class. Helen felt honored
by her preference. If she had been less lovable it might have savored of
patronage and that Helen would have declined. It sometimes seemed as if
she was the stronger, the leading spirit, as in some respects Daisy
yielded unhesitatingly to her.

It was Helen's first girl friendship, and it possessed something of the
marvel to her that Mrs. Dayton's kindliness had, since neither were in
anywise compelled to take her up. But why had she ever promised to love
Daisy only?

And did she really _love_ Juliet Craven? This night was the first time
Miss Craven had ever used her Christian name. She would hardly dream of
being intimate with any of the young ladies in the senior class, though
several of them were very cordial and she had been asked to sing for
them and with them. Helen made a funny distinction about this, it was
due to her voice and not her personality. She was too wholesome to feel
aggrieved about such a thing and she had very little vanity. Being
brought up by Aunt Jane would have taken the vanity out of any girl.

But there did not seem so much difference between her age and Miss
Craven's as the years confessed. Helen knew a great deal more about the
real world. She was likely to make a good logician. Her short experience
at Mrs. Dayton's had given her the key to the larger world. Those women
with their different qualities were reproduced here in the school, here
in Westchester, and were no doubt repeated elsewhere. But Miss Craven
knew nothing and was afraid to judge, to have decided opinions, to
compare one with another. Her solitary life had taken her into the very
heart of nature, of a certain kind of dreaming, and longing for
knowledge, but that was widely different from the every day knowledge of
general living. Helen had not been lonely, her mind was too active, and
there had always been people about her. She wanted her knowledge to
enable her to go out in the world and conquer it; girls of fourteen and
older do have such dreams. Miss Craven wanted hers largely for herself
alone.

Helen had pitied her, been very sympathetic, assisted her over rough
places, and really advised. Was not this some of the work preached about
on Sunday in the churches, helping the weaker brethren? She had hardly
thought of religion up to this period of her life as having any duties
in a practical sense, but Mrs. Aldred gave the school that tone, and
Miss Grace was interested in the broader Christian