"Excuse me, while I go up and explain to Mrs. Van Dorn. Oh, I have so much to say, too. So many things have happened to me." She was off like a flash, but he noted the grace of her movement; the air that showed she had capabilities beyond the usual untrained country girl. Would she have to be wasted on a second or third rate life? "I suppose you have done nothing with the papers I gave you," he began, when she returned. "I have heard of your driving around, and your dissipation." "Oh, but I have," she replied eagerly. Then she gave a bright infectious laugh. "You can't think--why it seems now as if I had been at school all summer. I have learned so many new things about the world and the people in it. I have read books and papers, and found out about the places where you have been. Mrs. Van Dorn has been--well, nearly all over the world, I believe, and she has met musicians and artists, and people who write books and poems, and has seen kings and queens----" "Then you haven't spent all the time reading novels? I was afraid you had. But your aunt--have you any idea of keeping on at school?" "They do not want me to," she answered gravely. "But Mrs. Dayton thinks they have no real right to decide for me, if I can do anything for myself. And why isn't it just as good and honorable for a girl to work for her education when she is hungry for the knowledges in the world, as for a boy! And if I _can_ do anything, don't you think they ought to consent?" "Well! well! well!" his exclamation points were in full evidence. He studied her brave eager face, it had in it certain strong earnest lines, certain lines of prettiness, too. All before her was an unknown country. No one could truly map out another's life, and be sure of the making, but he knew he should not mar it as the Mulfords might in their ignorance of her desires and capabilities. He resolved to take a decisive hand in it. "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 Hervé 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.