mean by
their professions."

She was unprepared for what followed. Gracie Dennis, graceful, queenly
in her dignity, and haughty, even in her mirth, said, suddenly, in a
voice which quivered with gladness:

"Oh, I am so glad; _so_ glad! Oh, Miss Wilbur, I don't know how to be
thankful enough!" And then she raised her head suddenly, and her glowing
lips just touched Marion's cheek.

It was so unusual for Marion to be kissed. Her friends at Chautauqua had
been those who rarely indulged in that sort of caress--never, at least,
with her. And, while, as I told you, many of them liked, and all of them
respected her, it was yet an unheard of thing for the scholars to caress
Miss Wilbur. And then, too, Gracie Dennis was by no means lavish of her
kisses. This made the token seem so much more. It felt almost like a
benediction.

Gracie's next words were humbling to her:

"Miss Wilbur, will you forgive me? I didn't mean to annoy you. I don't
know what has been the matter with me."

But, long before this, the last laggard had finished her line, and was
staring in undisguised astonishment at the scene enacted on the
platform.

Marion rallied her excited thoughts. "Dear child," she said, "we have
each something to forgive. I think I have been too severe with you. We
will try to help each other to-morrow."

Then she gave the next sentence as calmly as usual. But she went home
that night, through the rain, with a quick step and with joy in her
heart. It was not _all_ profession. It meant something to those girls;
to Grace Dennis it meant everything. It was enough to make her forget
her passion, and her wounded pride, and to make her face actually
radiant with joy.

It should mean more to _her_. She had failed that day. She had not been,
in any sense, what she meant to be; what she ought to have been. But
there was a blessed verse: "Who forgiveth _all_ thine iniquities."

What a salvation! Able to forgive transgression, to cover sin, to
remember it no more. It all seemed very natural to her to-night; very
like an infinite Saviour; one infinitely loving.

She began to realize that even poor _human_ love could cover a multitude
of sins. How easy it seemed to her that it would be to overlook the
mistakes and shortcomings of Gracie Dennis, after this!

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER IV.

COL. BAKER'S SABBATH EVENING.

AMONG Marion Wilbur's gloomy thoughts during that trying Monday were
these: "Some li