“Oh, what a grand thing tea is!  I love it,” she exclaimed with a sigh of pleasure.  It was said so girlishly and impulsively that Kitty laughed as she agreed.

“Pamela Peters has come,” said Miss Hammond a moment later, “and I have asked her to tea too.”

Kitty felt just a little feeling of disappointment.  She did not want to meet any more strangers then; she was tired and shy, and she knew that her eyes were still swelled.  She wanted, too, to have Miss Hammond to herself—­she was so sympathetic and understanding, and so bright and interesting.  Kitty had never before met any one like her, and was charmed.

“I will not say I want you two to be friends, or that I think you will like each other, for I know that that is the surest way to make you determine you never could, would, or should be.  But I do think you will like Pamela, and I thought it would be nice for you to get to know one of your future companions a little before meeting them all together.”

Kitty could not but agree.  One stranger now, with Miss Hammond to break the ice, was infinitely preferable to four by-and-by, when she would be alone.  And then came a knock at the door, and Pamela Peters walked in.

Pamela was a taller and altogether larger girl than Kitty.  She looked rather older too.  Perhaps a certain air of self-possession gave one that impression.  Kitty gazed at her first with interest and then with wonder, for she looked as smiling and happy as though she had just reached home for the holidays, instead of returning to school for the term.  She had to check her surprise while Miss Hammond introduced them and made room for Pamela at the table, but it soon returned again with double force.

“I am very glad to see you,” said Pamela heartily, turning to Kitty again.  “Isn’t it jolly to be back?”

“Jolly!—­what!—­isn’t it what?” stammered Kitty, at a loss to understand her.

Miss Hammond laughed.  “Kitty Trenire thinks it anything but jolly; her heart is miles away from here; but I hope that in time she will find something here to care for too.”  And even Kitty actually felt that in time perhaps she might.  In that cosy little room, and with those two new friends, it did not seem so absolutely impossible; but when Kitty’s thoughts flew to Miss Pidsley, the bare, unhomelike room downstairs, and the dreary road outside, her mind began to waver, and she felt anything but hopeful.

“I am so glad to be back,” sighed Pamela, with genuine pleasure.  She was not exaggerating in the least—­even Kitty could see that.  “But,” she added, “if you have a nice home and people to leave, it must be awfully hard.  I expect it is what I feel at the end of term when I have to leave here.”

“Oh, it is much worse than that; it must be,” gasped Kitty, her astonishment overcoming her shyness.  “But you are laughing.  You really love going home, of course?”