The Washington herald., 1908-01-03
CHAPTER Y.

tired out when MIS-. BrentOp nldlu ldu
arranged everything. and she had been
left alone. But she was too tired to sleep.
The strangeness of her surroundings,
and the strangeness of her position gen
orally. filled her with a kind of excite
ment. She had not very much in front
of her of a pleasurable nature. and yet
the morrow had for her certain CLAM
our
As the first sensation of alarm and in
dlgnation provoked naturally by the
treatment she had received, by the ao-
ruptness with which her life Of depend
ence had been ended, died away kath-
crime became conscious that there was
an undoubted charm about her present
situation. A day before, the future (when
she had thought about IT'D had stretched
before her In gray, monotonous, an
almost desolate, fashion. Now all
things were possible. and hope began al
most Immediately TO shed a glow on her
thoughts.
1t was an amazingly delightful sensa-
ton to feel that she owned no master.
Indeed she felt little irritated now
with herself that she should have sup
ported so much with such an unques
tioning doeility, or that having given so
much obedience she should never have
tried to satisfy herself while this should
have been eXacted
At school of course. it had been the
outcome of rules, or regime, which had eX-
listed ever since she could remember, but
when the school life had ended. and she
had gone 10 Mrs. Baynhurst, there real
~ had been no occasion, so she told her
self now. TO have accepted the laws laid
down for her with the same old Obedi-
ence
"Only she really never gave the chance
TO speak" the girl mused 20 herself, 'and
then I was such a little idiot when ! first
met her that she frightened me, I ex-
pect she will be furious because / went
TO Mr. Haverford, Now that ! have seen
him and spoken with him, it is easy
enough to understand why his mother
prefers to see him only on rare occa-
sions. He has a blunt. straightforward
way about him which must be an abom-
ination to her. He was not too amiable
10 me Still, I must do him justice,
Katherine admitted here readily he
saw at once that l had a sort OF claim
on him, and duty with him evidently
counts for good deal
She turned comfortably on the soft pill
low.
II was her first experience Of a really
luxurious bed, for she had been better
housed and better fed at school than as a
dependent in Mrs. Baynhurst's house
hold.
She ought really to have gone to sleep,
but whenever she closed her eyes some
new thought Of the morrow and of all the
other morrows would make them spring
open again.
The events of the last few hours had
been so new that they had left her
startled out of her us Ial quiet acquies-
cence. Mrs BrentOns warm sympathy
seemed 10 Katherine a heaven-sent gift.
She had never realized the lack of this
sympathy in her life till now. nor, in
truth, all the many other things that she
had lacked-those trivial everyday things
which stock the lives of most young crea-
lures Her childish joys had never been
secondhand ones. She had never had hOli-
days. never any excitement, there had
been no Christmas or birthday presents
for her, no books or Ork-baskets. lace
collars, or ribbons. AS a matter Of fact.
she did not even know on what date she
had been born. and except for her school
friends and the little children whom
she had taught the last two years. she
had never been kissed. Yet for all this
girl.
Her orphanhood had cast no blight
upon her, and she had made pleasures
for herself out OF her very unpTOmising
surroundings, as most healthy young
creatures will do
Perhaps her greatest trial since she
had lived with OCtavia Baynhurst had
been the fact that she had never once left
London and the call of the country to
her nature at times had been so pressing
that she had felt like a wild flower crib
bed and confined in world of bricks
and mortar.
There had not even been a green leaf
on which she could look. Mrs. Bayn-
hurst did not care for flowers. Neither
did she consider it necessary that any
body required exercise or fresh air.
Katherine had been rather a plump
girl when she had said "gOod-by" tC
her school. but she had wasted woefully
In the last ten months. Though she haC
called herself strong when she had beer
speaking TO Rupert Haverford, she pos
sessed at this moment very little of hel
normal physical strength, but she haG
the force Of powerful viii although VI
20 the present she had had scant oppor-
tunity Of exercising this and great cour
age, and to this she added the blessed
With the very smallest encouragement
Katherine Granger would be happy
There was nothing lachrymose about heI
or subservient. She rad gone to Mrs
BaynhuTst's primed with good intention:
and eaGlg TO give of her very best to The
woman who had claimed her.
Her SChOOlmiStress had evidently beer
relieved 20 pass on the responsibility OF
the girl to some other person, and. al
the same time had been rather fattereC
that one of her pupils should have beer
called upon TO MI an important post Will
person of such mental eminence
Rejecting now on the events of the DAY
just gone, Katherine came to the conclu
sion that she was rather glad there hat
been no opportunity of speaking with bel
first guardian, the mistress of the school
She would have put me through {
Cross-examinatiOn, and then / should
have told her the truth. and then sh.
would have Keen cross with me. I won
der where she has gone to? feel sorr,
/ have not written all these months
Perhaps she thinks me very ungrateful
for I firmly believe she kept me for ,
long time without any money"
This brought her back to the though
OF what lay in the immediate future
i wish I were little better educated.
she said, restlessiy, to herself; 4 an
really very ignorant. No wonder tha
Mrs. BaynhuTst found me uselessi How
she rould sneer If she could know
fave been trying 20 teach myself a lit
tie all these monthsi Having made "a
her mind to the fact that I am fool
she would strongly object to have 4
acknowledge that she had made a mis-
take, and ! am not a fool" said Eath
crime 10 herself. with ha,f sigh an
half sn,'e
Really, tie bed was very comfortable
and the rnnm WAS so cnzr and rlaaea NJ