"It is the most beautiful thing I ever saw in my life," she thought.
"Why, Kathleen is like a fairy godmother. And how well it fits! And what
a perfect cut about the neck! And, oh! these darling little cuffs at the
end of the sleeves, and this sweet pink embroidery and this little
ruffle of lace round the neck. Oh! there never, never was anything made
so beautifully before. I am in luck; I am--I am."
Her mother's hand knocking on the wall brought her down from the clouds.
"Go to bed, dear," called out her parent. "It is very late, and you are
disturbing me."
"Yes, mother," called back Susy.
She removed the blouse, folded it in tissue-paper, put it into her
drawer, blew out the candles, and got into bed. But all through the
remainder of the night Susy dreamt of her blouse. The blouse filled her
thoughts, otherwise she might have been in raptures over her pretty
silver locket and its green ribbon. But as this was for private wear,
and must on no account be shown to any one who was not a member of the
society, it did not give her the amount of rapture it would otherwise
have done.
"It is lovely too. It is a badge, and means a great deal," she said to
herself, and she closed her hand over it as she lay in bed. "It is
tiresome that I cannot show it. It is a sweet little locket, and I might
save up money enough to have it gilded over. People would think I had a
gold locket. I have always nearly died to have one; but of course I
couldn't do that, for it would displease our queen, the darling, and I
wouldn't for all I am worth do anything to annoy her. Oh dear, things
are turning out lovely! I am twice as happy a girl as I was before
Kathleen O'Hara came to the school."
At school next day the members of the new society looked a little
conscious. Their eyes often met, and those eyes spoke volumes. Sometimes
a girl would put her hand up to her neck in a somewhat significant way,
and another girl would respond with a similar signal. There was a sort
of suppressed excitement in the school; but the teachers remarked
nothing. On the contrary, they were pleased with the way lessons were
done, exercises gone through, and work accomplished. The girls were so
completely in league with each other, so full of delight over the new
amusement which Kathleen had started in their midst, that they had no
time to be supercilious or disagreeable to the paying girls, who were
left in peace. They were usually a good deal tormented by the
foundationers, who took their revenge by small spiteful ways--by taking
the ink when they did not want it, by removing good pens and putting bad
ones in their places, by spilling ink on the blotting paper. In short,
they had many ways of rendering the life of a paying girl anything but
happy. To-day, however, all was peace and quiet. Kathleen walked in her
radiant fashion through her lessons; her beautiful face could not but be
an attraction. She was very bright and very smart, and even Alice gave
her an approving glance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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