nd would take it
without waiting for the others and the donkey. She had thought she
would get home first and be able to laugh at them and Mokus.
She herself had admitted as much.

Kitty's mind travelled back over that night search--the cold, the wet,
the horror of it, her own exhaustion and Dan's; then she came back again
suddenly to the present, and Aunt Pike's voice saying,--

"You know, Katherine, I have had to overlook more than one serious piece
of ill-behaviour on your part since I have been here. Of course I put
down much to the lawless, careless way in which you grew up, but, at the
same time, I must admit that, after that very unpleasant episode with
Lettice Kitson, I have never felt really quite easy in allowing Anna to
be much with you. I could not avoid feeling that you were having
anything but a good influence over her, and but for your poor father's
sake--"

Kitty's cheeks were white enough now, and her eyes were very wide and
full of indignation as she met her aunt's stern gaze, but there was no
fear or shame in them. She opened her lips, but before a word escaped
them she closed them again, hesitated, and then walked quickly away.
And the next thing she knew was that she was to be sent away, and when
she heard it she thought her heart would break indeed.

Her father, though most reluctantly, had agreed to the plan, because he
could see no prospect of peace or happiness for her at home. He very
often in those days sighed deeply from a heavy heart, for his home was
very different from what he had hoped it would be. It was true that
things were more orderly, but the old careless joyousness, the muddle
and confusion, seemed now vastly preferable.

Aunt Pike had never approved of Kitty. Her careless, dreamy nature was
a constant offence in her eyes; her sudden impulses, her want of
concentration, her idle moods, when she sat just thinking and thinking
and doing nothing, irritated Mrs. Pike beyond endurance. They were as
opposite to each other in tastes and natures as any two persons could
be, and neither could understand or make allowance for the other.
And Dr. Trenire, seeing all this, and how they irritated and annoyed
each other, saw how bad it was, too, for Kitty's character, and at last
consented, though very, very reluctantly, to Mrs. Pike's strongly-urged
proposals that Kitty should be sent to a boarding-school.

Poor Kitty! If ever there was in this world one poor little mortal more
str