I can't understand it! You may, but I can't!" And saying these words she glanced at her sister, and seeing that Dolly sat silent, her head mournfully bowed, Kitty, instead of running out of the room as she had meant to do, sat down near the door, and hid her face in her handkerchief.

The silence lasted for two minutes: Dolly was thinking of herself.

That humiliation of which she was always conscious came back to her with a peculiar bitterness when her sister reminded her of it.

She had not looked for such cruelty in her sister, and she was angry with her.

But suddenly she heard the rustle of a skirt, and with it the sound of heart-rending, smothered sobbing, and felt arms about her neck.