Evadne's room one glorious winter's morning and threw
herself on the lounge beside her cousin with a sigh.

"I don't see how you do it!" she exclaimed.

"Do what?" asked Evadne.

"Why, keep so pleasant with Isabelle. She works me up to the last pitch
of endurance, until I feel sometimes as if I should go wild. It is no
use saying anything, Mamma always takes her side, you know, but she does
aggravate me so! Even her movements irritate me,--just the way she
shakes her head and curls her lip,--she is so self-satisfied. She thinks
no one else knows anything. It must be a puzzle to her how the world
ever got along before she came into it, and what it will do when she
leaves it is a mystery!"

"She is good discipline."

Marion gave her an impetuous hug. "You dear Evadne! I believe you take
us all as that! But I don't think the rest of us can be quite as trying
as Isabelle. She does seem to delight in saying such horrid things. She
was abominably rude to you this morning at breakfast and yet you were
just as polite as ever. I couldn't have done it. I should have sulked
for a week. I know you feel it, for I see your lips quiver--you are as
susceptible to a rude touch as a sensitive plant--but it is beautiful to
be able to keep sweet outside."

"You mean to be _kept_, Marion," said Evadne softly, "by the power of
God. I have no strength of my own."

Marion sighed dismally. "Oh, dear! I don't know what I mean, except that
I'm a failure. It is no wonder Louis thinks Christianity is a humbug,
though he must confess there is something in it when he looks at you.
You are so different, Evadne! I should think Isabelle would be ashamed
of herself, for I believe half the time she says things on purpose to
provoke you. She doesn't seem to get much comfort out of it any way. I
never saw such a discontented mortal. Don't you think it is wicked for
people to grumble the way she does, Evadne? It is growing on her, too.
She finds fault with everything. Even the snow came in for a share of
her disapprobation this morning, because it would spoil the skating, as
if the Lord had no other plans to further than just to give her an
afternoon's amusement! She is _so_ self-centered!"

Evadne looked out at the street where the fresh fallen snow had spread
a dazzling carpet of virgin white. "He is going to let me give an
afternoon's amusement to Gretchen and little Hans," she said. "Uncle
Lawrence has promised me the sleigh and I am going to t