Girls New and Old

IT was an autumn evening when Molly Lavender first arrived at Redgarth. This large school for girls was situated in a certain well-known district in the north of England. It adj...

IT seemed to Molly that she had only just dropped off to sleep when she was awakened by a booming, crashing sound, which seemed to get upon her head and half crush her. She rubb...

MOLLY was destined all her life long to remember the lecture which the principal of Redgarth delivered to her class that morning. The simplicity of the words, the noble thought...

"MY dear Molly," wrote her father, "when this reaches you, you will have begun your new life us a student at Redgarth. From what your grandmother tells me, I am sure the place w...

FOUR boys were seated round the break fast table. They ranged in age from fourteen to ten. One glance at their faces was sufficient to show that they belonged to the average hea...

WHEN Cecil found herself outside the gates of Miss Pinchin's school, she felt exactly like someone on whom the gates of Paradise had been closed. She had had a moment of strong...

"Oh, I say, how red your cheeks are!" said Charlie. "London must be a jolly healthy place; you were as white as a sheet when you went there, and now you've come back with your e...

"Stuffy," he muttered, sniffing as he spoke. "Let in plenty of air--nothing like air. Now, then, for my supper. Digestion will be all wrong to-night. Oh, good Heavens! what sin...

"No less a person," continued Cecil, "than your eccentric master, Mr. Danvers. He came in here, and stood bolt upright on that spot on the carpet, and looked as fierce as ever h...

"Well, of course, it may be exaggerated," replied Hester Temple; "and I, for my part, have no opinion at all of that mean little Matilda Matthews; still my feeling is, that ther...

A NIGHT'S sleep refreshed Kate, and she awoke the next morning in a much better temper with herself and the rest of the world. She now resolved not to be too rude to Molly, to c...

AFTER morning lectures on the first day of Cecil Ross' arrival at Redgarth, Kate O'Connor walked suddenly into the classroom where Matilda was putting up her books. As a rule, K...

"I want to find Kate," she said. "There is something dreadful the matter with Kate. She looked at me as if she thought I had said something. Oh, I must go to her; don't keep me."

The post card was lying on Cecil's plate when she came in to dinner on a certain Saturday afternoon. She hastily slipped it into her pocket. On Saturday afternoon there was, of...

"He is our detective," said Cecil, who was feeling so happy that she felt inclined to skip. "I put the case before him, mentioning no names. The wicked boy had the audacity to r...

THERE was consternation at St. Dorothy's: Kate O'Connor was ill; on her arrival home, she was almost unconscious. The doctor was hastily summoned; she was ordered to bed. Miss L...

THE night passed somehow. When Molly laid her tired head on her pillow she fell asleep. She awoke quickly, however, aroused by the sound of wheels on the gravel sweep outside th...

SIX weeks after the events mentioned in the last chapter, Kate O'Connor had very nearly recovered her normal state of health. She was still at St. Dorothy's, but the doctor had...

AT six o'clock Cecil found herself shown into Miss Forester's presence. Miss Forester was sitting just as Molly had left her: she had been thinking of Molly a good deal, and wit...

WHEN Molly told Cecil and Kate of Matilda's wish to accompany them to their seaside retreat, she had to encounter a storm, the intensity and bitterness of which rather surprised...

BREAKING-UP day came quickly round, and a merry party assembled at the railway station to go off to a small watering-place which went by the name of St. Jude's, and was within t...

THE first week in the country passed off without flaw or disturbance of any kind. Matilda was true to her promise; no one could catch her even attempting to eavesdrop; she inter...

IT is a trite saying that the powers of evil help those who are on their side. That night, by a misadventure, Cecil dropped the letter which Miss Forester had written to her. By...

THE next day the weather completely changed; the wind came from the southwest, the rain poured in torrents. The great cold had gone, but the fierce gale grew fiercer hour by hou...

WHEN Matilda parted from Kate she went up to her own room and stood by the window. She saw Kate leave the house and walk down the High Street. She noticed how she battled with t...

"You shan't leave me," she said, flinging her arms round Molly's knees. "I won't be left alone in this awful, terrible black storm. You know how wicked I am, Molly, and that I a...

MEANWHILE, Kate sat in the cave. She was all alone. In front of her raged the angry sea. She watched it at first from the entrance to the cave. Step by step, slowly but surely,...