nted the education I had
so hungered for and missed. She proposed a year in a convent to be
trained in ladylike ways. I had a longing to know what real girls were
like; I wanted to go to some nice quiet school and have that training
before I went out in the world. I was afraid of society women, and I did
not want to be married out of hand.

"There was a Mrs. Howard who came to stay at the summer home of Mrs.
Davis. She was not so full of pleasure as some of the ladies, and once
when they were all out on the golf links we had a walk and a talk, and
she thought my desire to go to some small quiet school a very good one.
She had a niece educated here and admired her training very much. She
wrote for me and forwarded me the answer, and then I wrote, and this is
the result. Mrs. Aldred is kindness itself, and agreed that private
lessons would be best until I could begin to compete with other girls.
What I have gathered is such desultory knowledge, and I'm like a child
in some things. Oh, can't you see that? And I _am_ afraid of being
laughed at.

"You all seem so bright, so ready with your talk, you know so much that
I envy you. And if I am going to be a rich woman I want to know and to
do some of the best things. I don't believe I could be satisfied with
buying gowns and going to parties. There, it is a long story, and it is
odd to tell it to you, only there is such a look in your eyes at times
that it seemed to me you would understand and _not_ laugh or hold me up
to ridicule."

There was an almost breathless intensity in the face, a half fear as
well, but the telling of her sad story had roused her from her ordinary
apathy.

"I certainly should not ridicule you," Helen began decisively. "Why, I
think it is very brave of you to want to be educated when you could lead
a life of ease and pleasure. And I am beginning to suspect that a love
of knowledge is _not_ universal, but I like it myself. There is so
much in the world that I wonder women do not keep going on as some of
the men do. Only then, I suppose, they wouldn't marry. And you would
have to be quite rich to do it."

CHAPTER XIII

A LITTLE SEED SOWN

The two girls rocked slowly back and forth, stealing side-wise glances
at each other. Helen was very glad there was nothing derogatory in the
story. She seemed to understand the sort of man grandfather Craven was;
there were two or three of them about Hope, if they had no iron mines in
prospect. They did