id that
to me, Gertrude Merryweather, I would--"

"But no one else would say it to you!" said Gertrude. "Because no one
else--except Miss Russell--cares as much as I do--Fluffy and I. We love
you too much, Grace, to flatter you and follow you, as most of them do.
I tell you, and you may take it as simple truth, for it is nothing else,
that which you think strength is simply weakness,--lamentable weakness.
And as for your influence on the other girls--just listen a moment!"

Taking up a little book from the table, she opened it--indeed it seemed
to open of its own accord at the place--and read:

"'Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown
Of thee from the hill-top looking down;
The heifer that lows in the upland farm,
Far-heard, lows not thine ear to charm;
The sexton, tolling his bell at noon,
Deems not that great Napoleon
Stops his horse, and lists with delight,
Whilst his files sweep round yon Alpine height;
Nor knowest thou what argument
Thy life to thy neighbour's creed hath lent.
All are needed by each one;
Nothing is fair or good alone.'"

There was silence when she finished reading. Then--"What is that?" asked
Grace, stretching out her hand. "Give it to me!"

"Emerson. Take him home with you, and let him talk to you; he speaks
well."

Grace took the book, looked it over, and dropped it into her pocket. For
a moment she leaned her head against Gertrude's arm, and a sigh broke
from her involuntarily. Then, all in a moment, a change came. Her face
lightened in an indescribable way, and her eyebrows lifted with a look
that both girls knew well.

"And have you heard the news?" she said. "There is a rumour that my
Puggy leaves me at the end of the term. How to exist, I ask you, without
her? Othello's occupation would be gone indeed."

"No! is it true? Why is she going? What does it mean?"

Grace shrugged her shoulders with an elfish gesture.

"How should I know? It appears she sees ghosts. A ghost must be hard up,
one would think, to visit my Puggy; there ought to be an asylum for
impoverished spectres. Would you subscribe for it, Owls? Good-bye! I
must go. You mean well, and I don't bear malice. Oh! by the by,--" she
came back for an instant, and stood balancing herself on one foot and
looking round the edge of the door, and she certainly looked hardly
human,--"I forgot the thing I came fo