“I will come back,” said Ruth.  “Granny is not very well, and I ought not to have left her, even to have dinner here; but I couldn’t help myself.”

Cassandra brought her friend into the house.  They had a pleasant meal together, and Ruth tried to forget that she had absolutely quarrelled with Kathleen, and that Kathleen’s heart was half-broken on her account.

But Kathleen herself was determined not to give way to any real feelings of misery on account of Ruth’s desertion.

“I have no time to think about it,” she said to herself.

When she returned to the house she found a telegram waiting for her.  She tore it open.  It was from Aunt Katie O’Flynn: 

“I have arrived.  Come and have dinner with me to-night at the Metropole, and bring any friend you like.”

“What a lark!” thought Kathleen.  “And what a chance for Ruth if only she had been different!  Oh, dear!  I suppose I must ask Alice to come with me.”

“Whom is your telegram from, dear?” asked Mrs. Tennant, coming up to her at that moment.

Alice was standing in the dining-room devouring a book of Greek history.  She held it close to her eyes, which were rather short-sighted.

“It’s from Aunt Katie O’Flynn.  She has come, the darling!” said Kathleen.  “She wants me to go to London to dine with her to-night.  Of course I’ll go.—–­ You will come with me, won’t you, Alice?  She says I am to bring some one.”

“No, I can’t come,” said Alice; “and for that matter no more can you.  It takes quite thirty-five minutes to get to Charing Cross, and then you have to get to the Metropole.  We girls are not allowed to go to London by ourselves.”

“As if that mattered.”

“It matters to me, if it does not to you.  Anyhow, here is a note for you.  It is from Miss Ravenscroft, our head-mistress.  I rather fancy that will decide matters.”

Kathleen tore open the note which Alice had handed to her.  She read the following words: 

     “DEAR MISS O’HARA,—­I should be glad if you would come round
     to see me at six o’clock this evening.  I have something of
     importance to say to you.”

“What can she mean?” said Kathleen.  “I scarcely know Miss Ravenscroft.  I just spoke to her the first day I went to the school.”

“She has asked me too.  What can it be about?” said Alice.

“Then you can take a message from me; I am not going,” said Kathleen.

“What?” cried Alice.  “I don’t think even you will dare to defy the head-mistress.  Why, my dear Kathleen, you will never get over it.  This is madness.—­Mother, do speak to her.”

“What is it, dear?” said Mrs. Tennant, coming forward.

Alice explained.

“And Kathleen says she won’t go?”

“Of course I won’t go, dear Mrs. Tennant.  On the contrary, you and I will go together to see Aunt Katie O’Flynn.  She is my aunt, and I wouldn’t slight her for all the world.  She’d never forgive me.—­You can tell Miss Ravenscroft, Alice, that my aunt has come to see me, and that I have been obliged to go to town.  You can manage it quite easily.”