The Rebel of the School | Page 8

The doors of the school were
now thrown open, and the girls disappeared by their special entrances.
It was just at that moment that Ruth in her shabby dress, but with her
sweet and most beautiful face, joined the group of girls who were going

into the school. She was without a companion. The other girls went in
by twos, each clinging to her special crony. Cassandra now changed her
position, and found herself within a yard or two of Ruth Craven. She
was examining Ruth with great care, but not at all from the unkind
point of view; hers was a sympathetic aspect. That little old serge dress
made something come up in Cassandra's throat, and she longed beyond
words to give her a better dress. Ruth's hat, too, left much to be desired.
It was an old black sailor-hat, which had been burnt to a dull brown.
But, notwithstanding the hat and the dress, there was the face. The face
was most lovely, and the back of the shabby frock was covered by hair
as black as jet, and curling and rippling in the sunshine.
"What wouldn't every other girl in the school give to have such a face
as that, and such hair as that?" thought Cassandra. "I must speak to
her."
She was just bending forward, meaning to touch Ruth on her shoulder,
when there came a commotion near the entrance, and the excited face
of Alice Tennant came into view. Alice was accompanied by a tall,
showily dressed girl. The girl had a very vivid color in her cheeks,
intensely bright and roguish dark-blue eyes, light chestnut hair touched
with gold--hair which was a mass of waves and tendrils and fluffiness,
and on which a little dark-blue velvet cap was placed.
"I am not going to be shy," cried the new-comer in a hearty, clear, loud
voice with a considerable amount of brogue in it. "Leave off clutching
me by the arm, Alice, my honey, for see my new companions I will. Ah,
what a crowd of girls!--colleens we call them in Ireland. Oh, glory!
how am I ever to get the names of half of them round my tongue? Ah,
and isn't that one a beauty?"
"Hush, Kathleen--do hush!" said Alice. "They will hear you."
"And what do I care if they do, darling? It doesn't matter to me. I mean
to talk to that girl; she's won my heart entirely."
Before Alice could prevent her, the Irish girl had sprung forward,
pushed a couple of Great Shirley girls out of their places, and had taken

Ruth Craven by the arm.
"It's a kiss I'm going to give you, my beauty," she said. "Oh, it's right
glad I am to see you! My name is Kathleen O'Hara, and I hail from the
ould country. Ah, though! it's lonely I'm likely to be, isn't it, deary?
You don't deny me the pleasure of your society when I tell you that in
all this vast crowd I stand solitary--solitary but for her; and, bedad! I'm
not certain that I take to her at all. Let me tuck my hand inside your
arm, sweetest."
A titter was heard from the surrounding girls. Ruth turned very red,
then she looked into Kathleen's eyes.
"You mean kindly," she said, "but perhaps you had better not. You, too,
are a stranger."
"Are you a stranger?" asked Kathleen. "Then that clinches the matter.
Ah, yes; it's lonely I am. I have come from my dear mountain home to
be civilised; but civilisation will never suit Kathleen O'Hara. She isn't
meant to have it. She's meant to dance on the tops of the mountains,
and to gather flowers in the bogs. She's made to dance and joke and
laugh, and to have a gay time. Ah! my people at home made a fine
mistake when they sent me to be civilised. But I like you, honey. I like
the shape of your face, and the way you are made, and the wonderful
look in your eyes when you glance round at me. It is you and me will
be the finest of friends, sha'n't we?"
Before Ruth could reply the girls had entered the great hall, which
presently became quite full.
"Don't let go of me, darling, for the life of you. It's lost I'd be in a place
of this sort. Let me clutch on to you until they put me into the lowest
place in the school."
"But why so?" asked Ruth, glancing at her tall companion in some
astonishment. "Don't you know anything?"
"I? Never a bit, darling. I don't suppose they'll keep me here. I have no

learning, and I never want to have any, and what's more--"
"Hush, girls! No talking," called the indignant voice of a form-room
mistress.
Kathleen's