ely to it. It was God who had made the world so full of beauty, it
must be God who had put these noble and lovely desires in anyone's soul,
so she went quite past Mrs. Van Dorn.

There were sweet and merry voices the next morning, but Helen had been
up an hour or more looking over some poems in a choice selection.
Someone tapped at her door, and she opened it. Miss Mays stood there
smiling.

"I suppose you feel a little queer, like the traditional cat in a
strange garret. Come down with us."

"To-day is a kind of lawless, irresponsible time. I dote on it. We had
lots of fun last year because we came on Friday. It was Daisy Bell's
first year, too. You learn to-day what the rules are, but you don't have
to keep them. It's a grace day when you are not forced to get your
accounts straight."

Helen turned and wished her mates goodmorning, and thought within
herself that it was a very pretty thing to say, since the morning was so
good. Yet she had a curious feeling within her, as if she was here
under some kind of false pretense. She was so utterly honest she would
have enjoyed explaining her exact situation, that she was here on the
bounty of a friend, and not as these other girls who came from
delightful homes, and had fathers to care for them.

Mrs. Aldred summoned Helen to her room. Occasionally this was not a
pleasant call to make, but this morning it had no such signification.

All new pupils underwent this examination. Where she had been trained,
what she had studied, and what her aims were, if she had any.

Mrs. Van Dorn had explained pretty clearly, and she had also said,
"Don't spoil a very nice, honest girl by setting her up too high."

"What I would like to do most of all?" and Helen's eyes lighted with
enthusiasm. "I think it would be to teach, because then you always go on
learning. There are some things that girls and women do that seem to
make you stop off short, turn you into another channel entirely," and
she thought of the shoe factory and how narrowly she had escaped that.

Mrs. Van Dorn had been quite as non-commital with her _protegee_ then,
or had no real plans for her.

"Now let me hear what you have studied."

Helen went over the list and told of her High School examination and how
she had passed. There was a girlish pride in it, of course, but no undue
elation. Mrs. Aldred was much pleased with the absence of
self-consciousness, the real delight in knowledge.

"You are very well grounde