KATE'S ORDEAL

CONTENTS.


THE MESSAGE

DID SHE FORGET?

IN LONDON

THE LOST PURSE

A DISCLOSURE

AT THE THEATRE

CONCLUSION



CHAPTER I.

THE MESSAGE.

"Do you think Katie Haydon is pretty--I don't?" and the speaker glanced
at her own bright curls as she spoke.

"Well, I don't know whether she is exactly pretty, but she always looks
nice, and then she is so pleasant and merry, and----"

"And so vain and stuck-up," put in the first speaker again.

"Oh, how can you say so?" said another, a plain, quiet-looking girl,
who had not spoken before. "Mother says she would make such a nice
nurse-maid; so quiet and bright as she is, children would be sure to
take to her."

"Well, I don't know so much about that, Mary, but I know she has asked
teacher about a situation--her mother wants her to go into the nursery."

"My mother wants me to do the same," said quiet Mary Green, "but
although I have spoken to teacher I do not expect to hear of anything
until Katie is suited, for she asked first, and people are sure to
choose her in preference to me." This was said without the least touch
of envy or jealousy. Before anyone could reply to it, Katie herself
joined the group. "Are we not late?" she said, breathless with her run
to catch them before they reached the school. "I have some news for
you. What do you think--I am going to London!" she panted, fanning
herself with her pocket-handkerchief, and casting a triumphant glance
at Esther Odell, the girl who had called her proud and stuck-up.
Esther was always talking about going to London, and saying disparaging
things of going to service--servants were vulgar and despised and she
never would be a servant, though her mother and father both said she
ought to get a situation. This was how Esther had talked, and it gave
Kate Haydon no small pleasure to be able to come and tell her
schoolfellow that she was going to the wonderful city first.