"No; but to ask her to your party!"
"That is no special sign of friendship," replied Kate; "both friends and acquaintances are to be invited. Well, this is Wednesday, and I have no more time to spare. I must go to my cubicle now to write invitations."
Kate ran off.
That afternoon the girls at St. Dorothy's, and several girls in other houses of residence, received short letters from Kate O'Connor. The letters ran as follows:
"Kate O'Connor requests the pleasure of your company to a birthday supper on the twentieth inst., at eight o'clock.
"r.s.v.p."
Molly found her invitation lying on the top of her bureau; there was one also for Cecil. The girls began to talk and wonder, but Kate kept her own counsel. Her eyes were brighter than usual, and she held herself more aloof than of old. All the girls to whom the invitations had been sent longed for Saturday—all, with the exception of Matilda Matthews. Matilda was devoured with curiosity, she was proud of being invited; but mixed with her pride and her sensations of curiosity was a strange, incomprehensible feeling of fear.
So many girls accepted the invitation that Hester's room was discovered to be quite too small for the festive occasion. A good-natured neighbor, however, Lucy Anderson by name, came unexpectedly to the rescue. She suggested that the supper should be in her room, and that the guests should assemble in Hester's. This could be easily managed, for the two rooms had communicating doors. Kate was now very busy, and Hester became her right hand.
A week ago she would have consulted Molly with regard to all the arrangements for her birthday party; now Hester was the favored one. Kate was in her gayest, most débonnaire mood. Her Irish wit rose to fever point; she kept those girls with whom she chose to be intimate in ceaseless giggles and wild peals of mirth. As she scattered her bon-mots, she scarcely laughed herself, but the light in her sparkling eyes was infectious, and the smiles which came at rare intervals, and showed her pearly white teeth, had something fascinating about them. Hester was alone in the secret with regard to the capacities of Kate's sovereign. Hester was clever with regard to the laying out of a limited sum of money. Between twenty and thirty girls had accepted Kate's invitation. Girls of the ages of from fourteen to seventeen are proverbial for healthy appetites; wise Hester therefore suggested that the cakes should be plain and abundant, rather than rich and scanty; that the lemonade should not be made entirely with fresh lemons; in short, that several little economies should be practiced in order to make the feast, if simple, full and plenty.
KATE'S PICTURE.