wake, and was just thinking to herself, "Those girls won't get over
this very soon, I fancy," when all in one moment she heard Fletcher
exclaim, wrathfully, "Hang the flounces!" she saw a very glossy black
hat come skipping down the steps, felt a violent twitch backward, and,
to save herself from a fall, sat down on the lower step with most
undignified haste.

It was impossible for the bystanders to help laughing, for there was
Fletcher hopping wildly about, with one foot nicely caught in a muslin
loop, and there sat Kitty longing to run away and hide herself, yet
perfectly helpless, while every one tittered. Miss Jones and Miss
Smith laughed shrilly, and the despised little Freshman completed her
mortification, by a feeble joke about Kitty Heath's new man-trap. It
was only an instant, but it seemed an hour before Fletcher freed her,
and snatching up the dusty beaver, left her with a flushed countenance
and an abrupt bow.

If it hadn't been for Jack, Kitty would have burst into tears then and
there, so terrible was the sense of humiliation which oppressed her.
For his sake she controlled herself, and, bundling up her torn train,
set her teeth, stared straight before her, and let him lead her in
dead silence to a friend's room near by. There he locked the door, and
began to comfort her by making light of the little mishap. But Kitty
cried so tragically, that he was at his wit's end, till the ludicrous
side of the affair struck her, and she began to laugh hysterically.
With a vague idea that vigorous treatment was best for that feminine
ailment, Jack was about to empty the contents of an ice-pitcher over
her, when she arrested him, by exclaiming, incoherently,--

"Oh, don't!--it was so funny!--how can you laugh, you cruel boy?--I'm