cabulary,
Mrs. Marsh is a very deserving woman, who by her own unaided efforts has
risen to the position she now occupies. How often shall I be obliged to
impress upon you that it is the spirit, not the letter, that is of
importance? As secretary of the Society for the Practice of Moderation,
Mrs. Marsh can afford to disregard the ill-natured sneers of those who
may have enjoyed greater advantages in early life than she. It is not by
wholesale abuse of others, Virginia, that you will persuade me of your
innocence. On your own showing, you have written to Mr. Spence, and
misconstrued Mr. Barr's poetic impetuosity as an attempt to flirt with
you. I do not desire to discuss the matter further. We shall soon know
whether you are sincere or not in your professions of study. As I have
told you before, your future is in your own hands; but first and
foremost you must rid yourself of this propensity to behave in a trivial
manner."

I felt that silence would be the best palliative for my wounds; and so
discouraged was I of being able to change Aunt Agnes's opinion, I
thought it a waste of breath at the moment even to mention Mrs. Marsh as
my authority for the statement that Miss Kingsley had a tender feeling
for Mr. Spence.

V.

A year passed without special incident, and yet certain things require
to be told so that the sequel may seem consistent. Contrary to Aunt
Agnes's insinuation, I proved sincere in my devotion to study. Mr.
Fleisch came regularly twice a week, and during the summer months
when I was away from home his instruction was continued by means of
correspondence. I found him, as Mr. Spence had predicted, an admirable
teacher. His work was everything to him, and he imbued me with his
ability to look at our relations as strictly impersonal. He might have
been a machine, so little was he susceptible to any mood of mine,--a
characteristic which I deemed more and more indispensable each day to a
proper understanding between pupil and master.

As a result of his teaching and my own industry, I acquired before many
months an intimate knowledge of the views shared by those who called
themselves Moderationists, and moreover without the slightest diminution
of my enthusiasm. I was able to converse intelligently with the most
proficient of the school, and there was little of the system that failed
to commend itself to me as entitled to faith and support. I attended
meetings and lectures in advocacy of its theories, an