f grave perplexity.

"Anna has such a cough," she said, when Kitty appeared, "and she can't
breathe, and her face is so red. I'm sure she has got a bad cold."

Anna was certainly very flushed, and she held her handkerchief up to her
face a good deal.

"Have you a cold?" asked Kitty. She could not control her feelings
sufficiently to speak quite naturally, and her voice sounded
unsympathetic. She was vexed, and puzzled, and full of fears as to what
might be to come. She could not help feeling in her heart a strong
distrust of Anna, yet she felt sorry for her, and dreaded what might be
in store for her.

"No--at least I don't think so. Perhaps I have, though. I don't feel
well," she stammered. She spoke confusedly, and did not look at Kitty.

"I should think you had better go to bed and have some hot milk," said
Betty in her serious, old-fashioned way.

"Oh no. I am all right, thank you," said Anna, shrinking from the
thought of her mother's visits to her room, and her searching inquiries
as to how she could possibly have got a cold. "Do be quiet, Betty, and
let me do my work. You know it is nearly bedtime."

"Well, you haven't seemed in a hurry till now," said Betty sharply.
"You haven't been learning your lessons in your room, because I saw your
bag and your books on your bed just now, and you hadn't touched them
then."

"I do wish people wouldn't always be prying after me," said Anna
angrily, and this time it was Kitty who looked guilty.

Supper was a very silent meal that night, and soon after it the three
went to bed, scarcely another word having been spoken.

Kitty and Betty had been in bed an hour perhaps, and Betty was fast
asleep, when Kitty, restless and sleepless with the new trouble she had
on her mind, was surprised by the gentle opening of the door of the
room. Half alarmed, she rose up in bed, peering anxiously through the
gloom. Then--"O Anna!" she cried, "what is the matter? Are you ill?"

"No--o, I don't think I am, but I--I am sure I shall be. O Kitty, I am
in _such_ trouble. I _must_ tell some one."

"I think I know what it is," said Kitty gently.

"Oh no, you don't," groaned Anna. "You can't. It is worse than copying
my sums, or--or cribbing, or anything."

"I know," said Kitty again.

But Anna did not hear her. She was looking at Betty. "Come to my room,
do!" she said. "Betty may wake up, and I don't want her to hear."

"Very well," said Kitty, slipping out of b