ped up, shut the window, and fastened
it. She then got back into bed. In the morning Alice called out to her:

"Is your headache better?"

"Had I one?" began Kathleen. Then she blushed; then she laughed; then
she said, "Oh, it's quite well."

Alice gazed steadily at her. It seemed to Kathleen that Alice's eyes
were full of something very terrible.

"Are you coming to school to-day?" asked Alice the next moment.

"Of course. Why do you ask such a strange question?"

"I shouldn't think you would wish to; but there is no accounting for
what some people can live through."

"Alice, what do you mean?"

"What I say."

"Explain yourself."

"No."

"Is there anything very awful going to happen at school?"

"You will find out for yourself when you get there."

"Dear me!" said Kathleen; "you look as if the deluge was coming."

"And so it is," said Alice.

She had finished dressing by now, and she went out of the room. The two
girls went down to breakfast. Alice's face was still full of an awful
suppressed knowledge, which she would not let out to any one; but Mrs.
Tennant was smiling and looking just as usual, and the boys were as
fond of Kathleen as was their wont. She had completely won their
immature masculine hearts, and they invariably sat one on each side of
her at meals, helped her to the best the table contained, and fussed
over her in a way that pleased her young majesty. Kathleen was very glad
that morning to get the boys' attention. She determined to sit with her
back slightly turned to Alice, in order not to look into her face. They
were about half-way through breakfast when there came a ring at the
front-door, and Cassandra Weldon's voice was heard.

Alice went out to her. The two girls kept whispering together in the
passage. Presently Alice returned to the breakfast-room, and Kathleen
now noticed that her eyes were red, as though she had just been
indulging in a bout of crying.

"What can be the matter?" she thought.

"Why, my dear Alice," said her mother, looking up at this moment, "what
did Cassandra want? And what is the matter with you? Have you had bad
news?"

"Yes, mother," answered Alice.

"But what is it, dear?"

"You will know soon enough, mother."

"That is exactly what you said to me upstairs," said Kathleen, driven
desperate by Alice's manner. "I do wish you would speak out.--Do get her
to speak out, Mrs. Tennant. She hints at something awful going to happen
at school to-day.