"O Miss Lauriston, we have ever so much to tell you and to talk about!" exclaimed Sue Coleman. "We are going to have some tableaux for a charitable object, and we want you to stand in several of them. You will make such a lovely Sister of Charity in Consolation."
With that the ball was fairly opened. Emma was pleased and interested at once.
"You are all to come over to my house after school. Belle Hadden has planned everything. She is a host in herself."
Kathie had been walking up and down with two or three girls that she did not care much about, only they had joined her, and were, perhaps, better company than her lonely thoughts.
"You are going over to Mrs. Coleman's,—are you not?" asked Emma, in surprise. "Don't you like tableaux?"
"Very much, but—Good by"; and Kathie made a feint of kissing her hand.
"Girls, haven't you asked Kathie Alston?" exclaimed Emma, in the first lull, for the talk had been very energetic; "she would make up lovely in ever so many characters."
There was a silence, and the girls glanced at each other with determination in their faces.
"What is the matter? Has she offended you? I noticed something a little peculiar in school to-day."