ighteousness which she taught and upheld and practised. And this
attitude was wholly good for girls born in a century when it was the
fashion to sneer at hero-worship and to scoff at authority when the word
obedience in the Marriage Service was accused of redundancy, and the
custom of speaking evil of dignities was mistaken for self-respect.

As for Felicia Herbert, she became for a time the very mainspring of
Elisabeth's life. She was a beautiful girl, with fair hair and clear-cut
features; and Elisabeth adored her with the adoration that is freely
given, as a rule, to the girl who has beauty by the girl who has not.
She was, moreover, gifted with a sweet and calm placidity, which was
very restful to Elisabeth's volatile spirit; and the latter consequently
greeted her with that passionate and thrilling friendship which is so
satisfying to the immature female soul, but which is never again
experienced by the woman who has once been taught by a man the nature of
real love. Felicia was much more religious than Elisabeth, and much more
prone to take serious views of life. The training of Fox How made for
seriousness, and in that respect Felicia entered into the spirit of the
place more profoundly than Elisabeth was capable of doing; for Elisabeth
was always tender rather than serious, and broad rather than deep.

"I shall never go to balls when I leave school," said Felicia to her
friend one day of their last term at Fox How, as the two were sitting in
the arbour at the end of the long walk. "I don't think it is right to go
to balls."

"Why not? There can be no harm in enjoying oneself, and I don't believe
that God ever thinks there is."

"Not in enjoying oneself in a certain way; but the line between
religious people and worldly people ought to be clearly marked. I think
that dancing is a regular worldly amusement, and that good people should
openly show their disapproval of it by not joining in it."

"But God wants us to enjoy ourselves," Elisabeth persisted. "And He
wouldn't really love us if He didn't."

"God wants us to do what is right, and it doesn't matter whether we
enjoy ourselves or not."

"But it does; it matters awfully. We can't really be good unless we are
happy."

Felicia shook her head. "We can't really be happy unless we are good;
and if we are good we shall 'love not the world,' but shall stand apart
from it."

"But I must love the world; I can't help loving the world, it is so
grand and beaut