"Oh, Kate, Kate, don't look so awful! you terrify me, you really do."
"What has she been saying?" asked Kate. She clutched Julia by her shoulder as she spoke.
Julia was rather a coward, and she shrank when she found herself in Kate's firm grip.
"Tell me at once what Matilda has been saying about me?" she asked.
"Oh, Kate, you do frighten me so awfully!"
"All right; come along this minute to Molly Lavender's room; perhaps she'll explain if you won't."
"Oh, I'll tell, if you don't look so frightful, and if—if you'll promise not to betray me."
"Of course I won't betray you, you little coward; I am not that sort. Now, then, out with it!"
"Well, then, Kate—— Oh, dear, dear, how your eyes do flash! Of course I don't believe it, Kate, not for a minute. Matilda says that Molly told her. Kate, I wish you wouldn't pinch me so. Molly told her that—that you are not—of course you are—but Molly told Matilda that you are not a lady; you used to be a dairymaid, and you didn't wear shoes and stockings, and you are awfully poor. Oh, Kate, of course it's a lie! but she says that you are here on charity."
"That will do," said Kate; "you have said quite enough. Now, of course, I'm not going to betray you. Get along with you, and keep it dark that you told me a word of all this."