"Yes, with pleasure," replied Gwin, and turning, she led the way out of the room. The rest of the evening passed off better. Kitty became a little subdued, and satisfied herself with talking less, and casting ravishing glances of delight and roguish entreaty first at one girl and then at the other. It was extremely difficult to withstand her, for her voice was low and singularly sweet, her eyes were beautiful, she could not do an ungraceful thing, she was altogether like a bright, flashing meteor, and soon she began to exercise an extraordinary fascination both over Bessie Challoner and Gwin Harley. Having got over her first astonishment, Gwin began to take a sincere interest in the pretty stranger. The lovely expression of her coral lips made her long to kiss them, and to assure the Irish girl that she for one would be her friend; but the next instant Kitty said something so very much against the grain that Gwin felt as much repulsed as a moment before she was delighted. Immediately after tea Bessie went off to the library to hunt up her darling "Encyclopaedia." "Now that she has gone," exclaimed Gwin, "we are not likely to get her back for some time. What a remarkably earnest student she is!" "The Earnest Student?" interrupted Kitty. "I thought that was the name of a religious book. I think father has got it at home." "Perhaps so," replied Gwin, "but we always call it to Bessie. She is wonderfully clever. She gets on splendidly at school, taking everything before her. I am certain she is the kind of girl who will make her mark by and by." "I hate studies!" said Kitty in her low, humorous voice. "I am sorry for that," answered Gwin, "for if you come to school you won't be at all popular if you do not care for your books." "Popular? How do you mean? Is it with the teachers or with the girls?" "Well, with both I fancy." "Then, I tell you what," exclaimed Kitty, "I'd like to bet with you that you are wrong--that I'll be the most popular girl in the whole of the school with the teachers--yes, with the teachers--and the scholars as well." "You must be very conceited," exclaimed Elma, who had sat silent during the greater part of the evening, taking Kitty in, however, all the same. "Conceited? No more than you are," cried Kitty, "but I know my powers, and I have not kissed the Blarney Stone for nothing." "Oh, you need not tell us that ridiculous story over again," said Alice. "But I should like to hear it," cried Gwin. "You really would not Gwin; it is too absurd. We must show Kitty, now she has come to live among us, what is real wit and what is not. Her way of talking is only silly." Gwin knit her brows, and looked pained. "I would rather not correct her now," she said in a gentle voice. Then she added, her eyes sparkling with sudden eagerness, "Would it not be a good opportunity for talking over the rules of our society, girls?" "Oh yes," cried Elma, "yes; but is it well to----"