"No, Miss O'Hara; it ought to be to-night. You are going to the railway station, aren't you, miss?"
Kathleen felt inclined to knock that interfering woman down. She darted to one side of the road.
"Oh, let me pass!" she said. She was shaking with her quick run. She knew the moments were flying; already she heard the bell at the station ring. The train for London was signaled; she had not an instant to lose.
"Don't—don't keep me," she said.
"But you mustn't go, miss; it would be madness—wicked. You musn't; you daren't."
Kathleen pushed past her. This time Mrs. Hopkins had no power to stop her. She rushed on, reached the station, flew up the steps, and found herself on the platform just as the train was coming in.
Instead of the forty girls she expected to meet, she saw not more than about half-a-dozen. They all crowded up to her at once.
"I have got your ticket for you," said Susy. "I was just able to screw out the money to get one for you and myself. Here's the train; let us hop in at once."
"But where are all the others—the forty?" gasped Kathleen.
"They funked it, almost all of them. Oh! come along; here's the train."