Kitty wrote to her father a letter full of eagerness and promises, and longings for the holidays, which made Dr.Trenire smile and sigh as he laid it away in his pocket-book, and made the house seem emptier and less itself even than it had done before.

In with her father's letter Kitty put one for Betty.

It was the first that young person had ever received, and it so filled her with a sense of importance that Anna and Tony said she was almost unbearable all the rest of the day.

How many times she read it over no one could have counted, but at every opportune and inopportune moment it was drawn out of her pocket, until at last it grew quite frayed at the edges, and, though scarcely a word it contained was confided to the others, Betty read it again and again with compressed lips and frowning brows, and an air of seriousness that nearly drove them frantic.
There was not much in it either to give rise to all this.
"Dearest Betty," wrote Kitty, "I have so much I want to say that I don't know what to say first.

I am very lonely, but one day and night are over, and one of the girls is very nice, I think.