xpected that Joyce or Phyllis or Judith, or even Frances, would be held
up to them as models, but not Florence.

"Run down to the common room, Nancy. You're nearest the door; and bring
me Lamb's 'Life and Letters,' a big red book lying on my table." And
then, turning to the class, "Now, never mind about Jessica, though I
hope you see the difference between your way of approach and
Florence's, but remember this, it's far, far easier to criticize, to
judge, and to condemn, than it is to sympathize and to understand; it's
the little people of the world who do the judging; it's the big people
who do the understanding.

"Thank you, Nancy. Now listen to the words of a wise woman, Mary Lamb.
What do you know about Mary Lamb, Frances? Yes, she wrote many of the
'Tales from Shakespeare,' and she lived with her brother Charles and was
his greatest friend, and the friend of his friends. She is writing to a
friend of hers who has been confessing to actions which Mary might just
as easily have condemned as you condemned Jessica's. But this is what
she writes:

You will smile when I tell you I think myself
the only woman in the world who could live with
a brother's wife and make a real friend of
her--partly from a knack I know I have of
looking into people's real characters and never
expecting them to act out of it. Never
expecting another to do as I would in the same
case. I do not expect you or want you to be
otherwise than you are. I love you for the good
that is in you.

"There's wisdom," concluded Miss Marlowe, "and next time you find
yourselves saying, '_I_ wouldn't have been so mean or horrid or
selfish,' just ask yourself, how do you know you wouldn't, and what has
that got to do with it, and what do you know about it, anyway? Are you
showing sympathetic insight or merely conceit? You'll meet plenty of
Jessicas who are easier to condemn than to understand. Don't lose your
friends by a lack of loving understanding. Be grateful for them; they
are your most precious possessions. Love them for the best that is in
them.

"There, that's a longer sermon than usual. Take your pens now and write
that sentence from Mary Lamb's letter at the bottom of your essay, and
after I have dictated it make your corrections and jot down the new
things about Jessica that you haven't noted before."

Five A heaved a sigh of relief. Miss Marlowe was through with t