, during
which she pondered "the long, long thoughts of youth" and brought the
resulting problems to Mrs. Benjamin in the weekly letters, or in some of
their intimate talks.

"It is hard to believe that this is the freakish sullen child who came
to us less than a year ago," Mrs. Benjamin commented as the girls went
off to bed one night.

"No, it is wonderful. Thou hast made a new being of her."

"Thou hast done it as much as I have. It is evidently her first
experience of being understood and loved."

"What strange excrescences do grow up on our so-called civilization," he
said.

"Is thee calling the rich an excrescence?" she smiled.

"I know that they are just human beings like ourselves, but how do they
get things so awry? They put such a slight upon parenthood, with their
servant-made children."

She nodded, and he went on developing his thought.

"It is ominous when the basic relationships are so abused--marriage held
so lightly, children disdaining their own parents, as our Isabelle does.
Where is it leading us, Phoebe?"

"Dear knows--dear knows!" she sighed, shaking her head.

It was a well-worn theme with them. They had to ponder deeply these
tendencies, for it was their work to try to counteract these destructive
forces--to build up in the hearts of these servant-made children, as Mr.
Benjamin called them, a respect for God and man and the holy things that
grow out of their relationship.

* * * * *

The summer passed almost without event. The three girls, hard and brown
as Indians, were beginning to plan for the fall, when the others would
return.

It was in early September that the blow fell upon Isabelle. A telegram
from Wally had appraised his daughter of their arrival in New York. They
were to spend the fall at the Club house near The Beeches. He hoped she
was well. Did she want him to come and see her?

She answered this briefly, also a note from her mother. As Mrs. Bryce
rarely troubled to write letters to any one, Isabelle pondered the
reason for this amiable epistle. It was soon to be explained. Mrs.
Benjamin received a letter from Mrs. Bryce saying that notification had
arrived that Isabelle would be admitted this October to Miss Vantine's
Finishing School, where her name had been entered for years. She wished
the girl sent directly to this address in New York on the last day of
September, as she was to board at the school for the present unti