noon
`` Well , even if he had ! '' said Miss Ailie . `` I could not , oh , I could not , '' replied Miss Kitty , flushing ; `` it -- it would not have been ladylike , Ailie . '' Thus forced to support themselves , the sisters decided to keep school genteelly , and , hearing that there was an opening in Thrums , they settled there , and Miss Kitty brushed her hair out now , and with a twist and a twirl ran it up her fingers into a net , whence by noon some of it had escaped through the little windows and was curls again . She and Miss Ailie were happy in Thrums , for time took the pain out of the affair of Mr. McLean , until it became not merely a romantic memory , but , with the letters he wrote to Miss Kitty and her answers , the great quiet pleasure of their lives . They were friendly letters only , but Miss Kitty wrote hers out in pencil first and read them to Miss Ailie , who had been taking notes for them . In the last weeks of Miss Kitty 's life Miss Ailie conceived a passionate unspoken hatred of Mr. McLean , and her intention was to write and tell him that he had killed her darling .