"Nor do I as a rule, but this one--oh! I say she is a jolly sort. Why she's been down in the kitchen and up in the attics--she knows every one in the house already; and do you know what she is doing now--sitting in the drawing-room with the window wide open, grinning down at you, and she has got Pointer in her arms. You know Pointer, dirty old fellow!--well, she caught him up the moment she came in, and insisted on bringing him upstairs, and he has taken to her as if he had known her ever since he was a puppy. Mean of him, isn't it; but I declare I don't blame him. Oh! there you are, Kitty Malone." Fred raised his laughing face to encounter another as laughing, a face at that moment grinning from ear to ear. "Are you Alice?" called a voice. "Are you the one I am to sleep with? Just say, call out loud; don't mind if you shout, because I'm accustomed to that sort of thing." "Is this Kitty Malone?" thought Alice. She liked frank, jolly girls; but she was not quite prepared for Kitty. She entered the house, flung down her bag of books, and ran upstairs to the drawing-room. The next moment she found herself in the firm embrace of a girl a little taller than herself, a slim, very pretty, very untidy, very overdressed girl. "Here I am and welcome to yourself," said Kitty. "I was so vexed you were not here to greet me; but bless you, my dear, I'm quite comfortable. No, I'm not a bit tired--you haven't asked me, by the way, but I suppose you mean to. I had a spiffin' journey. Sick! not I. I'm never seasick, and I enjoyed the train. I made friends with such a dear old gentleman and with two boys. I nearly kissed the boys when I was leaving them, but I didn't quite. Is that you, Fred? Come along in now and let us be jolly together. Why, Alice, how stiff you are; you have not opened your lips yet." "I have not had an opportunity," answered Alice. "You do talk such a lot, Kitty." "Do I? I expect we all do in Old Ireland. Bless her! she's a dear old country, and I'm as sorry as anybody to say good-by to her. But, all the same, I am glad to see England (poky, stiff sort of place it seems). Say now, Alice, do you like my dress? It was made in Dublin; it's the height of the fashion I am told." "It's very showy," said Alice. "Do you think so? Well, you are plainly dressed; nothing but that brown merino. And--my dear, I thought they were always dressed up to the nines near London. This place is near London, isn't it?" "Yes, a few miles off. Oh, of course your dress is very nice; but now I must get ready for dinner." "Oh! and ain't I peckish?" said Kitty, clapping her hands and winking broadly at Fred. Alice turned to leave the room. "We may as well go together," said Kitty, following her and slipping her hand through her arm. "Do you know," she said, "when I first came to the house I could scarcely breathe. Why, it's nothing but a nutshell. I never saw such a deeny dawn of a place in the whole course of my life. How many of you live here?"