"Kathleen, how would you like to come back home?" she asked.
"Your mother would not permit it," sighed the young girl.
"It is because she does not believe you are really Kathleen. She thinks you an impostor. I have been talking to her, trying to get her consent to bring you home."
Kathleen looked curiously at her step-sister, puzzled by her odd air of hesitancy.
"Well, go on. What is it?" she asked, with that little imperious manner inseparable from herself.
"She would not agree except on one condition."
Kathleen looked at her in silent wonder, and, with pretended sorrow, Alpine said:
"The condition was that you come as a housemaid—as a paid servant."
She saw, with silent, secret malice, the angry crimson mount to Kathleen's pearly cheek, and remained silent a few moments to enjoy the sensation of proud Kathleen humiliated.
Kathleen was indeed furious with resentment, and for a moment she could not speak for the great lump in her throat.