.

"You don't want to go back to the Center?" He knew what her answer would
be, but he desired to see the varying expressions of her face.

"No, I don't. Oh, I can't! I should be fighting with something within me
all the time, and planning how to get out of it all. I want to learn. I
want to teach, too. I want to see some of the great things in the world,
some of the great people, and just live all through, every part of me,
if you can understand."

How her face changed with every new thought.

"Really you have been making strides. Helen, you are not going to be
satisfied with a holiday to see Belle Aurore. You are going to ask
greater things."

"And Herve Riel ought to have been given greater things when he had
saved the ships for his country. Am I foolish to aim at the greater
things?"

Her eyes were sparkling, and a brilliant color suffused her face, while
the scarlet lips were quivering with emotion and resolve.

"I should like you to reach them. Have you any plans?" His interest was
thoroughly awakened.

"Mrs. Dayton has been so kind, a real friend. I don't mean that Aunt
Jane and Uncle Jason are not real friends. They have been very good to
care for me since father died. Isn't it in not understanding just what
satisfies you down in your soul. Jenny is very happy working in the
factory. I should just hate it. And, oh, I think it would be dreadful
for her to sit and read to Mrs. Van Dorn," laughing with a gay ripple.
"We have talked, but not settled upon anything definite. Mrs. Dayton
thinks she might find someone who would give me my board for what I
could do nights and mornings and Saturdays, and she would help me out
with clothes, for I know Aunt Jane would be very angry if I went against
her wishes. And Mrs. Dayton wouldn't need me. She has Joanna, you know.
Then, too, she goes away in the autumn----"

"Well, I must say you have gone pretty far along in plans. I felt quite
discouraged last night, though I imagine I might have talked Uncle Jason
into doing something for you. But your aunt thinks three years spent in
learning to teach, and not being able to earn a dollar for yourself, is
an awful waste of time. As if that was all there was to it!"
disdainfully. "Helen, I could find it in my heart to wish you were my
sister, then I could come to the rescue."

"Oh!" There was a world of exquisite delight in the tone that touched
him to the very soul. "If I were! Why can't some people be in the places
th