"I wish you wouldn't lie on the bed in your muddy boots." No answer. "I must ask you not to lock the door. It is my room as well as yours." No answer. Kathleen's eyes were fixed on the window; they were brimful of mischief. After a time she said: "Darling." "I wish you wouldn't talk to me in that silly way." "Faith! honey, then." "I do wish--" Kathleen suddenly sprang upright on her bed. "Don't you like the sky when it looks as it does now? I wish you could see it from Carrigrohane. You don't know the sort of expression it has when it seems to be kissing the sea. We have a ghost at Carrigrohane. Oh, wisha, then, if you only could see it! I can tell the boys about it. Sha'n't I make them creep?" "It is very silly to talk about ghosts. Nobody believes in them," said Alice. "I'll ask father if I may have you at Carrigrohane in the summer, and then see if you don't believe. She wears white." "I am going out now, Kathleen; aren't you coming with me?" "No, thank you, my love." "You ought to, Kathleen. I am busy preparing for my scholarship examination or I would stay and argue with you. It is an awful pity to have gone to the expense of coming here if you don't mean to do your utmost." "Thank you, darling, but it is rather a waste of breath for you to talk so long to me. I mean to be naughty this afternoon." "I can't help you," said Alice. "I am very sorry you ever came." "Thank you so much, dear." Alice ran downstairs. "Mother," she said, rushing into her mother's presence, "we shall have no end of trouble with that terrible girl. She is lying now on the bed with her outdoor boots on, and she won't come to school, or do a single thing I want her to." "The money her father pays will be very welcome, Alice. We must bear with some discomforts on account of that." "I suppose so," said Alice, shrugging her shoulders. "How horrid it is to be poor, and to have such a girl as that in the house! Well, I can't stay another minute. You had better keep a sort of general eye on her, mother, for there's no saying what she will do. She has declared her intention of being naughty. She knows no fear, is not guided by any sort of principle, and would, in short, do anything." "Well, go to school, Alice, and be quick home, for I have a great deal I want you to help me with."