"You don't feel very well to-night, do you, dear? I guess you are over-tired, though you don't know it. Or is there anything else the matter with you, Miss Fidelia?" "If there is I don't know, or at least I can't talk about it." She rose and approached Miss Abby as she spoke, conscious that her words might sound strange; but turned to the window again, and stood looking out into the gloom, and there was silence for a time. Then Miss Abby said gently,-- "But you know just where to carry your trouble, dear. Whatever it may be, it isn't beyond help, is it? How can it be to a Christian?" Fidelia made no answer to this. "Have you been living up to your privileges over there in the seminary, dear? I have always heard that it was a good place in which to grow in knowledge and in grace. You haven't been so much taken up with your books as to neglect better things, have you? Fidelia, are you a Christian?" There was a moment's silence before Fidelia answered. "I once thought I was a Christian. Now I do not know--I am not sure." "And so you got kind of down and discouraged, and no wonder, dear." Fidelia had to resist a strong impulse to rush away, when Miss Abby rose and came to the window. "But you needn't be discouraged. If you are not sure of your hope, you must just let it go, and come again to Him who is our only hope, and it will be all right with you. If you have fallen back, it must be because you have failed to ask His help, or your heart has been after other things. But you haven't done anything, or neglected anything that He will not be glad to forgive if you'll tell Him of it, dear. You needn't be a mite discouraged. I'd be glad to help you if I could," said Miss Abby, laying her hand gently on that of the girl. "I'm an old woman now, and I've seen a good many things in my time, and I have suffered some, too, but not any more than I'm glad to look back upon now. Anyhow, it never pays to get discouraged." "Discouraged!" thought Fidelia. "Why, I think I am wrong all through. I am not sure that even Eunice can set me right now." Aloud she said--"No; it does no good to be discouraged." Then they heard the south gate open, and knew that the young people had returned; and, before Fidelia had time to escape, Nellie was calling her name on the stairs, and there was no time for more. Of course they went downstairs together, and heard all about the visit, and whom they had seen, and what they had said and heard and done, and how sorry every one was that Miss Marsh had not gone with them. And no one would have suspected that Miss Marsh was "discouraged," or even tired, so interested was she in it all. Indeed, she seemed to have more to say than usual, and even became boastful, as Nellie declared, when allusion was made to the preparations for next day's expedition to the Summit.