"It is such a chance," answered Bessie, "and I wanted to find out for myself all about that wonderful magnetic iron ore. You know it never loses its power, it is potent for hundreds and hundreds of years, and--" "Oh, don't tell me any more, or I'll lose my senses. Dear Bessie, what does magnetic iron ore matter. Bessie, I'm awfully unhappy. Every one is so unkind to me. Promise you'll be my friend, won't you?" Bessie looked up, and then she saw something so touching in Kitty's face that she closed her book with a reluctant sigh, to devote herself the next moment with all the sympathy she possessed to her companion. "I am sure you are suffering, Kitty, and I am sorry for you," she said. "I'll fetch my hat and we'll go out for a little." "Oh, what a darling you are!" answered Kitty. A moment or two later the girls were walking across the beautifully-kept garden; they soon reached a shady path at the further end. "And now, Kitty," said Bessie, "I mean to lecture you a little." "Anything in the world you like, darling. I'm quite agreeable. Aunt Honora and Aunt Bridget lecture me, and so does the dear old dad sometimes; but I always say when they have finished that it is like water on a duck's back--it rolls off without making the least bit of impression, and then they laugh and say that I am the queerest mixture they ever came across, and that they had best leave me to nature. But perhaps I'll listen to you, Bessie." "I wish you would," said Bessie. "I am sure," she added, speaking with great earnestness, "that you are a very nice girl, Kitty; but at the same time you are wild." "Oh, I pride myself on that," said Kitty in her frankest of voices. "But I wish you would not, Kitty, for it really isn't nice." "Not nice! Now what may you be meaning by that, aroon?" "Well, there is a sort of dignity which I think a really well brought-up girl ought to possess." "Oh, my! dignity is it?" said Kitty. She stepped away from her companion, drew down her face to a ridiculous length, nearly closed her eyes, and folded her hands demurely across her breast. "Is that pleasing you, mavourneen?" she said. "Is it dignified and sober enough poor Kitty Malone looks now?" "Oh, Kitty, you will joke about everything." Kitty immediately changed her mood.