"Mr. Maclean said so," said Elma. "And who is Mr. Maclean?" asked Miss Annie. "Oh--Mr. Maclean--Mr. Maclean is just Mrs. Maclean’s nephew. But he knows Miss Dudgeon, and he looked a long time at Mabel and said she was prettier." "You must not think so much of looks, Elma," said Miss Annie reprovingly. "Mabel is highly gifted, that is of much more consequence." "Is it?" asked Elma. "Papa says so, though he won’t believe any of _us_ can be gifted. He thinks there’s a great deal for us to learn. It’s very de--demoralizing." "Demoralizing?" asked Miss Annie. "Yes, isn’t it demora-lizing I mean, Miss Annie?" Elma begged in a puzzled manner. Miss Annie daintily separated half a slice of seed cake from the formal pieces lying in the beautiful filigree cake basket. "I do not think it is ’demoralizing’ that you mean, dear. ’Demoralizing’ would infer that your father, by telling you there was a great deal to learn, kept you from learning anything at all, upset you completely as it were." Miss Annie was as exact as she could be on these occasions, when she took the place of the little bright red dictionary. This time her information seemed to please Elma immensely. Her eyes immediately shone brilliantly. "Oh, Miss Annie," she said, "it must be ’demoralizing’ after all. That’s just how I feel. Papa tells me, and I see the great big things to be done, and it doesn’t seem to be any use to try the little things. Like Mozart’s Rondos! They _are_ so silly, you know. And when you see people like Mr. Sturgis painting big e--e--elaborate pictures, I simply can’t draw at school at all." Miss Grace leant forward on her chair, pulling little short breaths as though not to lose, by breathing properly, one word of this. She considered it marvellous that this young thing should invariably be expressing the thoughts which had troubled her all her life, and never even been properly recognized by herself, far less given voice to. It enabled her on many occasions to see clearly at last, and to be able, by the light of her own lost opportunities, to give counsel to Elma. Miss Annie’s eyes only looked calmly amused. It was an amusement to which Elma never took exception, but to-day she wanted something more, to prevent the foolishness which she was afraid of experiencing whenever she made a speech of this nature. Miss Annie only toyed with a silver spoon, however, looking sweet and very kindly at Elma, and it was Miss Grace who finally spoke. She had recovered the shy equanimity with which she always filled in pauses for her sister. "You must not allow the fine work of others to paralyze your young activities," Miss Grace said gravely. "Mr. Sturgis was young himself once, and no doubt at school studied freehand drawing very diligently to be so great as he is now."