jolly seats
somewhere, and not waste our time outside the theater?"

"That would be nice," said Kate Rourke. "I always enjoy myself so much
more if I am in good company. I have been looking up the plays at the
theaters, and there is a very fine piece on at the Princess'. That is in
Oxford Street. It is a sort of melodrama; there's a deal of killing in
it, and the heroine has to do some desperate deeds."

"Oh, dear!" said Susy, with a sigh; "I don't feel, somehow, as if I much
cared where