have been to Marion. Own it all at once, quickly,
without giving the tempter even a chance to tempt you! Don't you know,
don't you see, how much your future depends upon it?

Susan dropped her head upon her chest, the color surging into her
face, and the tears dropping from her eyes; but she did not speak a
word.

In the silence of the room you could have heard a pin drop.

Miss Ashton was answered. When she spoke there was tenderness and deep
feeling in her voice.

"Will you tell me the truth, Susan?" she said. But Susan did not
answer; she only burst into a fit of hysterical sobbing, and after
waiting a few moments in vain for it to subside, Miss Ashton added,
"You had better go to your room now. I hope you will come soon to me,
and tell me the whole truth."

Susan rose slowly, lifting her swollen and discolored face up to Miss
Ashton with an entreating look the kind principal found it hard to
resist; but she did. She held the door open for Susan to pass out, and
watched her go down the corridor with a troubled heart.

CHAPTER XXXV.

FAREWELL WORDS.

There was little difficulty when the time came in deciding the four
essays to be chosen. Kate Underwood's was in most respects the best,
and would take the place usually filled by the valedictory. Dorothy
Ottley's was the next strongest, and by far the most thoughtful. To no
one's surprise as much as to her own, Gladys Philbrick's was the most
brilliant, and Edna Grant's, the best scholar in English literature,
the most scholarly.

So the important question was settled a week before commencement, and
the young ladies were given their choice, either to read their pieces
or to speak them.

Greatly to the surprise of the teachers they all chose to speak them,
and the elocution teacher was at once put to drilling them for the
occasion.

The choice was pleasantly accepted by the school. Every one of the
four were favorites, and whatever disappointment the rejected
essayists felt, they kept wisely to themselves.

Susan Downer's essay on "Truth" was a miserable failure, and a
disgraced future was the only one she could see opening before her.

She could not summon courage to make a confession to Miss Ashton; she
decided, after hours and hours of troubled and vexatious thought, to
be silent, trusting to her speedy removal from the school to silence
all further questionings.

Such a busy week as this was now at the academy! The mail brought
every day pi