"How perfectly lovely of Miss Wild!" said Katherine, earnestly.
"And you, too, Jennie, deserve great credit for your own efforts
to get a good education. But--"
"But what?"
"I wonder if I may say it?" mused Katherine, doubtfully.
Jennie slipped her hand within Katherine's arm and gave it a fond
little hug.
"Miss Minturn, I've loved you ever since the day you came to
Hilton. You are a dear--you have been just as kind as you could be
to me, and you may say anything you like," she impulsively
returned.
"Thank you; that is giving me a good deal of license," was the
laughing response; "but what I wanted to say was--make the getting
of your education, instead of fun, your chief object, and don't
spoil your record by breaking rules."
"As I have to-day, for instance?" supplemented Jennie, flushing.
"Yes, to-day, and--on some other occasions that I could mention."
The girl gave vent to a hearty, rollicking laugh.
"You manage to see considerable with those innocent eyes of
yours," she said, after a moment. "But I don't get very much fun
after all. With all my work and my studies there is precious
little time left me for recreation, and, sometimes, I get so full
I just have to kick over the traces. But--surely you don't think I
could get any harm from your service to-day," she concluded,
demurely.
"That is not the point, Miss Mischief, and you know it. Of course,
there was nothing but good in the service for you, or anyone. But
you didn't find anything in it--did you?--to countenance
disobedience?"
"No," said Jennie, seriously; "and I suppose, too, that if any of
the teachers or girls had seen me come away from the hall with you
it might have given the impression that you had countenanced my
going. But, Miss Minturn, I have wanted to get at the secret of--
of your dearness, ever since you came here. But I promise you,
though, I will not put you in jeopardy again by running away to
your church."
Katherine nodded her approval at this assurance, then changed the
subject, and they chatted pleasantly until they reached the
seminary.
After dinner Katherine repaired, as she had been requested, to
Miss Reynolds' room. She found her teacher sitting at her desk,
her Bible and "Science and Health" open before her.
"You see, I cannot let the great subject alone," she said,
welcoming the girl with a smile and glancing at her books. "Now
that I have begun to get a glimpse of the truth, it is like a
fountain of pure, cold water to a man perishing from thirst--I
cannot get enough of it; I just want to immerse myself in it. And,
see here," she added, touching a letter lying beside the books, "I
have written to the publishing house in Boston for several of Mrs.
Eddy's works. I want them for my very own."
"You are surely making progress," Katherine returned, with shining
eyes.
She was very happy, for this eager, radiant woman seemed an
entirely different being from the helpless sufferer to whom she
had been called less than forty-eight hours previous.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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