Instead of going to the other girls and frankly confessing that
she could not afford the prices they were paying, she watched her
chance, picked up her telescope and hurried down the street,
walking swiftly until she was out of sight of the house. Then she
began inquiring her way to Butler Street and after a long, hot
walk, found the place. The rooms and board were very poor, but
Kate felt that she could endure whatever Nancy Ellen had, so she
unpacked, and went to the Normal School to register and learn what
she would need. On coming from the building she saw that she
would be forced to pass close by the group of girls she had
deserted and this was made doubly difficult because she could see
that they were talking about her. Then she understood how foolish
she had been and as she was struggling to summon courage to
explain to them she caught these words plainly: "Who is going to ask her for it?"
"I am," said the girl who had sat beside Kate on the train. "I
don't propose to pay it myself!"
Then she came directly to Kate and said briefly: "Fifty cents,
please!"
"For what?" stammered Kate.
"Your luggage. You changed your boarding place in such a hurry
you forgot to settle, and as I made the arrangement, I had to pay
it."
"Do please excuse me," said Kate. "I was so bewildered, I
forgot."
"Certainly!" said the girl and Kate dropped the money into the
extended hand and hurried past, her face scorched red with shame,
for one of them had said: "That's a good one! I wouldn't have
thought it of her."
Kate went back to her hot, stuffy room and tried to study, but she
succeeded only in being miserable, for she realized that she had
lost her second chance to have either companions or friends, by
not saying the few words of explanation that would have righted
her in the opinion of those she would meet each day for six weeks.
It was not a good beginning, while the end was what might have
been expected. A young man from her neighbourhood spoke to her
and the girls seeing, asked him about Kate, learning thereby that
her father was worth more money than all of theirs put together.
Some of them had accepted the explanation that Kate was
"bewildered" and had acted hastily; but when the young man
finished Bates history, they merely thought her mean, and left her
severely to herself, so her only recourse was to study so
diligently, and recite so perfectly that none of them could equal
her, and this she did.
In acute discomfort and with a sore heart, Kate passed her first
six weeks away from home. She wrote to each man on the list of
school directors she had taken from Nancy Ellen's desk. Some
answered that they had their teachers already engaged, others made
no reply. One bright spot was the receipt of a letter from Nancy
Ellen saying she was sending her best dress, to be very careful of
it, and if Kate would let her know the day she would be home she
would meet her at the station. Kate sent her thanks, wore the
dress to two lectures, and wrote the letter telling when she would
return.