It was not a good beginning, while the end was what might have been expected.

A young man from her neighbourhood spoke to her and the girls seeing, asked him about Kate, learning thereby that her father was worth more money than all of theirs put together.

Some of them had accepted the explanation that Kate was "bewildered" and had acted hastily; but when the young man finished Bates history, they merely thought her mean, and left her severely to herself, so her only recourse was to study so diligently, and recite so perfectly that none of them could equal her, and this she did.
In acute discomfort and with a sore heart, Kate passed her first six weeks away from home.

She wrote to each man on the list of school directors she had taken from Nancy Ellen's desk.

Some answered that they had their teachers already engaged, others made no reply.