“That is not the question, my dear.  I must insist on your treating me with respect.  It is not very easy to know the head-mistress; the girls know her up to a certain point, but personal friendship as between one woman and another cannot quite exist between a little girl and her head-mistress.  Yes, my dear, I hope you will love me, but in the sense of one who is set in authority over you.  That is my position, and I hope as long as I live to do my duty.  Now then, Kathleen, I will speak to you about the other matter which obliged me to send you a message last night.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” said Kathleen.  She looked down, so that the fun in her eyes could not be seen.

“I am sure from your face that you will not tell me a lie.”

“No,” said Kathleen, “I won’t tell you a lie.”

“I must, however, ask you one or two direct questions.  Is it true that you have encouraged certain girls in this school—­”

“Oh, I encourage all the girls, I know.  Poor things!  I—­”

“Don’t interrupt me, Kathleen; I have more to say.  Is it true that you encourage certain girls in this school”—­here Miss Ravenscroft put up her hand to check Kathleen’s words—­“to rebellion and insubordination?”

“I don’t know what insubordination is,” said Kathleen, shaking her head.

“Is it true,” continued the head-mistress, “that you have started a society which is called by some ridiculous name such as The Wild Irish Girls, and that you meet each week in a quarry a short distance from town; that you have got rules and badges; that you sing naughty songs, and altogether misbehave yourselves?  Is it true?”

Kathleen closed her lips firmly together.  Miss Ravenscroft looked full at her.  Kathleen then spoke slowly: 

“How did you hear that we do what you say we do?”

“I do not intend to name my informant.  The girls who have joined your society and are putting themselves under your influence are the sort of girls who in a school like this get most injured by such proceedings.  They have never been accustomed to self-restraint; they have not been guided to control themselves.  Of all the girls in the school whom you, Miss O’Hara, have tried to injure, you have selected the foundationers, who have only been to Board schools before they came here.  They look up to you as above them by birth; your very way, your words, can influence them.  Wrong from your lips will appear right, and right will appear wrong.  You yourself are an ignorant and unlearned child, and yet you attempt to guide others.  This society must be broken up immediately.  I will forgive you for the past if you promise me that you will never hold another meeting, that as long as you are at the school you will not encourage another girl to join this society.  You will have to give me your word, and that before you leave this room.  I do not require you to betray your companions; I do not even ask their names.  I but demand your promise, which I insist on.  The Irish Girls—­or the Wild Irish Girls, whatever you like to call them—­must cease to exist.”